Panera Bread's grand opening brought together the Marcus family at The Shops at Marcus Dairy Wednesday along with city officials and customers welcoming Panera to Danbury.
Panera Bread employs about 60 full and part-time employees.
The Shops at Marcus Dairy stand where the Marcus Dairy and its Dairy Bar once stood, and the shops are slowly coming together. Sleep Number is likely to open Friday and other shops will follow in 2013. The dairy was demolished in 2011.
Shops that will open next year include EMS and Whole Foods.
The new Shops at Marcus Dairy can be reached from Sugar Hollow and from Backus Avenue. A driver taking Exit 3 from I-84 would stay right and avoid going straight into the Danbury Fair Mall. The entrance to the shops is on the right.
"When my father bought this parcel in 1947, he knew how valuable it would be," Michael Marcus said, referring to Jack Marcus, who ran a dairy there until retiring.
