Bagels inflated with a bicycle pump?
Written: May 01 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Attractive stores, decent prices
Cons: Not authentic bagels, chain pretending to be mom and pop shop
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| Profilewriter's Full Review: Einstein Bros. Bagels |
I first heard of Einstein bagels when the chain opened a store in the town where I was working. My job included writing about new businesses, so I set out to get comment on the bagel restaurant. One of my first sources, a sincere fellow, but also a competitor, told me that Einstein trucks its bagels in flat and then pumps air into them. While this did not seem likely, I must say that the bagels absolutely do have an airy texture. Bite into one and it collapses. Serious bagels these are not.
Being blessed with a number of local bagel stores that produce the real thing, I have never thought much of Einstein's brand of bagel, and even though I discount the pumped-up-on-premises theory. They are spongy and not especially good.
When Einstein bagels, which is part of the Boston Chicken family of restaurants, opened in my town several years ago, it sold only bagels, bagel spreads, bagel sandwiches, and cookies. During my forays to check the store out, I must confess that, despite the inauthentic bagels, I did enjoy a smoked turkey, sprouts and chive cream cheese sandwich on more than one occasion. I wondered, however, how the restaurant would manage to hold its customers' interest offering only bagels.
In researching this Epinion I clicked onto the chain's Web site and discovered that the menu has been expanded. There are a number of salads and soup choices and challah has been added to the bread line-up. Newly popular wrap sandwiches also are available. The sandwiches sell for just under $5, and most are combinations of meat and vegetables, often with some cream cheese thrown in. Salads are a little less.
Einstein is a chain, and its restaurants show it. Like many other chains, both restaurant and retail, this one puts on a show of being a community hangout. When its stores open they make a big deal about the bulletin board for community news that will hang on a wall. Einstein includes one large table in each restaurant, ostensibly to provide space for local meetings. All of this just annoys me. Chains deliberately set out to banish mom and pop stores, and think they can put up some pictures of local scenes, name a couple of high school kids "Student of the Month," tack up local news and voila! they will be the soul of downtown.
This doesn't work, of course. And I would far rather have them be upfront about their intentions. Hey, change is constant and many moms and pops are just tickled to rent out their storefronts to the big guys. It would be refreshing to hear a chain say: We're here to dominate the market and drive everyone else out, but the benefit will be lower prices because we save big on advertising and purchasing because of our size.
That would be honest. And, in my opinion, better than the we're-a-friend-to-downtown Einstein approach. Einstein's restaurants are not bad looking; sterile, but okay. There is a mix of small tables with high stools and larger, lower tables. Colors are earth tones. On occasions when I have stopped by my local Einstein's, all of the workers were quite young, and there didn't appear to be anyone in charge. Service was casual, and a little slow.
The Einstein's in my town closes in the late afternoon as does one two towns over, and I think that is the norm for the chain. This is a bit odd because casual dining goes on until late at night in my area, and I think the restaurants would do as well in the evening as they do in the morning.
All in all, I don't think Einstein is awful, but no way is it as good as the average family-owned deli or bagel shop in terms of staff or ambiance, and certainly not in food.
Note: I posted this several days ago, and it disappeared. Should the original return, I will delete this.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Profilewriter
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Location: Trenton, New Jersey
Reviews written: 495
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