Nearly two years after launching Einstein Bros. Cafe as a place to grab lunch and dinner, Golden-based New World Restaurant Group has dumped the concept.
New World executives pitched the cafe concept as a way to capture increased business in the fast-casual restaurant sector. The stores were to eventually replace Einstein Bros. Bagels locations.
The first cafe opened at Stapleton in 2004, and six existing Einstein Bros. Bagels in the Denver area and Colorado Springs were converted at a total cost of about $1 million.
“To be brutally honest, we listened to our customers, and they didn’t like it,” said New World chief operating officer Dan Dominguez. “We went from A to Z without stopping midway.”
Restaurant experts agreed the effort was largely hindered by the fact that customers viewed Einstein Bros. as a breakfast- only location.
“It’s like a hamburger place trying to serve steaks at dinner. It just doesn’t connect,” said Kevin Moll, president of Restaurant Consultants Inc. in Denver.
Unlike traditional Einstein Bros. Bagels locations, the cafes offered an expanded sandwich, soup and salad menu. They featured seating areas that were intended to encourage customers to dine in rather than grab and go. Rather than paper wrap and plastic forks, customers were given glasses, ceramic plates and flatware.
The effort didn’t resonate with customers.
“Their weakness is their strength, and their strength is their weakness,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president for Chicago restaurant-consulting firm Technomic Inc. “Their identity is as a bagel-and-coffee place, and it has been pretty challenging for them to move too far off that.”
Einstein Bros. Cafes are being converted back to a more traditional concept, with a greater emphasis on bagels and breakfast items and a more open, neighborhood-friendly design, Dominguez said.
Partial walls that had separated the dining areas from the rest of the restaurants are being removed or reduced. Bagel cases are being returned to a prominent position in stores, he said.
New World chief executive Paul Murphy said the company is taking lessons from the cafe concept and applying them to a new prototype that recently opened in Atlanta and is slated to expand to Chicago and two locations in Denver.
The prototype, which the company would like to expand throughout its 345 Einstein locations, includes a bigger seating area to help the company boost weekend and lunch business.
New World Restaurant Group, which also operates the Noah’s Bagels, Manhattan Bagel and Chesapeake Bagel Bakery brands, reported a loss of $1.54 million, or 15 cents per share, in its most recent quarter. A year ago, the company reported a loss of $4.28 million, or 43 cents per share.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-954-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
