Restauratour: Einstein's Cafe Society

Einstein’s prototype gives customers more than a few reasons to stay for a while.

By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 2/1/2005

Take an online tour of Einstein Bros. Café Photography by Susan Goddard

At the 425-odd Einstein Bros. Bagels restaurants, morning rules. Most customers visit the stores from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., and bagels, sweets and coffee drinks rack up about 60 percent of the day’s sales.

But at Einstein Bros. Bagels’ new sibling, Einstein Bros. Café, the appeal extends well into the day. Lunch, afternoon and early evening sales at the five cafes, located in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo., account for 60 percent of sales. Transactions are 75 cents higher than at the bagel concept, and unit volumes are expected to reach nearly $1 million, 25 percent higher than at the traditional stores.

The cafe concept attracts a new group of customers, too. Free wireless Internet and computer hookups make the cafe an office away from the office for laptop-toting businesspeople, who park at the high-backed, fluorescently lighted booths and four-seat coffee bar. Shoppers and families with small children linger at four-top tables, enjoying something from the snack-friendly menu.

The drastic redesign and its effect on sales are all according to plan, says Paul Murphy, president and CEO of Einstein parent New World Restaurant Group, based in Golden, Colo. “It’s a reaction to where fast casual is going,” he says. The new, sleek design lets the cafe compete with sophisticated concepts such as Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread, while tossing “bagels” from the name gives the concept appeal beyond the morning, Murphy adds.

More Is More
Einstein Bros. Café is a study in more, rather than less. To accommodate more traffic, the footprint averages 2,400 square feet, 300 square feet larger than the bagel concept, and has 10 to 12 more seats. There are more booths, and the backs are high to provide privacy.

Rather than the low, soft lighting found in most fast-casual concepts, bright fluorescent sconces grace each booth to provide lighting for businesspeople using the cafe as an afternoon office. “We didn’t want it to be a Starbucks; we didn’t want that coffeehouse ambience,” explains Denny Gerdeman, principal at Chute Gerdeman, the Columbus, Ohio-based design firm that worked on the project. “Starbucks is moody, and we wanted more bounce.”

The cafe also focuses more on food and merchandising than its predecessor. Where the bagel stores are themed around drawings of the Einstein brothers, the cafes focus on new lunch and afternoon offerings with global flair, such as a Mediterranean chicken salad. Oversize food photography adorns a merchandising unit that runs parallel to the ordering queue and tops the large, easy-to-read menu boards as well. Food-like colors—orange, lime green, lemon yellow—replace the mostly browns of the bagel concept.

The new order-making and order-taking processes are also more efficient and accurate than the old systems. The old ordering plan requires customers to order, walk down the line to pay, then walk back to pick up their food, causing confusing cross-traffic. In the new system, customers order, pay and then take a seat; servers deliver food to the tables.

Printed tickets, as opposed to hand-written ones in the old system, improve both order accuracy and speed of service. Order accuracy hovered around 85 percent to 89 percent with the hand-done tickets; it’s now close to 99 percent, Murphy says. Ticket times have improved 15 percent to 20 percent, he adds.

Room for Improvement
The prototype still needs a few tweaks before it’s introduced to the system. According to Murphy, focus groups said that they’d like more signage and direction in the ordering area; that some too-visible storage should be hidden; and that the coffee and barista area, now confined to a modest four seats, should get more play.

Gerdeman agrees with the customers. “As the first two stores opened, we sat and watched customers and became aware that the coffee area of the business is untapped. But we feel there’s a good opportunity [for Einstein] if they develop that part of the business,” he says.

Murphy also wants to lower the cost of the prototype before expanding it. Construction costs for a new building, not including real estate, run about $350,000. Murphy says the figure should be closer to $130,000 when the company streamlines the construction process and finds stock sources for custom fixtures such as booths and lighting.

Still, the prototype’s on the right track, says Monica Hahn, senior vice president of marketing for Einstein Bros. Bagels. Hahn, who joined the company five months ago, says she’s pleased to see the prototype accomplishing everything she thought the concept should do.

“It’s exciting that customers see that as well,” says Hahn. “The response is very strong and favorable—we came close to 100 percent.”