The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Einstein Bros. Bagels is opening a location in the former Burkharts Office Supply on the NE corner of 5th & Boulder.

They are currently open at 101st & Memorial.  Another location planned for 71st & Yale.

As much as we all love local, national chains opening in our downtown is a positive sign the demographics of downtown are improving.  The franchisees for this project are local Tulsa guys that are actively managing the franchises.



http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=371&articleid=20130108_371_0_Einste228155

What spot at 71st and Yale? The middle spot or where the Diamond Center is?

NE corner next to Naples (formerly Cosi).

First I'd heard of Naples was in the article.  How long has that been there?  With such a lack of promotion, I suspect its days are already numbered. Access to that strip is limited in my mind. The only way I'd try to get there at peak traffic would be if I were headed west bound on 71st from Sheridan which never happens.

If you'd stay on your side of the tracks then it would not be an issue. Certainly not a bikes paradise.

Here, been saving this for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgCqz3l33kU

Opened in September in the former Cosi location.  Jim Wilburn, who owned Cosi, is the owner.

Tulsa World ran an article on the 24th & 25th of September.  Here is the link to the 25th.  http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/article.aspx?subjectid=39&articleid=20120925_39_D1_CUTLIN391836

Ill be the first to say that when I am seeking out food, the last thing I think about is a bagel...flavored or topped or other wise....

I'd probably go with raw sewage.

I don't consider raw sewage as food at all.  Maybe my life has been more privileged than I thought.  :D

(http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2011/08/29/alg_foam_update.jpg)

Everything's food to something

I'm a picky eater.

I would go with things that are alive. I just don't want to eat live food, including sprouts and yogurt.

Beer is alive.

Oh and Marshalls

I think MillerCoorsBud has been killed pasteurized.

Baker's out... dismal product.

"Tour De F/U"

Yep, love that one.  It's been circling around my motherf@@king bike friends for awhile.

Not every store that opens is required to do skywriting and send a flyer to your house.

You complain about the location of Einstein yet you said "I don't think this location is bad at all" about McNellies which is on the opposite side of the same gosh-dang road that goes from Yale to 71st. Make up your mind.

Who pissed in your Wheaties this morning?

Promotion has never killed a business.  However, lack thereof... 

You can get to McNellies off Yale as well as 71st.  Ingress to the center Naples is in sucks from any direction except west-bound on 71st.

It's really not that big a deal to turn onto Zurich from eastbound 71st.  ???

Funny how a forum with a slant towards developing the urban core has taken a topic of new business in said core and turned into a discussion about turning left into an affiliated new business not in the urban core.

"Tulsanow" not "Downtown Tulsanow".  We reserve the right to complain about the entire city.

Yes, but I have irrational fears about turning left over three lanes of traffic. I'd rather make three right turns than one left.  ;D

Here ya go:  3 right turns
Google Map (http://goo.gl/maps/dBikY)
You don't even need use 71st... you turn in from Zunis via Yale.

It's one of the best locations in Tulsa.

huh-uh...I agree with rdj: you guys are trying to splinter off into "SouthieTulsa" Now.

The local TV people have referred to 51st and 61st as South Tulsa and mid-town.  So is that South Mid-Town?  I don't think we can be "Way South Tulsa" or "Super South Tulsa".

I'm going with "Outer Tulsa".

So I guess I'm an "Outie".

All hale the Outies.

You're either in Downtown or Mid-Town or none of the above.  Where the "none of the above" is has no relevance.

Once the center burns out all that will be left is the outer areas.  You guys were Bieber'd.  I'm leery of breathing that in.

That,  was funny.

Indeed. My bike ride home that day was a veritable obstacle course of tweens and their mothers.

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ2jHPlBxDj0GIbIU96xDUe7y18LKd3t5LTpB0RemdDg75Ia2FQjw)

That was not a Wheaties pissing. You got:

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maxugcsbR51rfgw3eo1_500.gif)

The center is on the same street McNellies is on, Zurich. That's my point.

Is Einstein still happening? They seem to be in no hurry. I think they've put in less than three days of work on it since putting the banner in the window months ago.

Yes.  Focusing on opening up a new store at 71st & Yale prior to getting downtown cracking.

What was the downtown location before it was Burkharts?
Was it a small store/convenience store of some type?

So the coming soon banners should say "coming, but not very soon"?

Sorry. There are just too many downtown projects touting themselves with banners/social media/advertisements only to either take years or not happen at all.

If it's one franchisee, I assume they can only open on store at a time. I believe 101st & memorial opened in March, 71st and yale looks to open in May, that would put the downtown location for likely July.

These days, if I see a "coming soon" banner, I take that as it being a year, if not more before it has even a chance of opening.

Yes, it is one franchisee.  They hired staff for the 71st street store, but the city has been difficult to work with, shocker, which has delayed the opening of the store.  The franchisee is still paying the staff for not even working, which they can afford to do.  It is a solid local franchisee so don't expect these to fold anytime soon.  Funding is already in place for downtown store, July is probably not a bad timeline.  Will depend on if/what surprises they encounter along the way.

As an aside The Einstein model for all stores is to close at 5 PM.  So, for those that feel all downtown retail (which I totally get and am on board with when sensible) should be open late and on the weekends don't be surprised/critical when this store isn't.  As far as I know every store in the chain closes no later than 5 PM.

The Ted will not be pleased.

I had already been prepared for poor hours. There was a TW article that said as much a few months back. I think it said M-F only, too.

I just hope they give it more than three weeks before they cut back their hours from a 4 or 5pm closing time to 1pm.

Do things move slower here than in other cities, or does it just feel that way because we have so far to go to catch up?

If you think it's hard for late night dining options in downtown now, you should have lived there 25 years ago.  I can't even really remember any dinner spots from when I lived in Center Plaza other than maybe Summit Club or Petroleum Club.  It's coming around, just need the residential and night life density to support it and that's accelerating at a rapid pace.

(http://www.bcon2010.com/uploaded_images/winner-701793.jpg)

Unfortunately many don't think we are behind, or don't care, and what leadership we do have in this town, that does believe we are behind, is unfortunately heck bent on us "catching up".

What floors me is that they don't see the folly in this.  They will put out a plan that says in 10 or 20 years of work we do this, this and this, we can catch up to where City-X now is... somehow completely ignorant of the fact that come 10 or 20 years from now, we will again be looking at City-X again realizing that we are STILL 10 years, or more, behind as they have also been progressing during those years.  

Wish we had more leadership that would be bold and visionary, and think of leapfrogging our competitor cities, vrs the same ol same ol "catch up" game that keeps us forever 10 and 20 years or so behind.  

Lets quit "following" and instead Lead.




  

I think every Einstein Bros. hours are 5am to 5 or 6 pm Monday thru Friday and 6am to 3 or 4pm Saturday and Sunday. They are not the dinner crowd or the after last call try to soak up the alcohol before you go home crowd.

The 71st & Yale Einstein is scheduled to open tomorrow.

Plans for downtown location are done and submitted to city for review and permits.

The banner for Einstein Bros. Bagels went up on the SW corner of 21st and Columbia (Midtown / Bryn-Mawr).
It replaces a recently demolished gas station, is nestled in a bunch of office buildings, and almost spitting distance from the closed Borders Books.

I ate at the one on 71st a few weeks ago and it was O.K.  It had been years since I'd had an Einstein Bagel and I didn't remember if they were boiled or frozen.  But it was clear from the porous almost bread like texture and rubbery skin that these were not boiled fresh.  I always liked their coffee and some of their spaces are nicely done.  I will patronize them since they are committed to coming downtown. 

I am aware of the bagel shop in Brookside, but unfortunately I never seem to be in B-side during their hours of operation.  Are there any other bagel options of note in town?

A friend lives right by there and is glad to see that vacant gas station replaced.  Hoping the old Border's gets a new life soon, maybe as a small grocery store.  If Trader's Joes expanded to Tulsa it would be a good first location near a lot of wealthy neighborhoods. 

They finally took the Border's sign down.   Not sure what that indicates

When TJ's does come to town they'll likely have only 1 location.  They typically don't operate multiple stores in pure markets of this size....but I'd agree this would be a great location for them.

I've never been to a Trader Joe's, but in the Border's location, I would think the second floor would be a problem. Yes?

I think this is about the time Teatownclown/Aox/FOTD would have inserted some sort of demeaning comment about obese people.

And here I am just wondering about shopping carts.

Were shopping carts an issue when it was Borders?

(http://static.onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/cartolator-target-cart-escalator.jpg)

(http://breakitandlearn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/target-001.jpg)

Borders has an elevator.

Did people normally buy enough books to require a shopping cart?  ::)

If they had, it would still be a Borders.

Guess I'm one of those that frequented Einstein Bros Bagels and miss them where I am. I don't know if they are frozen or fresh at each location, but the one's that I went to in Arizona were really good, and if we needed a variety of bagels and a variety of schmeers of cream cheese, they are one of the best choices, unless you are close to Chompie's. And  forget Adam Richman and his Jewish Slider challenge.

Try eating this pastrami Rueben......

(http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p309/kallsop2/20131107_114042_zpse295e6f3.jpg)

That looks amazingly similar to something a co-worker of mine ate yesterday at, of all places, Jason's Deli.

That’s a fine mound of pastrami

Jason's isn't bad for a national chain. The thing I love about Chompie's and a couple of others in Phoenix is they make their own pastrami, corned beef, breads, bagels, bialys, cannoli's.

After eating that pastrami Rueben, I did not need to eat the rest of the day.

Haven't been to the 5th & Boulder location yet.  I remember eating at one of their places in the Kansas City area about 20 or 25 years ago.  It was called Bagel & Bagel then (I think).

Einsteins has barely been open and already half their landscaping is dead or dying.
Too bad they arent compelled to water them in 100F heat.

I would probably recommend a modest neon "OPEN" sign for that location, as it's nearly impossible to tell when they are.

Odd hours too.  Don’t they close at 2pm or 4pm?  They can’t figure out how to do a dinner menu?

They close at 4. 
They seem to be limiting themselves to the nearby office building clientele, not realizing people are coming by in the evenings to locked doors.

Even with completely dead landscaping, this is still way better than the old Citgo station.  I thought they stayed open later than 4 because it seems like they are still open when I go by at 6 or so.

I don't necessarily blame them for not doing dinner hours as a bagel/lunch shop, but I do wish they were open for breakfast and lunch on the weekends.

As discussed earlier in this thread ALL Einstein Bagel shops nationwide close after lunch.