It’s the first ‘Coffee & Bagels’ in Atlanta, second in Georgia.
Novare’s soon-to-open apartment high-rise Atlantic House could be home to Atlanta’s first Coffee & Bagels, a new co-branded concept from Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels.
A permit application was recently filed with City of Atlanta to buildout the 2,400-square-foot joint venture on the ground-level of the forthcoming 32-story tower.
Coffee & Bagels would open where a freestanding Einstein Bagels was formerly situated, at 1163 West Peachtree Street, before being demoed to make way for Atlantic House.
An estimated $165,000 would be spent constructing the new Coffee & Bagels, according to the public filing.
Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels introduced the new concept in September, 2015, opening its first store in Colorado.
“We saw an opportunity to bring Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels, two beloved brands, together,” Mike Tattersfield, president and CEO, Caribou Coffee and ENRGI, said in a release at the time of the announcement.
“A place where specialty coffee and fresh-baked bagels live together under one roof doesn’t exist at scale and we’re excited to bring this concept to guests across the country.”
The menu will feature Caribou’s Rainforest Alliance certified coffee and specialty drinks like a Campfire Mocha, alongside Einstein Bros. Bagels bagels and made-to-order breakfast and lunch sandwiches.
Coffee & Bagels has only five locations in the southeast, six including the forthcoming Atlanta outpost. With a location in Athens, the Atlantic House Coffee & Bagels will be the brand’s first in Atlanta but second in Georgia.
2 Responses
About 3-4 years ago there was a combined Einstein’s/Caribou at 2014 Powers Ferry Rd. Caribou left first and Einstein’s walled off that section.
This is an old concept that came to Atlanta, died, and now they’re bringing it back.
In addition to the location mentioned above, there was another Einstein’s/Caribou at 2915 Peachtree Road in Buckhead, across the street from the Buckhead Peach shopping center in the early 2000s. The location is now a Moe’s Southwest Grill.
The traffic flow within and between the two shops was really confusing. You had a lot of people starting with a bagel at Einstein’s, then putting their bagel on a table to hold it while they walked over to the Caribou side to get a cup of coffee, or vice versa. On several occasions I saw later arriving customers tossing an “abandoned” cup of Caribou coffee or partially eaten Einstein’s bagel in the trash because they thought that the previous customer had simply left the shop and not taken their purchase with them, when in fact they were on the other side making another purchase.
So you had to wait in two different lines and pay twice if you didn’t want Einstein’s coffee with your bagel or Caribou’s baked goods with your latte. Not an unreasonable expectation – hat’s kind of the point of combining the two businesses, no?
While the concept seemed like a good idea in theory, in execution you ended up with people constantly running into one another, flared tempers over saved seats, and either cold coffee or a cold bagel during peak times when the queues were long. Entirely too much effort and drama IMO.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana