Boloco closing revisited?

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

I was at Boloco in DS yesterday and someone mentioned that the people working there said tht that Boloco location was probably closing in the next 2 weeks. I haven't heard anything about it here, and there was a public uproar last time they threatend this, so I figured I'd as here.

Has anyone heard about this?

Comments

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Yes, I heard exactly the same thing. I'm having lunch there Friday; I'll ask about it.

[ellf.livejournal.com]

That would be an absolute shame, considering all of the posts about this, and the message from the manager of that location stating that they would be remaining open.

[inahandbasket]

Meh. There's only so much market for tortilla-wrapped foods in Davis Sq., and their location is working against them. Same issue that the previous tenant (O'Naturals? how quickly we forget names...) had, great food but just not enough foot traffic.

[ron_newman]

If only they had Chipotle's location, or Spike's, they'd do fine.

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

And yet Carberry's was there for years and years. (I still miss my snuders!) As was Bertucci's. I always assumed the demise of Carberry's was the dot-com bust, but is something else at work? Changing demographics? Transit patterns? Rents?

[ron_newman]

Carberry's is still in Central Square, but the one in Arlington Center changed its name to something else that I can't remember.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

jam n' java, i believe

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

A fine place, with good soup and free wifi, I'd add.

[ron_newman]

But closes earlier than Carberry's did. I had intended to eat there on the way to Lexington's July 2 fireworks, only to find it already closed at 7:30 pm.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That space seems to be cursed for eateries. It might do better as retail space rather than a restaurant. It's big enough to be a small grocery store. That's my vote.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Is the space "cursed"? The original Steve's flourished there for years, and then Carberry's followed with many years of success.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I can't speak to Carberry's, but The Original Steve's was a place famed in song and story. Really; I read about it once in an airline magazine, in a piece about the best ice cream on earth (which is still my opinion of Steve's; all else is dross. Yummy dross, but dross nevertheless :-).

I like Boloco, but it's not a one-of-a-kind unique place like Steve's was, and (IMNSHO) that location requires a retailer with that kind of notoriety in order to be success. Everything less than that has failed. It is possible that its curse is not that everything fails there, but that a place needs to be World Famous™ ion order to make it.

[ron_newman]

And when that Steve's location became no longer one-of-a-kind unique, that's when it started to falter. Eventually they even removed the player piano.

Are there any Steve's Ice Cream locations left anywhere today? The last one I knew of, at the east end of Quincy Market, changed its name to Sprinkles a couple of years ago.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't think I can possibly eat there any more than I already do. Too bad.

Boloco

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

To Succeed in that space Boloco would need to offer something much different than what can be had at multiple other places right in the Square. What they offer is just another shade of the same thing. That space is huge and their rent must be huge too. I have gone there many times, but the draw for me is the free parking and relative quiet. I find the food so-so, not "inspired" .

O'Naturals seemed to do a pretty good business but I guess it was still not enough to cover overhead of that space.

[empressov.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it is feeling the Chipotle crush? It is far superior.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

i think that boloco would easily compete with chipotle if it had a better (closer to the square-proper) location. boloco has more and healthier options but walking halfway to porter for them leads many people to stop at chipotle or anna's instead.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Ew, ew. I got a free burrito at Chipotle and I still wasn't sure it was worth it. If Boloco and Chipotle changed places, Chipotle would be closing. (But in an case, Blue Shirt is the more comparable place and, well, they aren't as good as Boloco, either, both in terms of food and in terms of management friendliness.)

I'll still be frequenting the Boston Ave location.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

in our household, boloco is the food venue visited most frequently and with most consistency. we patronize the boloco in davis square twice as often as the grocey store. we've often remarked that this boloco location is the only boloco that offers adequate seating space (making its free wifi actually useful) and that none of the other locations offer the same comfortable vibe. the other locations come closer to a food-court stand than i would like. I was disappointed when business hours were shortened by an hour (especially since i often bought dinner on my way home in that now-closed hour) but was encouraged, nonetheless, that it was staying open. I had also heard that this small local chain's commissary was being relocated to the roomy basement of the davis boloco. Have we been led astray?

please, boloco! don't close the davis location!

[ron_newman]

They also now open at 11 am, so I guess the breakfast burrito experiment was not successful.

[ron_newman]

I ate at Boloco this evening, and the people working there said it would close next week - maybe even on Monday? I've written to John Pepper to ask him what's going on, and I pointed him to this post.

The Final Word...

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

Hi all,

We're having a farewell party tomorrow night (Monday, that is) from 6-8pm.

I can relay details in person if you're interested at that time. Trust me that nothing saddens me and the team more than having to leave Davis.

Kids eat free tomorrow evening, and everyone else pays $3 for burritos and smoothies. And maybe we'll even pop a bottle of bubblies or two :)

We've met some wonderful people at Davis, and while we're sad that it didn't work out (our first in nearly 12 years) we enjoyed the time we were here.

Cheers,

John

Re: The Final Word...

[thespian.livejournal.com]

sadly, I can't make it during that time; I'm working from 6-11pm tonight. I will try to stop in beforehand, maybe about 5:30.

I never think of you as a burrito place, and never get the more burrito-y things, but a wrap place, and really love your chicken caesar wrap.

none of your other locations are at all convenient to anywhere I work, live or play, so while I was eating there weekly, I'm not going to get much of you in the future. I'll miss it.

Re: The Final Word...

[ron_newman]

And unfortunately that's true for me as well. I like Boloco food, but I'm unlikely to ride my bike or take a bus over the Tufts hill to eat it.