LJ Davis is cool, but in-person might be better...

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

A few days ago I posted the note below in response to questions about Boloco on LJ Davis... i also offered to meet with any of you in person this Monday (today) at Boloco Davis Square at 4:30pm. Due to change in travel plans this Easter sunday (and the fact that United is a not-so-reliable airline!), i won't be able to be there... but i'd love it if any of you still interested would meet me this Friday at 4:30. Read below... all of the same applies (free burrito, book, open ears)

Until then,
John

---------------------------------
John Pepper (co-founder and CEO)
pepper@boloco.com





LJ Davis is cool, but in-person might be better...
bolopep
2007-04-03 02:49 am UTC (link)
Couldn’t help but notice the Boloco chatter… after all, I do spend most waking (and sleeping) moments thinking about the kinds of things you guys are debating.

Rather than go into lots of details on this post, I just wanted to make sure you all knew that we are listening, we do take your feedback really seriously and to heart, and we’ll continue doing our best to make Boloco something that really clicks for the Davis community. No one told us it would be easy, and we’ve always believed in earning loyalty… this will be no different.

I’ll be at the Davis Square Boloco next Monday (apr 9) from 4:30-6:30pm, and would love to meet with any of you who want to dig further into some of the comments/concerns/kudos/issues/comparisons to Anna's/Chipotle/Qdoba/bland food/spicy food/the weather/whatever it is. We are a very local company… nobody is telling us what to do except for you guys and, well, a handful or two (or more) of other customers as well :)

If any of you show up, I’d be happy to treat you to a burrito (yes, another free burrito!). I’ll be sitting over in the kids area with a book (in case no one shows up I'll want to look busy!) and open ears.

John

---------------------------------
John Pepper (co-founder and CEO)
pepper@boloco.com

Comments

Can't fool me

[cvs-is-king.livejournal.com]

Don't want you here and don't need you here.

Re: Can't fool me

[kpht.livejournal.com]

no wonder businesses don't stay in davis square. you guys are a bunch of fucking whiny old men. wahhh, things used to be different, get off my lawn.

Re: Can't fool me

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

As a whiny old man, I take offense to that!

Based on what he's posted, cvs_is_king is right around 30 and one of the dispossessed former Someday Cafe-ers. So he's not a whiny old man: he's a whiny middle-aged hipster, and probably someone who's been banned under an earlier ID.

Re: Can't fool me

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Speak for yourself. Boloco is a small local group of stores with a commitment to community involvement. They serve fresh and nutritious, if in my opinion uninspired, food at reasonable prices. How is that "unwanted" or "unneeded" in Davis Square or indeed anywhere?

Mr. Pepper, please ignore this ridiculous boor.

[ron_newman]

I don't know who the previous commenter (cvs_is_king) is and I doubt that he represents the opinions of Davis Square residents generally.

I'm not sure I can be there Friday (and I definitely can't be there at 4:30), but a couple of suggestions:

- Please put back the bulletin board next to the restrooms, which both Carberry's and O'Naturals maintained. Notice boards are a good way to promote community. (We talked about this in person a few weeks ago.)

- Your decor feels rather spartan compared to the two previous tenants. Why not liven it up by showing the work of local artists? Diesel Cafe does this regularly, Starbucks does it occasionally, and Someday Cafe used to do it before they closed last year.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

As suggested by the handle, "cvs_is_king" is a sock puppet -- the usual, account created a couple weeks ago, no posts, no friends, no bio/interests/groups besides "I Am Here To Defend Davis Square From The Evil Chain Stores" (probably would have used that as a handle, except it was too long). Might be someone who has another LJ name and doesn't want to associate it with insulting comments/controversial opinions, or it might just be someone who doesn't want or need use LJ for any purpose other than to offer an opinion on this topic. I mean, I'm sure it's a real person, and I guess their opinion is as valid as anyone else's. But either way, it's clearly not somebody interested in engaging in dialogue...

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Based on the writing style I suspect it is one of the banned people.

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

Bulletin Board - it will be back up no later than next Wednesday. It should never have been taken down (even during construction!)

- decor does feel Spartan... that's a great way to describe it actually. We've had you and a few others talk about local artists... stay tuned.

thanks again for the feedback ron

Take Heart, Boloco Guy. .

[shana-lyons.livejournal.com]

There are alot of people who are glad you're both here on the LJ community and in the Square. Your burritos are yummy and the perks on the Boloco card are delightful. Thank you.

Re: Take Heart, Boloco Guy. .

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

Thank you for making our day!! (and for taking advantage of our Boloco card perks!)

Sweet

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

I like boloco every now and then. But I think the general consensus is that Anna's is the burrito that God eats. Granted, Bolocco has the great little flavored burritos, but Anna's is something special. Also it almost seems like Boloco is going to "free burrito" themselves out of business one of these days.

Re: Sweet

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

"Also it almost seems like Boloco is going to "free burrito" themselves out of business one of these days."

It's just marketing and advertising (and it seems a pretty popular strategy these days). If one free burrito makes you come back and pay for one even once they've made money. The hardest part of starting a new restaurant is getting people to walk in the door.

Re: Sweet

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

What is so special about Anna's? I've tried it twice and never felt it was good at all.

Re: Sweet

[denonymous.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, we need to talk.

Re: Sweet

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Anna's is affordable, fast, basic, and reliable. It doesn't provide the variety Picante's did (or Boloco does), but the streamlined production with a few ingredients allows them to pump out a few items at a very good price at amazing speed.

It beat Picante's to death not because the food was tastier, but because it was faster and cheaper. Their main audience is the cheap, busy college and high school crowd.

If you try it once and don't like it, you'll never like it: they're very, very consistent.

Re: Sweet

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

we're actually going to bring a scale to the Davis restaurant and put on permanent display a large Anna's vs a large Boloco burrito... if there is a difference in size, it won't be much, and i just need to see them side by side my self (it's been like 8 years!)

Re: God's choice of Burritos, i can only tell you that in our last conversation i realized we were in good hands at Boloco.

Send me a note with your mailing address (and any of you in fact reading this) to pepper@boloco.com, and i'll send you some Burrito Bucks... they're not free but we do collect a dollar from you... and if we go out of business doing things this way, at least we fed a lot of people! :)

talk to you soon

john

[journeystar.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I like Bolocco, esp. the peanut butter and jelly wraps and smoothies. I agree with ron_newman, though: showcasing local artists would be a very cool step for Bolocco to take. Some friends and I would volunteer if you need a start with this.

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

like i said to Ron, we love the local artist idea too - i hope we're good enough and fast enough to get something really unique up in our Davis restaurant!

PBJ burritos and smoothies rock.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Aww, man ... I'll be on a train to NYC.

Dear Mr. Pepper,

Though I don't like Dr. Pepper, one of my favorite people also has the last name "Pepper." Surnames aside, I LOVE BOLOCO. In fact, I've loved you guys since you were "The Wrap." While I feel there is overlap with burrito joints, I also feel like you definitely offer a diversity of options (mmm buffalo chicken wrap) and since we are still living in a captialist society it is ultimately up to you to decide where to locate your business and to assume the risk of competition with a similar product/business model, right? If you were truly unnecessary to the residents, you would go under due to severe lack of business and the capitalist drum would beat on, yes?

I admire your humility and your open-ness. Seems rather socialist to include the common folks to help guide your capitalist enterprise and since I like socialism and as mentioned above, your awesome eats, I applaud you.

Don't let the rabble get ya down.

Sincerely,
A Fan

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

A Fan,

That letter you wrote sure helps boost morale after a long week - thanks for the good words! That hot dog you're eating looks pretty good though... i may have to head to Spike's this afternoon instead of Boloco!

stay in touch - feel free to email at my email above if you ever have anything we can do for you.

Thank you again!

John

[denonymous.livejournal.com]

I swear the subject scanned as something about LL Cool J doing an in-store appearance.

While I'm here, I'll mention that I haven't yet tried Boloco, but I'm planning on doing so soon (a friend has been touting your praise since you came on as a sponsor for the Boston Underground Film Festival a year or two ago). This die-hard Anna's fan is open to alternatives.

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

that's all we need to hear - thanks for being open to alternatives! if you try us, and we blow it, you won't be back... and we'll get what we deserve.

Make sure you email me with feedback after you visit! And if you get a Boloco card at the store, register it, you get, yes, ANOTHER free burrito (since its clear people think we've given too many away, i like to emphasize that we'll keep giving even more away! :))

Thanks again
john

yum!

[xangel21.livejournal.com]

Hi Boloco guy,

Just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy Boloco's burritos, and all your great deals. I went in yesterday and got the Mediterranean burrito, and loved it. However- my bf got the buffalo chicken burrito, and it was significantly smaller then mine (Both were regular sized). Perhaps the burritos should be more conistant in size, and mine was perfect.. it didn't seem like a tightly rolled wrap, there was actually substance to it.

Also, I'm a big fan of the healthier, salad-type burrito, like the Mediterranean. How about a similar one with light Italian dressing? Maybe avocado..? feta cheese? yum :)

One other thing- whats the seasoning on the tortilla chips? I didn't really like it. And perhaps the salsa could be more salsa-like, and with different temperatures (mild, hot?)

Hope this is helpful. Feel free to send me coupons- haha.

Re: yum!

[bolopep.livejournal.com]

very helpful!

the buffalo does tend to be a little smaller than the rest... we've worked to compensate for it, but somehow we've heard this often over the years. passing your feedback to the team... hopefully you'll see it more consistent going forward. we aren't perfect, but we usually get it about right.

Re your ideas, passing them onto Jason our head chef. It's tough not to get carried away with new flavors and such, but we do specials every so often and its really helpful to hear what people want - thanks!

tortilla chips were an experiment gone bad... some loved them, but most didn't like them. they should be switched back to our organic Miguel's chips which are delightful... to make our salsa hotter, we add hot sauce... we used to have a separate hot salsa, but it was not overly popular. Have you tried the corn salsa, or the tomatillo??

Hope to see you soon!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

So here I am taking advantage of the free wireless since I have my laptop with me, but I don't see you... One other person has peeked into the kids area, possibly looking for you as well. I think the employees are starting to wonder why I'm just sitting here! :)

(Or did I somehow totally misread the date/time?)