(Image: Mt. Bagel)
Vegan Jewish deli Ben and Esther’s says Seattle’s labor is too expensive and Capitol Hill rent is too damn high. It is closing shop on E Pike to end 2023. Meanwhile, you can take solace that another purveyor of a Jewish staple has found a unique way to make a go of it — and draw long lines — on the eastern slope of Capitol Hill.
Ben and Esther’s announced the planned closure of its E Pike deli this week with plans to remain open through December 31st.
“Like many other restaurants, we’re at the point where we just don’t see a sustainable path forward. The writing’s on the wall, and numbers don’t lie,” the small chain’s statement said. “Rent and labor have been double what they are in our other shops, but we’re only seeing half the amount of business.”
Ben and Esther’s debuted on E Pike in 2022 as the company grew beyond Oregon and added delis here and in San Diego. It has since consolidated its Portland locations where it continues to draw fans. Its San Diego deli will also continue on. But the math in Seattle no longer pencils out. Ben and Esther’s say they haven’t given up on the city but will need a more affordable location. “We’ll continue to look at more viable spaces and hope to return in the not-so-distant future,” the company said.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many space in the city like the corner of 26th and Valley where Mt. Bagel has grown into a phenomenon. Starting as an Instagram-driven, tiny batch bagelry, the shop is enjoying its grandfathered status from its previous days as a neighborhood corner store as it has grown into a high demand hit in the Seattle food and drink scene. Seattle urbanist news site Publicola this week is highlighting Mt. Bagel as an example of why the city should allow more neighborhood commercial zoning. “Seattle should take advantage of the public’s appetite for post-pandemic urban experimentation by redistributing density and commerce throughout the city’s neighborhoods, including in our neighborhood residential zones,” Publicola writes.
But creating more Mt. Bagels won’t be easy. CHS reported in 2021 on the challenging growth of the Volunteer Park Cafe as the 17th and Galer venue reopened under new ownership in the middle the sea of single-family homes east of Volunteer Parik.
In the meantime, there’s a deli on E Pike looking for a new business to move in.
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Ridiculous to blame paying your employees a somewhat living wage when the problem, as they also mentioned, is the rent. The workers are what make your business actually run and owners need to stop saying it’s a problem that they want to be paid in order to live.
You clearly read the owners’ statement so tell me: where do they blame anyone or call anything a problem? In fact they say that they want to make it work another location in Seattle, i.e. a place with cheaper rent but the same labor costs. They own their failure to live up to expected revenues. This is a neutral “business didn’t work out as we’d hoped” statement, and what’s ridiculous is this manufactured outrage.
“Ben and Esther’s says Seattle’s labor is too expensive”
Sorry reading comprehension is hard for you.
And a direct quote from them “Rent and labor have been double what they are in our other shops”, it may sound neutral, but it’s still blaming paying the people that actually keep your business going. You obviously need to factor in pay in your costs, but the moment you point to it as a reason you’re business is failing you’re trying to shift blame off yourself or the other more extreme problems with being a small business in Seattle (ie: outrageous rents).
Justin, the CHS publisher, wrote the statement “Ben and Esther’s says Seattle’s labor is too expensive” not the owners themselves. Nice self-own, chres! (if you still don’t understand, here’s a link you might find helpful: Quotation Marks – Language Skills for Kids!)
Do you read what you’re writing before you post? The owners name both labor and rent as factors in the part you quoted, and then you say they’re trying to deflect attention from things like rent. You say that “obviously” labor costs are part of keeping a business running (I agree!), and then you say that anyone who “points to it as a reason” is trying to shift blame, so by this logic you yourself are trying to “shift blame”. And again, the owners’ statement also admits they didn’t make as much in sales as they need to, so they are part the reason they had to close (which, why are you fixated with “blame”?)
I have no particular love for this business (vegan deli, meh why) but you’ve taken a narrative that’s generally true, it’s how capitalism works, and you’re cramming a situation that doesn’t fit into it. Your lazy knee-jerk “labor is being oppressed” take makes the smarter pro-labor people look bad by association.
Bye!!! If you can’t handle running a business to stay profitable (like others have) it’s time to change your business model.
Yes it’s expensive…we all actually live here unlike the owners.
Other businesses have figured it out, maybe the product just isn’t right.
Perhaps if they actually served customers in a reasonable timeline, they wouldn’t have half the business that they have.
I went there several times after they opened, expecting to be a regular. Instead on every order:
It took 30-45 minutes to get a simple, single-sandwich order (even without a line)They didn’t even give me what I ordered
Finally, I just stopped returning — and went for the meat versions instead at Dingfelders. I don’t have an hour to gamble anytime I’m open to a bagel sandwich.
They have nobody to blame but their inability to run a proper restaurant.
Really? I am going there at least twice a week and I never ever had to wait more then five minutes. No need to lie or exaggerate.
No, there is no exaggeration here whatsoever.
Glad to know they got their operations together, but there’s admittedly no way for those of us who gave up on going (see their early scathing Yelp reviews on that theme) would have known
I’ve eaten here – sadly, twice. The food clearly proved to me one thing: The people who came up with these recipes have 1) Never tasted real cheese, dairy, fish, meats and 2) they can’t be Jewish or familiar with real Jewish food. Terrible food where everything is a compromise. And not cheap. And awful.
Bye. Surprise surprise, another OR biz can’t make it.
Have there been any restaurants that made a successful jump from Portland to Capitol Hill? The ones I can think of have all failed. But maybe I’m missing something?
Salt & Straw is pretty successful.
Curious to see how Voodoo Doughnuts does.
Two things can be true at once:
1) The cost of unskilled labor (waitstaff and basic cooking, not high end chefs) in Seattle is astronomical
2) Vegan Jewish deli food is just a weird idea, an oxymoron.
Also, I remember when it first opened there was a line out the door….because service was so slow.
It’s really silly to refer to cooking as unskilled labor with an exception carved out for being a chef in a fine dining restaurant.
Thumbs down vote.
Stretching the “restaurant” category, but… Salt & Straw is thriving here.
To your second point… I understand it is an oxymoronic thing to say vegan Jewish deli. But saying kosher deli requiers A lot more certifications. In short they need way more refrigerators to be kosher and at least on Shabbat observant Jew. Saying vegan means that Jews are safe to eat their but it is not kosher by definition.
Saying Vegan also means none of the meat is meat.
I meant that Jewish deli food is heavy on meat. Because, you know, it’s a deli. Sliced meats is what a deli does. Vegans simply can’t.
From Wikipedia:
“Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods.”
“Delicatessen is a German loanword which first appeared in English in the late 19th century and is the plural of Delikatesse. The German form was lent from the French délicatesse, which itself was lent from Italian delicatezza, from delicato, of which the root word is the Latin adjective delicatus, meaning “giving pleasure, delightful, pleasing”.”
Sliced meats are not STRICTLY what a deli does. It’s your interpretation/opinion of what a deli should be. Others might have a different view and both can be correct at the same time.
The antagonism here is hilarious
Deserved tho
Worst bagels I’ve ever had. Excited for something tasty to fill that space.
I work close to them and got to know a few of the employees since they opened. Manager was a dick, constantly misgendered workers and had abused wage loopholes to pay them below minimum with the promise of tips. Most, if not all that started there, quit months in. He’s entirely hands-off as far as *actually working* goes. Go there and hand the baristas a $20 before they close. Bye 💅
Awful bagels. Awful owners.
A vegan Jewish deli? Are you insane? A recipe for failure anywhere. Us Yidden need real food, not leaves and roots.
fuck bagels man, its just fodder for east coast yuppies moving here for work. There was like one bagel shop growing up as kid now there is an announcement for every time a damn place opens. What’s the big deal??
Vegan Jew who was really excited for this place and ended up very disappointed. The sandwiches felt like they walked to the fake meat aisle of QFC, slapped it all together, and sold it back to me for double. And like others said, the service was horrifically slow.
Labor is too expensive. And yet we’re building lots of dense city housing for people who make low or no income.
What could go wrong……
Should’ve done what I do when these minimum wages come down the line: increase prices for customers.
This place was sub-par. Tried it 2x and it failed
This is a niche rendition of a specific type of “Jewish food” ie from the Eastern European traditions, and those of use who grew up eating the meat versions expect generous servings for an affordable price. It started as peasant food after all. Spending $20+ for a sandwich or heaven forbid a bagel meal is not easy to wrap one’s mind around.
Having even slightly reasonable hours would have helped with staying open.
They were open too late for day shift workers to get coffee & and bagel before work, and closed too early for night shift workers to get coffee & and a bagel before work. Also closed before day shift is off work. They went into a nightlife neighborhood with business center hours and expected it to work, somehow.
I wanted to go and try it for two years, but never had the time to because of their hours. At least it sounds like I wasn’t missing out on anything. Least shocking business failure I’ve seen in a while.