Back in business (again): Swissbäkers is reopening its original Reading location
The news comes two months after the Swissbäkers location in Allston reopened.
Almost two months after reopening its Allston location, Swissbäkers announced that it will reopen its original Reading outpost on Saturday, with plans to bring its North Station shop back into the fold in the near future.
Tobey Stohr, whose parents, Helene and Thomas Stohr, founded the company in 2006, and whose brother, Nick Stohr, is the Swissbäkers CEO, confirmed the reopening.
“The Reading location will be open on just weekends for now,” said Tobey, who no longer works for Swissbäkers but assists the family business from time to time. “The main reason for that is staffing. We have to make sure we’re all staffed. We’re slowly beginning to hire now.”
The Reading cafe first opened in 2009, establishing itself as a family-centric Swiss bakery where customers could find pretzel rolls and its signature sugar-dusted Berliners.
Tobey also confirmed that the North Station cafe will reopen in the not-so-distant future, but would not comment on whether the Harvard shop, which was located inside the Smith Campus Center, will reopen.
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Swissbäkers suddenly closed all of its outposts in early December; shortly after, Tobey told The Boston Globe that the closures were due to “certain things that we had no control over that prevented us from succeeding in the neighborhood of Allston specifically. There have been things that been happening there that have really hurt us.” But since reopening the Allston headquarters in January, the family has been working on restructuring everything from menus to their business model.
“We don’t want to be stupid,” Tobey told Boston.com. “We’re just working on simplifying. If there’s something we learned — we always wanted things to be ultra-customizable, but humans are creatures of habit.”
Whereas customers could previously build their own breakfast sandwich, Swissbäkers now just offers three variations: bacon, egg, and cheese; sausage, egg, and cheese; and avocado, egg, and cheese. The coffee menu has also been simplified, and Tobey said that after looking at the data, there is more of an effort to “Americanize” the Swissbäkers menu. A Nutella Berliner was recently added, and it’s now their second highest selling item.
“I don’t want to, by any means, say we’re over every hurdle,” Tobey said. “But every day is better than the day before. We want to thank all of the people that have supported us in the community, as well as all of our landlords.”
And, he said, if you’re in search of a full-time or part-time job, Swissbäkers is looking for plenty of hands.
Swissbäkers Reading (32 Lincoln St., Reading) will officially reopen on Saturday, March 14, and will operate on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. until expanding its operating hours.
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