With a blend of optimism but also a very heavy heart, today I am "officially" announcing that we have sold and will therefore be closing five Boloco restaurants. One of the affected restaurants is our location in the Marino Center at Northeastern. The last day of business as Boloco at NEU will be this Wednesday, October 19.
The good news and reason for a healthy dose of optimism is that another Boston-based, high quality, insanely-awesome-on-so-many-levels restaurant called B.Good will be taking our place nearly immediately. Our Northeastern team members who choose to will be interviewing and onboarding with B.Good the day after we close.
You can learn more about B.Good by
visiting their website here, but rest assured they do many, many things that the NEU student body and community will love. While some of you (
hopefully!) will be disappointed that Boloco is leaving, I honestly believe that your disappointment will quickly be replaced with genuine excitement for what B.Good brings to the table. Delicious, locally sourced food and a commitment to the communities it serves that is second to no one. I should know... while no longer involved in the day-to-day leadership of the company,
I helped start B.Good back in 2004 with co-founders Jon and Anthony. (
Click here for a little history lesson) They are close friends and I hope you will welcome them as graciously as you did me and Boloco when we first arrived on campus exactly 16 years ago next week.
For those interested, I caught up with B.Good CEO and Co-Founder Anthony Ackil on I-89 up in NH a week ago. Click the rather unappealing image below or
here to watch our informal banter on the transition.
Back to Boloco, for those of you who have credits with our
Boloco Passport program you can use them when visiting our 9 remaining Boston locations (
including Berklee and Children's Hospital only blocks away) or in Hanover, NH or Warwick, RI if you find yourself heading north or south.
Most importantly, on behalf of the entire Boloco family, I am so thankful to those of you who were faithful and loyal guests during these past 16 years. I've come to know a generation of students personally and was especially honored to have been asked to speak at
TEDx NortheasternU in 2014 on the business case for paying workers higher wages (an important topic, though I fear one of my most unpolished speaking performances...can I get a redo?!)
I had just turned 30 when we opened in 2000... we took over a struggling pizza shop that had recently shut down, and we, too, were scared we woudn't make it. With support from so many in the administration, especially Bill Mallon and Maureen Timmons, we went forward and ultimately built a beautiful business and came to love the spirit and enthusiasm of the Northeastern community. It's hard to leave, to say the least.
For those of you asking the most important question in the world...
WHY??!!... please know that were it not absolutely necessary to sell a few of our better-performing restaurants to make up for some
bad decisions made a few years ago, we would never be closing in the Marino Center. I hope B.Good will be as fortunate as we were at NEU - they are good people doing very good things with delicious food.
Thank you again - for everything. I'm easily reached by replying to this email if you have any questions or concerns. And hope to see you in one of our nearby locations sometime very soon!
