Circa at Schwartz bakery

A few months ago Schwartz’s moved from their old, cramped, dump of a location to a beautifully renovated space that used to house the center portion of Kotlar’s and later Kol Tuv markets. They placed the bakery along one side of the space with nice modern showcases and have set up a “Circa” on the other side. For those who don’t know, “Circa NY” is a fast-food place in New York that specializes in healthy lunch fare such as the make-your-own-salad concept and soups. They also do customized personal pizzas and gourmet sandwiches. The Hecht brothers figured the concept works in New York so why not LA. My initial thought is that they have a major hit on their hands although it needs some work. I’ve been there twice and the salad concept, while amazingly simple, is fantastic. They charge $5.75 for a bowl of lettuce (romaine or mixed greens) that includes 3 additions from a vast array of vegis and proteins. For 50 cents more you can keep adding things - and trust me you will add things - and you end up with a delicious albeit pricey salad made to your exact specs. What makes this concept so good (and hard to knock off I think) is the dressings that they offer. All 9 choices are delicious. The only thing lacking on the dressing side was a low-fat choice and I assume that they’ll remedy that. I particularly like their balsamic and creamy garlic selections. Their soups are somewhat unoriginal and not as good as the ones from the bagel factory but they are very good. I ordered the onion but they also had vegetable, mushroom barley and a few others. The onion soup was too peppery the second time I had it and they put Parmesan cheese in instead of mozzarella (gruyere is not easily found chalav yisroel). This is BAD and I hope they change it. I get that it’s cheaper but ground Parmesan does not belong in my onion soup.
They are set to expand to a full menu that will include omelets, pancakes, pizzas, etc. I’m a bit fearful that this will seriously drag down their service, which is not silky smooth to begin with but at least guys will be able to eat there without having to check their manhood. In closing I have a few recommendations for the Hecht brothers who have been very open to suggestions from their clientele.
1) As mentioned, stop putting Parmesan cheese in the onion soup, step up anduse mozzarella 2) Include a roll, bagel, olive stick or some sort of bread item along witha soup. The bagel factory does this and you should too, g-d knows you should be able to get them at a decent price :) 3) Make a buy-up to include a small soup with your salad kind of like acombo deal at a burger joint. I am not satisfied with only a salad but I don’t necessarily want a large soup to go with it. Get the small sized cup (again check the bagel factory) and offer it for an extra few bucks. 4) Stay humble and don’t take things personally. I had a friend that opened a bakery café a while back who would take any criticism of the restaurant as a personal attack. You’re new at this so you’re going to screw up but that’ s all part of the business and most of us want you to succeed.
If the last one sounds a bit personal, it is. The Hechts are young guys in our community and I hope this experiment works out. I think it will, being that all our wives will be eating there all the time and their very successful bakery already covers a good portion of the overhead. We’ll do improvement suggestions for Schwartz’s bakery another time.