VERO BEACH — Dr. Jim Shafer, who is opening a much-anticipated bagel restaurant next week, wanted to be a chef when he was a teenager. Later, he studied food science and nutritional biochemistry as an undergraduate at the University of Florida and considered pursuing a career with a corporation like Kellogg’s if his medical school plans did not work out.
The plans did work out though, and Shafer, who has lived in Vero since he was 17, became a neurologist and opened a practice in his hometown.
Busy with his patients at Vero Neurology, Shafer nevertheless retained a lingering interest in the food business.
“I have a number of friends who own restaurants,” he says, “and it always seemed interesting to me.”
When he walked into an Einstein Bros Bagels in the Denver airport to grab a bite while on a trip some years ago, something about the ambiance of the restaurant chimed with his latent ambitions.
“The food was awesome and I felt like I was getting a little bit of an upper- level quick-casual dining experience.”
When he contacted Einstein’s corporate headquarters five years ago, however, he found the company was not interested in franchising at that time, so he filed the idea away and continued to focus on his medical practice.
A few years after that, when the company underwent a change in management and direction, someone there remembered Shafer’s inquiry and called to see if he were still interested.
A year and half and lots of meetings and phone calls and due diligence later, Vero Beach’s first Einstein Bros Bagels restaurant is set to open June 19.
The breakfast and lunch restaurant includes a drive thru and upscale coffee bar as well as 20 different kinds of bagels.
“Think fresh-baked goods, made-to- order sandwiches, crisp salads and gourmet coffee,” says a menu description on the corporate website.
“We are really pushing the coffee,” says Director of Operations Paul Lydon. “We have hired a barista and we think we have a better bean than Starbucks. The corporation recently spent $8 million upgrading that side of the brand.”
The restaurant at 1226 US 1 near the intersection with 12th Street will be open from 5 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.
The June 19 grand opening will be accompanied by a number of specials and promotions.
“We will have prizes and games,” says Lydon. “We are going to have a radio station broadcasting from here.”
The first 100 guests each day during the first week will get a free coffee for the next 30 days.
Shafer’s franchise agreement with corporate parent Einstein Noah Restaurant Group calls for him to open a minimum of four outlets in the next four years.
“I have the territory from Highway 520 in Brevard County to the southern border of Indian River County,” he says.
Einstein is highly selective in choosing franchise owners.
“They have to protect their brand,” says Shafer, who views the demanding approval process he went through as a big positive in the business because it means the name he has invested in is carefully guarded.
The corporation required him to bring in an experienced franchise operations person as part of the deal.
Lydon, who had an 18-year career with Burger King, where he eventually oversaw more than 100 restaurants in the South East, filled the bill.
“I feel very good about this opportunity,” says Lydon, who is relocating from Birmingham, Ala., to help launch and guide the new restaurant group.
Shafer hired Sara Scheurer as his general manager. She is known in the Vero Beach restaurant world as the former co-owner of Tom Cats on 14th Avenue and as the former manager of Pearl Restaurant, a beachside restaurant that closed in 2010.
She says she is “beyond excited about the new venture. The extensive training program has been wonderful. I spent several weeks training in Tampa and then went to Einstein’s Bagel Academy in Denver for a week.”
Shafer’s wife, Helen, is the new company’s marketing and public relations director.
“She has more than 25 years’ experience in marketing and PR,” says Shafer. “She is a major player in this venture.“
Einstein Noah Restaurant Group is the largest operator of bagel bakeries in the nation, according to its corporate website.
Headquartered in Golden, Colo., it operates, licenses or franchises 773 restaurants in 39 states, including 76 in Florida.
Its gross income in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 3 was $423.6 million, up from $411.7 million in the prior fiscal year. Net income was $13.2 million, up from $11.3 million the previous year.
Shafer and Lydon expect the restaurant to be profitable “from day one,” in part because of the rigorous site-selection criteria provided by Einstein.
Shafer leased the building that houses the restaurant in a transaction handled by island Realtor Derek Arden.
Shafer says he will leave day-today restaurant operations to the professionals he has hired while he concentrates on managing and building the business.
“I don’t ever plan on leaving medicine but I might be doing it less at some point,” he says.