After closing in December 2024 for renovations, the Einstein Bros bagel company in the Coates Student Center is back up and running. The updates included new paint, a renovated storefront and the removal of the open-facing refrigerator. The renovations took approximately a month to complete, spanning from mid-December until mid-January.
Chase Taylor, resident district manager of Trinity Dining, discussed the motivations for the changes. As a national brand, Einstein Bagels works to adhere to a certain aesthetic which it requires Trinity Dining to maintain.
“The renovations were really aimed at refreshing the space and improving the efficiency and enhancing the overall guest experience. It was a little old-looking, needed a little bit of touch-up and some paint,” Taylor said. “We wanted to really modernize the look and feel while optimizing our operations to better serve the community.”
Taylor explained that changes happen to all Trinity restaurants every 5-10 years. These updates work not only to refresh the look of dining options but also to replace any outdated or non-functioning machinery.
“Our espresso machine would go down, our ovens would go down constantly. So a lot of this was geared towards us getting new equipment,” Taylor said.
In regards to future renovations, Taylor explained there are none planned for the immediate future. He emphasized the school’s commitment to keeping food options running well and up to date.
“We’re always looking to evaluate ways to improve the dining options. We really pay attention to student feedback and student surveys,” Taylor said. “We are continuously looking at ways to enhance the experience at Coates and really all dining locations as well.”
Student reactions to the new renovations were mixed. According to Joy Ingrum, sophomore environmental studies and Earth and environmental geosciences double-major, the changes themselves were understandable, but the lack of Einstein Bros as a dining option on campus while the renovations occurred was frustrating.
“I think that on one hand, a lot of it wasn’t super necessary, like the painting and all of that. It took off a really popular meal spot for a long time without that much benefit,” Ingrum said. “I do see from Einstein’s perspective. They took away a lot of their front-facing merchandise, which I assume was getting stolen all the time. So I think that’s a positive change for them, but overall it seems a little bit superfluous.”
The frustration expressed by Ingrum was not unique. Emily Hernandez, sophomore political science major, felt similarly about the subject. While recognizing that the improvements likely needed to be made, she pushed for greater transparency.
“If it’s better for the workers, I think that it’s a good choice. But I think the timing of it was very inconvenient for the students,” Hernandez said. “We thought that it would be fixed and ready by the time we came back, and it wasn’t.”
