Schoolyard Bagels reopens after temporary closure

Marshall Street’s newest eatery, Schoolyard Bagels, reopened its doors on Sunday, Feb. 25 after two weeks of closure.

The shop temporarily shut its doors after a harrowing opening. There were long waits to get in and longer waits to get food. 

Schoolyard’s owners temporarily closed the storefront to try and improve customer satisfaction. They redid the electrical and point-of-sale (POS) systems and reworked the kitchen’s layout.

“The technology was a big factor,” Nick “Big Nick” Castronuovo said – an owner along with Carmine Curra and Pete Lombardo – referencing the problems that led to Schoolyard’s initial struggles. Issues with technology and workflow hindered the shop’s capacity to handle the long line of customers, the owners said.

“It was Murphy’s law on steroids,” Curra said, referencing the idiom “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” an apt description of the initial opening. 

The lack of organization went against the main tenet of the owners’ ideologies — customer service. “The core values of Carmine, myself and Pete [Lombardo] are customer service and experience,” Castronuovo said. “That starts with good food and efficiency.”

After two days of the POS technology crashing and other problems like duplicated orders arising, the shop temporarily closed to fix the issues. One part of the fix is opening without online ordering ready, ensuring on-site customers are taken care of first. 

Another facet of the fix is reduced hours; now Schoolyard is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Previously, the shop offered late night hours. For now, Schoolyard is focusing on the reopening, but plan to revert to longer hours after a few weeks, Castronuovo and Curra said.

“I want to show people this is how [Schoolyard] runs,” Castronouvo said, expressing excitement for the reopening.

A little more than two weeks after its initial closing, Schoolyard Bagels reopened without fanfare on Sunday. Unlike the first opening, the shop opened quietly, removing the announcement posted to its website and refraining from alerting customers on social media. 

The POS system worked for the few customers who made their way into the store around 8 a.m. that morning and the employees were able to complete customers’ orders quickly. 

When asked about the day, Castronouvo said, “It was a nice quiet day, good for getting everyone acclimated to the system and getting used to the flow of the new layout.”

With a successful first day under the belt of Schoolyard Bagels, the store is poised to be a staple on the corner of Marshall Street. and University Avenue.