Pavement Coffeehouse - Symphony — Restaurant in Boston

Today me and my Significant Other wanted a delicious bagel/bagel sandwich from Espresso Royale Cafe, but once I got there I saw that the coffee/sandwich shop was now called Pavement Coffeehouse. "Okay," I said, "Don't panic, maybe they still have your favorite sandwiches. I walk in. Redecorated- nice, I like it, a very cool looking/feeling space. And they still have all my favorite food items, whew.

I ordered a sunset bagel sandwich on an everything bagel plus jalepaneo cream cheese (because I can't get enough of that stuff.) I also ordered an Ike sandwich for my SO, no tomato because they're disgusting apparently, and a coke because its 90 degrees outside.

It was all terrible.

The bagels were awful, I might as well have gotten a Dunkin Donuts bagels - overly dense, small and flavorless, almost no "everything" on my everything bagel.

Jalepaneo cream cheese was awful - absolutely no "jalepaneo" flavor, I might as well have gotten plain.

The Ike - which I ordered by saying QUOTE: "can you please make sure there is absolutely no tomato on it" - had a tomato on it. When I asked the sandwich-maker to take the tomatoes off their behavior became very sulky. Instead of saying "oh, sorry about that, my mistake," and, let me say that having worked at a deli, I do understand that it is an easy mistake to make - they said "well the slip didn't say no tomato." Unhelpful. Then, yes, they took the tomato off but they re-wrapped the sandwich so poorly that I had to redo it, plus wipe off all the moisture from - whatever - so that it would't make a mess.

Reason number two why the Ike, a CHICKEN SALAD sandwich, was such an abysmal waste of money: this sandwich, which cost $10 or something, had barely any chicken salad on it. The "sandwich" consisted of a gross bagel, an unwanted tomato, lettuce, some honey mustard and a thin coating of chicken-flavored mayonnaise. I think I saw 4 tiny chunks of chicken on the whole thing.

The cherry on top is that the cashier forgot to hand me the coke that I paid for. It was only as I was throwing out the napkin that I used to wipe up my sodden bagel sandwiches that I remembered that I had bought it and yet it was mysteriously missing.

For all this I paid $15 and change. The only good thing I can mention is that when I asked the barista (whatever, the person at the espresso machine) for my missing coke he looked very surprised, got it for me immediately and opened it for me (they have the old fashioned glass coke bottles). Oh, and the decor was kind of pretty. That's it - the service isn't entirely terrible and the decor is pretty.

I will never go here again and I plan on warning all my Boston area friends to avoid...

I've been here dozens of times. Bagels are pretty good, coffee fine, service usually slow but considerate. Today I had a thirty minute break at work. I wanted a bagel. Got in line, no problem. The place is packed, no problem. It's 18 minutes since I've ordered and I have to be back in 5 minutes to work. Meanwhile a batista has repeatedly yelled at people for standing in front of a door and creating a fire hazard even when these people are not in front of the door. Everyone around me is whispering about this behavior, it is uncomfortable. I need to go so I ask for a refund. They say it will show up in 3-5 days but they don't do anything with the register or give me a refund receipt. I say "how do I know it will be refunded without a receipt?" They say their manager is only there on Mondays. They give me the receipt back and say to call the manager on Monday if I'm worried it will get lost. I ask how the manager will know that I didn't eat my food and just call for refund and their answer is "this is a place that cares about its customers." Hahahaha. Hahahahahahaha. I have no idea if I'm going to get my 14 bucks back. But I can tell you they will never ever get my money again which is the loss of 20-40...

Pavement is a local coffee shop chain that has a store very close to Northeastern University. They segment their market by catering to the needs of students, since they are so close to campus and always play popular TikTok music that young adults listen to. They must also track the data of what orders are most popular and what problems most occur since they are able to substitute meat items for vegan items, addressing the behavior of a large population of college-aged kids.

They have a lot of competition since Tatte, Dunkin, and Starbucks are all closer to campus than the Pavement branch so they have to differentiate in a number of ways. They offer soy, oat, almond, and plain milk which are options shared with the competitors, so their value proposition comes in the form of a bagel. Their gourmet bagels come in a plethora of flavors and textures, with bases of sesame, multi-grain, cinnamon raisin, and rosemary salt, to cream cheeses of veggie, garlic and chive, and spicy diablo. They also have myriad additions and substitutions which customizes the bagel to every customer’s pallet. Thus, the bagels that Pavement offer differentiate them from other chain...