Humanities building location aimed at shortening lines for popular joint
Tired of waiting in line for food at the Russell House Einstein Bros. Bagels? A new location opened Dec. 3 on the first floor of the Humanities Office Building.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, that’s likely because its grand opening wasn’t scheduled until the beginning of this semester and was delayed a couple of days due to snow.
Today is the new location’s grand opening ceremony. On Friday, the location will have a MLK T-shirt Giveaway Event.
“We had a space that was underutilized, and since Einstein is super popular, we saw an opportunity,” said Carolina Dining’s Gamecock Park Manager John Brasington.
Since construction started last July, Brasington said they were working with an architect to best use available space on campus.
“The new Einstein offers a more expansive menu than the one at Russell House due to the limited space there,” Brasington said.
Given the tables, chairs and overall space that was used for renovation, the new Einstein has the feel of a typical restaurant while being equipped with the full menu, Brasington said.
Campus Dining Resident District Manager Michael Scheffres said USC used the same contractors for Einstein that were used during the renovations in the Russell House. Both locations are open from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday, but the new one will be closed on weekends.
Second-year pre-pharmacy student Chris Gauger said Einstein is his “weekend lunch stop,” and is all for the new one.
“It’ll help keep the lines down,” he said, while picking up his Santa Fe wrap from the Russell House location. “Still, I’ll probably go to the Russell House one more often because it’s closer and more convenient for me.”
Other students plan on taking advantage of the new location. First-year business student Lauren Schwartz said she already goes to Einstein once or twice a week but may go to the new one more often.
“It seems whenever I go over to the one at Russell, the line is pretty long and I don’t have time to wait in it and walk over to classes,” she said. “But since the new one is right near Humanities and the business school, I will probably use that one.”
Brasington said there may be friendly competition between the two locations that can motivate employees and make the work fun.
“The new one elevates the old,” he said. “There are good relations between both teams.”