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Boloco's new CEO - who's also its old CEO - explains decision to shut two outlets

By adamg on Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:32pm

John Pepper, who started Boloco, then left, then returned, explains how he wound up back at Boloco, what's been going on at the chain, why he had to close the School Street and Newbury Street outlets. And he gives a taste of what he's planning.

Neighborhoods: 
Boston
Topics: 
Business
Dining
Free tagging: 
Boloco
burritos


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Comments

By anon on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 7:42am.

Hot take warning:

Boloco is just not at all good food.

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By anon on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 10:22am.

hey hey!

while I recognize that boloco isn't "good" food by any standard, that teriyaki burrito is the gringo burrito of my DREAMS.

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By BostonDog on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 11:11am.

I like the place. I miss the one that closed around Tufts.

It's not amazing food but it isn't bad. You have a lot of options. The people are nice. The Jimmy Carter smoothie is good. Sometimes their mini burrito is the perfect hold-over between larger meals. I'd gladly take a Boloco over Chipotle and most of the other "fast-casual" restaurants that are so trendy nowadays.

It's not traditional burritos so if you were expecting that you'll sure be disappointed. People seem to be expecting something amazing and their food is just pretty good, not fantastic. But it's a local business trying to do something different so they get my support.

FWIW, I think their food is a whole lot better (and the people a whole lot nicer) then Clover.

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By Mrotown on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 11:00am.

Also one of the rare places with vegetarian options

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By FenRes on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:56pm.

As a longtime occasional customer it's encouraging to hear that they plan to simplify the menu again. I was not a patron of either of the closed locations, but certainly became aware as they expanded that food quality and customer service varied at different locations. So the suggestion that more store closures may be on the horizon (while obviously bad for the employees of those locations) is also potentially a good sign for customers. I do hope that they bring back the "Late November" this year!

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By brianjdamico on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 11:41am.

I like what I get there. Always have since the first time I had it. I guess we have different preferences.

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By ChrisInEastie on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 3:55pm.

Many of us enjoy Boloco quite a bit. Oddly enough, the best buffalo sauce I've had in the area, speaking as a native upstate New Yorker.

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By Ralph Boston on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:09pm.

...is that I love the buffalo tofu burrito. which sounds wrong on multiple levels but I don't have any illusions that Boloco's burritos are attempting to be authentic mexican, so it works.

Just regard it as a Wrap place instead of a burrito place and it's fine. In fact wasn't it originally called "the Wrap?"

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By anon on Thu, 11/19/2015 - 1:18pm.

The Wrap was really good. When they changed to boloco the quality seemed to take a dive at the same time. Then Chipotle came around and it was game over.

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By jmeltzer on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 7:40pm.

but you have to order "hot" to get any kind of mild pepper heat at all.

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By wow on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 8:43am.

"And although I had loved my 20-month hiatus from Boloco - having developed an app that would surely change the world, become an Uber driver, an expert drone pilot, an aspiring writer, all while moving my family to Costa Rica for a month before moving to Vermont permanently - I knew that what awaited for me on my phone was a most important text."

This whole thing reads as satire for the 1%.

Maybe it was written by the guy who wrote that epic Missed Connection?

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By anon on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:35am.

Read of envy. Start your own business and then sell it once it become profitable.

We have able bodied people who take 20 year hiatuses, it's called welfare.

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By wow on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:42am.

complaining about welfare, that's original man

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By mom on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:11pm.

Complaining about people who earn their own success, THAT's original girl.

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By anon on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 10:09am.

Mitt, it's really nice to see you're doing well. A lesser person would have let losing the Presidency really get them down.

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By BostonDog on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 2:43pm.

How many successful businesses have you started? Boloco is known for being good to their people. If you read the post you'll see he had to borrow a lot of money to get the place started the first time and again to purchase it from the losers who ran it into the ground once he was bought out/fired. He isn't a tycoon.

I'm not going to hold his hard work against him. If he wants to enjoy life while working on other things, so be it. He's hardly Mitt Romney or some VC scumbag investing the family's money.

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By wow on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:51pm.

wait, omg, you're saying someone trying to start a business had to... borrow... money? the horrors! and then... after selling it, he even had to buy it back??? you mean he couldn't just seize the property?

what's next... did he have to pay his employees, too???? this whole capitalism thing must be so difficult for an entrepreneur!

p.s. the plural of "business" is "businesses."

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By Sally on Sun, 11/01/2015 - 6:11am.

And doing all of that doesn't automatically make him an asshole--get it?

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By jmeltzer on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 7:41pm.

while driving through downtown Nantucket.

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By kvn on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:18am.

Much Ado About Nothing

And in other restaurant news , more importantly ,

Al Molinaro, drive-in owner in "Happy Days," dies at 96 . Kyrie Eleison !
IMAGE(http://www.bostonherald.com/sites/default/files/styles/gallery/public/media/ap/f39ae6425e8c495197e43c31daa432f5.jpg?itok=1tpA3snf)

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By bibliotequetressnotloggedin... on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:30am.

I like Boloco, I'm glad that this guy cares about the well being of his employees, he does not seem like an asshole who's only into money, but this feels rather, er, schadenfreude-y

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By Eric on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 10:14am.

I don't really eat at Boloco, but good for this guy for caring about his employees and trying to keep his business going. Also he's being honest and keeping the public informed, which I would say most CEOs would never do.

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By rsybuchanan on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:50pm.

I started to fade out a bit when I got to "It was 3:53pm on June 4, 2015," so I decided it needed a little spicing up.

[exterior, Nantucket. A lone jeep is bouncing along a cobblestone street]
[Pepper] [narration] "It was a warm day. Too warm to be bouncing over a cobblestone road with a dead body in the car."

"My body."

[interior of the jeep. Man (can we cast William Holden for this? --ed.) wearing shorts and a hawaiian shirt under his trenchcoat and fedora lights up a cigarette]

[Narration continues] "I was dead tired from a hard year on the run. Running to Costa Rica. Running to Vermont. Running around in an Uber. But always running."

"That's when he texted me. A long drink of water in sexy grey flannel 3-piece suit, with legal briefs that wouldn't quit. At least, that's what I assume. It was a text message. I couldn't see the fella."

[closeup of an iPhone on the seat next to the man]
[Narr.] "'Deal done, you can wire the money' was all he said. But how much? And to whom? That's what I wanted... needed.. you to know."

[Profile of the man, lighting up another cigarette (what happened to the cig from above? --continuity ed.)]
[Narr.] "My name is John Pepper. I make burritos."
[cue flashback]

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By bibliotequetress on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 2:41pm.

.

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By Markk02474 on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:10pm.

the ones partnering with bicycle events?

If they've stopped doing that, I might give Boloco a try sometime. ;-)

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By cowsandmilk on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:31pm.

I guess no Boloco for you then, since both sets of management have partned with bike events.

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By Markk02474 on Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:49pm.

I tried Chipotle once and found it overpriced and underwhelming. La Victoria is just two blocks walk for me and so much better.

As to the CEO, he was probably getting bored in Vermont and needed to get off the farm. He will end up with a COO to run the business for him at some point so it takes up less of his time and he can get back to his family and other endeavors. He will have a hard/long time though pulling that extra cash back out in order to use for other projects.

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