My absolute favorite breakfast sandwich is the “Denver” from Bruegger’s Bagels. It’s scrambled eggs on a bagel with ham, swiss, fresh sliced green pepper and red onion. It is delicious and it at least feels healthier than the sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts.

This post is not to go on and on about breakfast sandwiches but rather to state that the Bruegger’s on Summer Street in downtown Boston has got to be the worst managed fast food restaurant I have ever been to. Ever.

A few weeks back I was going pretty frequently. I noticed a revolving door of employees and that doesn’t seem that ridiculous. The newer employees were slow, but that’s really nothing significant to gripe about. There are several helpful employees that have been around for a while, and you can tell who they are.

One morning I went in to get my typical sandwich, and I asked a fairly new emplyee to get my bagel toasted. The man in front of me was helped by a veteran, and he had requested 2 sesame bagels with butter. Our bagels came out of the toaster at roughly the same time, and the veteran employee grabbed her bagels first and began buttering them. After a few moments, she turned to the newbie who was helping me and said “You took the wrong bagel. This man ordered sesame and you’re making the sandwich with a sesame slice.” She then proceeded to take the sesame slice and hand the guy making my sandwich an already-buttered slice of my bagel.

What happened next was truly amazing to me. My sandwich artist looked at the buttered bagel and said to the veteran employee that it wasn’t right. She said he shouldn’t have grabbed the wrong bagel, when I clearly saw her take them first! He tried to argue but realized the futility, and then kind of stared at the buttered bagel for a few minutes, and then continued making my sandwich with it, without saying a word to me. GROSS!

I was completely awestruck by this. He could have at least asked me if it was okay. I couldn’t believe he did nothing while I was standing there watching the whole thing! I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even do anything, so I took my buttery sandwich and left.

A few weeks later I returned to Bruegger’s, hoping to have a better experience. I was greeted by some more new faces, and made my way to the counter to order a Denver. “What?” replied the new guy. I repeated myself and he still didn’t know what I was talking about. The third time I pointed at the menu, and he said “Oh, I don’t know how to make that. I’ll get the manager.”

There are only 5 different sandwiches on the breakfast menu, and I am pretty sure this Bruegger’s is only a breakfast shop. So here we have a new employee that has not been trained on making one of 5 sandwiches that exist, with the menu in plain view. It seems ridiculous, but I’m willing to tolerate it. Until…

The manager comes over to make my sandwich. As she is doing so, several employees come up to her, and clearly referring to the employee who never heard of the “Denver,” urge her not to give him an advance on his paycheck, insisting that he was only hired because he was someone else’s friend, and will take the check and that will be the last they see of him. This argument involved every single other employee working, and happened mainly during the construction of my breakfast, during which I was informed they were out of eggs (9 am on a Tuesday!).

Luckily I ended up with my Denver made with “omelette eggs” instead of normal eggs, and the new employee ended up with his check, and didn’t appear to do any more work as I was making my way to do the opposite.

I just can believe the problems, expressed in front of customers, and the lack of care. It boggles my mind. I would stop going there entirely, but I love that breakfast sandwich!