Einstein Bros. was created by the chain restaurant corporation Boston Chicken in 1995, as a way to market breakfast foods. The chain is now owned by Einstein and Noah Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. Boston Chicken, Inc. originally formed the Einstein and Noah Bagel Corporation as Progressive Bagel Concepts, Incorporated in March 1995, when it purchased four retail bagel chains, all located in regions of the United States that did not have longstanding bagel traditions. These companies included Offerdahl's Bagel Gourmet, Incorporated, Bagel & Bagel, Incorporated, Baltimore Bagel, and Brackman Brothers, Incorporated. Each found that their stores were similar in that they offered both original and new bagel flavors in rich neighborhoods where the customers had relatively little previous exposure to bagels. Noah's Bagels was founded by Noah Alper on College Avenue in Berkeley, California. In 1996, the chain of 38 stores was sold to Einstein Bros. for $100 million. New World Coffee was founded in the early 1990s by Ramin Kamfar, an investment banker who left his finance career to open a coffee shop. It bought Manhattan Bagel out of bankruptcy in 1998. The combined company purchased Washington, D.C.-based Chesapeake Bagel Bakery in 1999 when that chain had 89 stores, giving Manhattan approximately 350 locations. By 2000, Einstein Bros. was in financial trouble, having loaned too much money to franchisees. After it declared bankruptcy, New World Coffee, which had earlier attempted an unsuccessful hostile takeover, bought the company out of bankruptcy for $190 million. In 2014, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group was acquired by JAB Holding Company and BDT Capital Partners. On March 24, 2019, the family announced that Albert Reimann Sr. and Albert Reimann Jr., the family members who hold controlling stakes in JAB, were supporters of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, and that historical research revealed that the company used 175 forced labourers and employed a foreman who was known for his cruel treatment from 1943 onwards. The family has vowed to give €10 million to charity.
