Boloco Shutters Cleveland Circle Location After 18 Years

Photo by AdamChandler86 on Flickr/Creative Commons

Boloco has closed its location in Cleveland Circle after 18 years and more than 2 million burritos served, by the local chain’s estimates.

In a post this week, CEO and cofounder John Pepper wrote that the location in Brighton, the third Boloco opened, had been losing money for the last three or four years.

“With Boloco’s high quality ingredients and highest paid employees in the industry, we needed more customers every day to run a sustainable business and whatever we were (or more likely not) doing at that location just didn’t attract enough of you,” Pepper said. “It really always comes down to simple math.”

Pepper also mentioned an April Fools prank by “one of the Boston College rags” that claimed Boloco, not its neighbor and competitor Chipotle, had been spreading norovirus. More than 100 people were sickened in December after eating at the Chipotle in Cleveland Circle, as the chain struggled with food safety issues.

“While we were appreciative they took it down (and that they issued an apology after attorneys got involved), and for the record this is not why we decided to close, we knew in our hearts that the tea leaves were telling us to finally call it a day,” Pepper said. “At a certain point, you can only push so hard to make something successful before you have to accept reality. We pushed for over 18 years. We had one year left on our lease and paid the landlord to leave early, which he graciously accepted.”

The Cleveland Circle team’s 16 employees will be scattered across the chain’s 16 other locations, Pepper said.