Going to work for the past two years has been like being part of a family for Charles Ingram. Now he’s joining the growing number of laid-off New Haveners looking for a new job.
Ingram, a shift leader at Cosi restaurant on the corner of Elm and Park streets, was making salads and sandwiches on Thursday afternoon in front of the fiery bread oven. He was still processing the news he’d been given on Monday: the restaurant will close Nov. 23.
That’ll leave up to 15 people out of work. The restaurant has been open about five years.
Carlos Pena, a manager at Cosi, said on Wednesday night that the restaurant is closing due to “a number of economic concerns.”
“Business has dropped while costs have risen,” he said.
Pena spoke about the closing of Cosi after an unrelated appearance before the Board of Zoning Appeals, where he was seeking permission to open a new bar-restaurant in Westville.
“The economic drivers behind Cosi closing related very specifically to the physical plant,” he said, citing the high costs of rent, insurance and heat.
Pena said he’s trying to place Cosi employees in his new bar. “It is a family,” he said of his staff.
Thursday afternoon, Ingram agreed. “It’s like a little family,” he said as he put together sandwich orders.
Ingram has been at the New Haven Cosi, a favorite hangout for beat cops, for two years. He worked at the Darien Cosi for two years before that. He doesn’t have a plan for employment after the restaurant closes.
“I’m playing it by ear,” Ingram said. “The economy right now is all messed up… everybody’s losing their jobs right now.”
Fred Buzzell (pictured), working nearby, has been doing food service jobs for ten years, at ten different restaurants. He’s been at Cosi for only three and a half months. He said it’s the best restaurant he’s worked at.
“It’s the funnest job I’ve ever had,” he said.
Buzzell has another career picked out already. He’s enrolled in a CDL licensing program, to get trained on how to drive “the big trucks.”
Behind Buzzell, another employee was putting flat bread in the flame-filled gas oven. “We make our own bread,” Buzzell said. “It’s just water, yeast, and flour. And then we put oil and salt on it when it comes out.”
“I like the food,” he said. “It’s healthy.”
Across the restaurant, Helen (who declined to give her last name) was taking orders and fixing beverages.
“I’m very upset,” she said, about the closing. “I’ve invested a long time here. Over two years.”
But she’s not surprised. “I kinda figured it would happen,” she said. “We used to have lines out the door.”
Does she have a job lined up?
“There’s a couple places I’m looking,” Helen said. Her family owns several hair salons. She might work there. She might waitress.
She might go work at the family business, but Helen said she’ll be leaving family behind at Cosi.
“This is like my family,” she said. “I’m close with every single manager.”
Helen said that there is a small staff party planned for closing day. “We’re going to have a little get-together,” she said. “Just say good-bye.”
I ate there twice. Never a hello, thank you or you're welcome from the register. Food not particularly appetizing. LOUD music. Never went back.