Bagel store to open on campus

Penn is in the final stage of talks to bring Izzy and Zoe's to the 40th St. strip Pass the lox and cream cheese. A new delicatessen and bagel shop called Izzy and Zoe's --Erun by the same people who operate the Fairmount Bagel Institute in Center City -- is close to signing a lease for the property formerly occupied by My Favorite Muffin in the Hamilton Village retail strip on 40th Street. According to John Greenwood, a top official at the University's real estate company, the lease for the space should be signed later this week. Students have long clamored for a bagel store to open on campus. The University terminated its lease with My Favorite Muffin last month because it was deemed inadequate for student needs, Greenwood said. The new owner, Elissa Rivkind, said the eatery should open on January 10, just before students return from winter break. Rivkind gained experience as a chef at the White Dog CafZ on the 3400 block of Sansom Street and at Jake's in Manayunk. She is also the wife of John Rivkind, owner of the Fairmount Bagel Institute, which operates three stores in Philadelphia, Greenwood said. Elissa Rivkind said renovations on the interior of the former My Favorite Muffin spot would probably begin within the next two weeks. The 1,550 square-foot space will be renovated to include outdoor seating, opening store-front windows and a study space that will include Ethernet connections for laptop computers, Rivkind said. "You're not going to be able to tell it was the old My Favorite Muffin," she said, adding that the total cost of renovations was estimated at $200,000. According to Rivkind, the new bagel shop and delicatessen will offer several breakfast items including omelettes, french toast, bagels and specialty cream cheeses. Rivkind said she would like to develop distinctive sandwiches using student input and is currently considering holding a sandwich-making contest in which the winner would create a new menu item and have their name displayed in the store. The menu will also include oversized salads and homemade soups and desserts, Rivkind said. "Everything is going to be baked on premises," she added. The place will also have a bit of a Jewish flair, offering items such as french toast challah, potato latkes and matzah-ball soup, Rivkind said. Additionally, she plans on opening a taste-testing booth outside the newly renovated facility at the end of the semester before the eatery officially opens. "We want students to come taste and give us some feed back," Rivkind said. The Hamilton Village complex still has another vacant lot previously held by Cool Peppers before it went out of business last February. According to Greenwood, negotiations with several possible tenants, including a clothing store and another restaurant, are ongoing. Greenwood said he expects to fill the space by the end of the academic year. The recently displaced My Favorite Muffin was the third franchise to close on campus within the past year. One was vacated when the former bookstore building was demolished last spring to make way for the Wharton School's new Huntsman Hall. The second was previously located in the Wharton CafZ in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall and was replaced earlier this year by a Boston-based Au Bon Pain franchise. The last bagel store on campus, University Bagels, closed last year for renovations to Houston Hall and will not reopen. And plans to bring a Manhattan Bagel franchise to 38th Street and Baltimore Avenue fell apart in February 1998 when the proposed store's parent company filed for bankruptcy.

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