Bagel store owner vows to fight on despite loss

Jarrett Seltzer created what some called a “magical bagel” at home before he decided to start his own business.

When the West Orange resident opened up Bagels by Jarret — or BXJ — at 451 Mount Pleasant Ave., West Orange, there were lines down the street.
“Super popular business,” he said.

Then COVID-19 hit.

During the pandemic, Seltzer switched from allowing people to eat inside to curbside service only. And when the pandemic ended, he decided to not go back to letting people eat inside the shop.

All was well until Halloween 2022 when Seltzer noticed a car outside his shop. He thought it was a customer, but it was a township zoning official.

The zoning officer asked Seltzer if he was the owner. According to Seltzer, she said, “I don’t like your window shade. I can’t see in.”

Because it’s a curbside business, Seltzer explained that they didn’t want people to come into the store, so he kept the shades down. “What if someone falls?” he said. He pointed out that there was another restaurant three shops down that also had window shades.

“I’m asking for a level playing field,” he said.

According to a statement from Mayor Susan McCartney, the issue has been that a township ordinance states windows must be two-thirds open. Seltzer came to a Mayor’s Open Office Hours session on May 4, 2023, with a request to keep the front doors covered as well because he was offering only curbside pick-up.

McCartney went to meet with Seltzer on May 12 to discuss the circumstances. “I went a step further,” she stated, authorizing even the doors could remain covered since it is now a curbside operation.

Continuing, McCartney added in her statement, “Even with this good faith agreement, the window blinds at BXJ remained closed on 100% of the storefront windows, even after, I believed, we had reached an agreement. Jarrett proposed adding the BXJ logo banner across a third of each window which would have resolved the issue while adding quite a bit of curb appeal.”

McCartney thought the banner looked “really sharp.” But it never happened.

She also thought she was being neighborly and business friendly when she told Seltzer that if he’s working in the shop while the sun is setting, he could pull the blinds down. “His shop faces west,” she said. “Sun setting is glaring.”

When McCartney met with Seltzer in May, she thought it was over and “made this good faith agreement.” She thought he was going to compromise.

Seltzer said, “It wasn’t a problem three years ago. I never brought window shades. They were here. Dance Warriors had window shades. They whole thing was completely targeted. Everyone in town has window shades.”

The township began fining Seltzer who ended up in court over the matter. He lost in court and ended up with a fine of about $4,200. He has recently created a gofundme page.

“I truly didn’t want to have to do this but here we are,” he wrote on the page. “Between the town pulling my permits during our expansion (the pulling of the permits cost us between 100-150k) to the legal battle we are in over window treatment, I have drained my bank account. This business is difficult enough without what we’re going through and sadly, I have to ask for help. I don’t know where I’m going to end up financially overall but I can assure that any excess of the goal will be put to a good cause.”

After losing the trial, Seltzer decided he’s going to appeal and take it as far as he has to.

In response, McCartney said she thought Seltzer was going to compromise and that it was the judge that made the determination.

On a lighter note, when asked what special ingredient made his bagels so special, Seltzer said, “Love.”

He paused, laughed, then added, “Customers are very loyal. We do a dinner service. All pasta is homemade. A lot of Mexican food. We’re all over the place. It’s wonderful food.”

  Bagels by Jarret, West Orange