LATHAM — The Works Café has opened at the former Brueggers Bagels location in Newton Plaza, Latham. Brueggers closed last year after 30 years in town, leaving the region without traditional fresh bagels.
This will be the 33-year-old company’s first café in New York and its ninth in the Northeast. Hours are from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
A favorite at The Works cafés, of course, is bagels—traditional, New York-style, boiled and baked. The Works makes them with unbleached and un-bromated flour and other all-natural ingredients. But what’s a bagel without cream cheese? The hormone-free cream cheese at The Works comes from McGarry Dairy in Enosburg Falls, VT; flavored cream cheeses are blended in-house daily with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Additional menu offerings include artisan sandwiches, breakfast burritos, real fruit smoothies, paninis, organic quinoa bowls, chef-inspired salads, gourmet mac’n’cheese, hearth-baked breads, and baked-in-house pastries. Anything on the menu can be ordered online, and picked up without leaving your car.
The Works first launched in Manchester, VT in 1988. Richard French, founder and CEO says he has “a passion for fresh, healthy, thoughtfully-sourced foods,” that he wanted to bring to the Albany area.
The chicken, ham, bacon and turkey in The Works’ sandwiches and salads is raised without antibiotics or hormones and fed a vegetarian diet. All their meats come from certified humane farms; and the bacon, ham and sausage are naturally-cured with no nitrates or nitrites.
The café chain has a commitment to sourcing fresh, healthy ingredients as close to home as possible. Organic wheat flour from Farmer Ground Flour in Trumansburg, NY; eggs from Nelly’s Free Range in Monroe, NH; organic yogurt from Stonyfield Farm in Londonderry, NH; smoked salmon from True North Salmon, Ltd. in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick; and local greens, vegetables and berries when available.
According to French, The Works’ dedication to sustainability and the environment does not end with the food—the Latham location recycles and composts most of its waste stream. The new build-out relied heavily on repurposed, up-cycled, and “green” furnishings—many made by local craftspeople—and Energy Star-rated kitchen equipment. The Works’ interior space includes bamboo floors, reclaimed wood booths, re-purposed tractor seat chairs and LED light fixtures.
“We’re so pleased to open a Works Café in Latham,” said French. “It’s such an exciting, vibrant, growing community. It deserves to get its bagels back, and a whole lot more.”
