Einstein Bros. Bagels Catering Guide: Nosh Boxes, Shmear Bars & How to Order

Einstein Bros. Bagels has been the largest bagel-and-Shmear catering program in the country since the late 1990s, and after the August 2021 merger that pulled it under Panera Brands and the JAB Holding portfolio alongside Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee, Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel, it is the only national bagel catering operator with more than seven hundred stores. Einstein Bros. catering covers the Bagels & Shmear program in Half Dozen and Baker’s Dozen tiers, the Shmearfuls Variety Pack, Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Boxes in Classic, Signature and Thintastic recipes, Signature and Classic Lunch Nosh Boxes, the Salmon & Bagels Platter, Powerbagel and Thintastic and Gourmet bagel varieties, a Hot Honey Shmear, the Breakfast For The Group bundle, and a 3pm next-day cutoff at participating locations. This guide walks every catering format, how the Nosh Box system works, where the Hot Honey Shmear fits, how to pair the Bagel & Shmear table with the Salmon & Bagels Platter and the Group Fruit Salad, and what to order when the office wants bagels and the morning meeting starts in fourteen hours.

Founded in December 1995 in Golden, Colorado by Boston Chicken (later Boston Market) as a breakfast-focused sister concept, Einstein Bros. rolled four regional bagel chains (Offerdahl’s of Fort Lauderdale, Bagel & Bagel of Kansas City, Baltimore Bagel of San Diego, and Brackman Brothers of Salt Lake City) into one national operator within its first year. The brand acquired Noah’s New York Bagels in 1996 for one hundred million dollars, filed for bankruptcy in 2000 and was bought out of it by New World Coffee for one hundred ninety million, then was acquired by JAB Holding Company and BDT Capital Partners in 2014 as part of Einstein Noah Restaurant Group. On August 5, 2021, JAB merged the Einstein Noah portfolio with Panera Bread and Caribou Coffee to create Panera Brands, putting Einstein Bros., Panera, Caribou, Noah’s New York Bagels and Manhattan Bagel under one parent. The chain’s headquarters is in Lakewood, Colorado, and its catering footprint covers more than seven hundred US locations across forty-plus states plus several hundred university-campus stores run through the Aramark, Sodexo and Compass Group contract-food channels.

Einstein Bros. menu, pricing and availability vary by location and change over time. Confirm current offerings and live quotes directly with the catering portal at the participating Einstein Bros. nearest your office before ordering.

Einstein Bros.’s Catering Menu

Einstein Bros. structures its catering menu around four formats: Bagels & Shmear for the bagel-centric breakfast table, Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Boxes for hot all-day breakfast, Signature and Classic Lunch Nosh Boxes for the midday slot, and the Lunch For The Group and Breakfast For The Group bundles when the office wants a single-line-item order that scales. Every format ships from the same catering portal at ebcatering.com (the dedicated subdomain that routes orders to the participating store nearest your delivery address), and every Nosh Box arrives as a labeled black catering box that lands on the conference-room table for self-serve grazing.

The four catering formats at a glance

Why the Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box is the workhorse: the box ships two dozen bagels and two Shmears in one carton at a per-guest cost lower than most other national catering tables, the Shmears land in stoneware bowls with serving spoons (the table reads as catering, not a brown-bag drop), and the format scales from twelve to twenty-four guests on one box with no setup other than placing it on the conference-room counter. For an office that runs a recurring Bagel Day program, the Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box is the line item that becomes the standing order.

Bagels & Shmear: The Program at the Center

Einstein Bros.’s bagels-and-Shmear program is the brand’s center of gravity and the part of the catering menu that no peer chain replicates at the same depth. Classic bagels include Plain, Everything, Sesame Seed, Poppy Seed, Cinnamon Raisin, Blueberry, Asiago and Pumpernickel. Gourmet bagels add seasonal and signature varieties (Six Cheese, Honey Whole Wheat, Cinnamon Sugar, Chocolate Chip, Jalapeño) plus the brand’s high-protein Powerbagel line (a multigrain-and-seed bagel with about double the protein of a Classic) and the Thintastic line (a thin scooped bagel with roughly half the calorie and carb load of a Classic). The Bagels & Shmear catering order ships in a Half Dozen, Baker’s Dozen (which is thirteen, not twelve, so the over-the-table guest does not get left out), two-dozen Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box, or three-dozen Shmearfuls Variety Pack.

The Shmear program

Shmear is Einstein Bros.’s spelling for the brand’s flavored cream cheese line, and the catering Shmear roster is the deepest in the national bagel category. The core flavors that ship reliably across most participating stores are Plain Cream Cheese, Reduced-Fat Plain, Honey Almond, Strawberry, Blueberry, Garden Veggie, Onion & Chive, Smoked Salmon, and the seasonal Hot Honey Shmear that anchors the brand’s most recent menu push. Bacon Schmear is the protein-style upgrade where the local store carries it.

How to build a Bagel & Shmear table

Most office orders pair one savory Shmear (Plain plus Garden Veggie or Onion & Chive) with one sweet Shmear (Honey Almond or Strawberry) so the table has range. Add a third Shmear only on events of about forty or more guests; below that, a third Shmear bowl ends up half-empty at end of service. For an executive breakfast, swap one of the savory Shmears for the Smoked Salmon Shmear and pair into the Salmon & Bagels Platter so the deli-style course lands first. For a recurring weekly program, rotate the sweet Shmear (Honey Almond on week one, Strawberry on week two, Blueberry on week three, Hot Honey on week four) so the table reads fresh without changing the base order.

Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Boxes

Einstein Bros.’s Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Box is the hot-breakfast format that distinguishes the brand from peer bagel chains. Every box ships hot egg sandwiches in a half-dozen or full dozen, the box’s heat-retaining inner sleeve holds working temperature for roughly a half-hour after drop, and the box is labeled with the sandwich variety so the gluten-free or vegetarian guest can read the right box without rummaging. Three tiers ship across catering: Classic, Signature, and Thintastic.

How to pair the Egg Sandwich Nosh Box with the bagel table: on an event of about twenty guests, pair one Classic Egg Sandwich Nosh Box (dozen) with one Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box (two dozen) and a Group Fruit Salad so every guest can take a hot sandwich or a bagel-and-Shmear or both. On an executive breakfast for thirty, run the Signature tier instead of the Classic and add the Salmon & Bagels Platter as the hero course. For more on the morning-meeting catering structure (timing, headcount math, the breakfast-vs-lunch trade), see our boxed breakfast catering guide and our how to plan breakfast catering for your office playbook.

Signature & Classic Lunch Nosh Boxes

Einstein Bros. extends the Nosh Box format into the midday slot with two tiers: the Classic Lunch Nosh Box (lunch sandwiches halved) and the Signature Lunch Nosh Box (the same sandwiches plus a Big Green Salad sampler with five sandwiches in the half box and ten in the full box). Every lunch sandwich is built on the bagel, the Thintastic bagel, or the Ciabatta-style bread the catering kitchen carries; the lineup covers Tasty Turkey, Green Chili Club, Nova Lox, Albacore Tuna Salad, Hummus Veg Out, Harvest Chicken Salad, Turkey & Cheddar, Ham & Swiss, and the Thintastic Chicken Pesto.

The Big Green Salad sampler that ships inside the Signature Lunch Nosh Box rotates by season; it lands as a Seasonal Almond Salad or a Seasonal Chicken Salad in roughly equal frequency depending on the participating store. For a working lunch where the team wants a side instead of a salad, swap to the Classic tier and add a separate Potato Salad For The Group or a Group Fruit Salad. For more on per-person boxed lunches versus shared trays at the lunch table, see our boxed lunch vs. buffet guide and the cluster posts on boxed lunches for hybrid and distributed teams, boxed lunch catering for conferences and all-day training, allergy-safe individually packaged boxed lunches, and the boxed-vs-buffet-vs-family-style decision guide.

Salmon & Bagels Platter & the Deli Upgrade

The Salmon & Bagels Platter is Einstein Bros.’s deli-style upgrade, the single catering line item that turns a Bagel & Shmear table into an executive breakfast. The platter ships a baker’s dozen of bagels with sliced Nova smoked salmon, sliced cucumber, sliced red onion, sliced tomato, capers and a side of plain Shmear; it serves about thirteen guests as a full platter and reads as the deli-counter spread you would otherwise have to source from a New York-style deli. The platter is available at every participating Einstein Bros. that carries the Salmon & Bagels offering (most stores, though Salmon availability varies by region; confirm with the local catering team before planning a menu around it).

How to use the Salmon & Bagels Platter in an office event

On a board-meeting breakfast for fifteen to twenty guests, the Salmon & Bagels Platter is the hero course; pair it with a Half Dozen Gourmet Bagels & Shmear (for the non-salmon eater) and a Group Fruit Salad. On an all-hands for sixty guests, run two Salmon & Bagels Platters at the front of the table, a Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box flanking each side, and a Signature Egg Sandwich Nosh Box at the back. The Hot Honey Nova Lox is a seasonal sandwich-format alternate when the Salmon & Bagels Platter is not available at the local store; it ships through the Signature Egg Sandwich Nosh Box and brings the same Nova lox plus the Hot Honey Shmear on an Asiago bagel. For more on the executive-breakfast format and the morning-meeting case for protein-forward courses, see our board meeting catering guide.

Sweets, Fruit, Yogurt & Sides

Einstein Bros. ships the sweet, fruit and side categories as their own Nosh Boxes and Group bundles. The Sweets Nosh Box (baker’s dozen or half dozen) rotates the brand’s bake-case pastries: Chocolate Hazelnut Pastries, Chewy Marshmallow Bars, the Mixed Cookie & Pastry box, and the Cookie Variety Box. The Mixed Bagels & Sweets Nosh Box pairs roughly half bagels and half pastries in one twenty-one-piece box; the Bagels & Muffins Nosh Box does the same with muffins.

For the snack-leaning afternoon meeting or the kids-in-the-office day, the Cinnamon Sugar Bagel Poppers Snack Pack at forty-eight pieces is the right line item; the Bagel Poppers ship in a clear-top kraft snack box and do not need to be plated. For a lunch program where the team wants a real side instead of just chips, the Potato Salad For The Group at the lunch table runs about the same per-guest cost as a chips ten-pack and reads more polished.

Coffee, Iced Tea & Beverages

Einstein Bros. catering ships beverages in two formats: Group (a gallon dispenser, served on the table with cups and stir sticks) and Individual Bottled (single-serve bottles and cans, dropped in a separate beverage bin). The brand’s coffee program is built around its house Darn Good Coffee blend, served fresh-brewed in a Coffee For The Group gallon at most participating stores; iced tea, lemonade and orange juice ship in the same gallon format.

For a morning meeting under twenty-five guests, one Coffee For The Group gallon plus one Orange Juice For The Group gallon covers the table. Above twenty-five, add a second Coffee gallon (Darn Good runs through a breakfast table fast). For a lunch program above twenty-five guests, run one Iced Tea For The Group and one Lemonade For The Group rather than doubling either; the variety reads better at the table than a single flavor doubled. Individual Bottled is the right call only when the office wants pre-sealed beverages (allergen-sensitive groups, off-site events with no refill rotation).

Gluten-Friendly, Vegetarian & Dietary Considerations

Einstein Bros. does not publish a gluten-free catering menu (bagels are the brand’s core product; a gluten-free bagel does not ship through catering). For a mixed-dietary office, the path is to pair the bagel program with a gluten-free hedge so the gluten-sensitive guest has at least three plates to assemble: a Group Fruit Salad (gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan), a Greek Yogurt Parfait six-pack (gluten-free, vegetarian; vegan only with a coconut-yogurt swap that the catering team cannot always make), and a Salmon & Bagels Platter with the salmon eaten outside the bagel.

For the office with stacked dietary patterns (tech offices and law firms often run six or seven distinct dietary stacks across a 100-person headcount), the Einstein Bros. table works best as a base layer rather than the only catering line of the day. Pair the Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box with a Mediterranean spread from a Zerocater partner (mezze plates, falafel, tabbouleh) so the gluten-sensitive, vegan and halal-eating guests have a parallel table. For a deeper walk through the dietary-stacking problem, see our guide to ordering catering for mixed dietary needs, our gluten-free office catering guide, and our allergy-safe individually packaged catering guide.

How to Order Einstein Bros. Catering

Catering orders go through ebcatering.com, the brand’s dedicated catering portal that routes orders to the participating Einstein Bros. store nearest your delivery address. The portal is purpose-built for catering, not the standard restaurant ordering app; it carries every catering format, lets you save addresses and recurring orders, and runs invoiced billing for offices that want monthly statements rather than per-event card charges. ezCater and DoorDash for Business carry the Einstein Bros. catering menu in most markets and are the right path when the office buyer needs the spend on an existing catering platform.

How to place an order, step by step

1. Go to ebcatering.com. Enter your delivery address; the portal pulls the participating store nearest you and confirms the menu carried at that store. Salmon & Bagels Platter availability is the most location-specific line item; the bagel and Shmear program ship from every store.
2. Pick the format. Start with the Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box for a breakfast table, the Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Box for hot breakfast, the Signature or Classic Lunch Nosh Box for the midday slot, or the Lunch For The Group / Breakfast For The Group bundle for a single-line-item order.
3. Add the Shmears. Pair one savory (Plain plus Garden Veggie or Onion & Chive) with one sweet (Honey Almond or Strawberry) for a breakfast table. Add a third Shmear only on events of forty or more.
4. Add fruit, sweets and a beverage. Group Fruit Salad and a Coffee For The Group gallon are the morning-meeting universals. For lunch, Iced Tea or Lemonade For The Group plus chips and a Sweets Nosh Box for dessert.
5. Set the delivery time. Use the 3pm next-day rule: orders placed before 3pm local time are eligible for pickup or delivery starting at 7:30am the next morning at most participating locations. Anything later rolls another day.
6. Confirm and pay. Most stores accept invoiced billing for repeat business; one-off orders charge to a saved card. Cancellations are accepted until 4pm the day before in the order’s local time zone.

For an office manager running a recurring program (weekly Bagel Day, monthly all-hands breakfast, quarterly client breakfast), saving the order template inside ebcatering.com is the fastest path to standardization; the same template ships every week with a one-click reorder. For the deeper office-manager playbook on standardizing recurring catering orders, see our office manager’s guide to ordering catering.

Delivery, Pickup & Lead Times

Einstein Bros. catering runs the same delivery-and-pickup operating windows at every participating store, with one universal rule that anchors the system: the 3pm next-day cutoff. Orders placed before 3pm local time are eligible for pickup or delivery starting at 7:30am the next morning; orders placed after 3pm roll to the day after.

The 3pm rule is the system’s hard edge: an office that decides on Tuesday night to order Wednesday breakfast is past the window. For an office that runs a Wednesday standard, place the standing order on Friday or Monday at the latest; if the team adds a few guests on Tuesday, the Add-on Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich is the line item that absorbs the late RSVP.

Pros and Cons of Einstein Bros. Catering

What Customers Say

Who Is Einstein Bros. Catering Best For?

Einstein Bros. vs. Panera, Bruegger’s & Noah’s Bagels

Einstein Bros. sits at the top of the national bagel-catering tier, with the largest footprint and the deepest Shmear program. The relevant peers are its sibling brands under Panera Brands (Panera Bread, Noah’s New York Bagels, Manhattan Bagel) and the independent Bruegger’s Bagels.

For an office buyer choosing between Einstein Bros. and Panera, the rule is the menu: pick Einstein when the brief is bagel-and-Shmear-centric (the Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box and the Salmon & Bagels Platter have no equivalent at Panera), and pick Panera when the brief is broader bakery-plus-lunch (You Pick Two, soup-salad-sandwich, the MyPanera business loyalty discount). Both ship through the Panera Brands portfolio, so an office that runs a hybrid program (bagel breakfast Wednesday, Panera lunch Thursday) keeps the spend under one parent. For the deeper Panera-side comparison, see our Panera catering guide and our Panera catering alternatives roundup. For the sandwich-chain peer comparison, see our guides to Subway catering, Jersey Mike’s catering, and the Jason’s Deli catering guide; for the steakhouse peer in the Wave 3 sibling slot, see our Outback Steakhouse catering guide.

A Better Option for Office Catering

Einstein Bros. is the right call for the recurring Bagel Day, the morning meeting under thirty, and the bagel-centric all-hands. For everything else (a lunch program where the team is bored of bagels, an executive breakfast where the brief is “best bagel in the city” rather than “national consistency”, an all-hands where the dietary stack runs across five or six patterns), the office buyer needs a wider catering bench than a single national bagel chain can deliver.

Zerocater’s catering platform pulls from more than one thousand local restaurants and partner caterers across twelve metros (San Francisco, New York, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Philadelphia). The bench includes local New York-style bagel-and-lox specialists (Murray’s Bagels in NYC, Bagel Daddy in San Francisco, Holy Bagel in Chicago) plus the broader breakfast roster (real Italian pastries, Korean breakfast bowls, Mediterranean mezze breakfast spreads) and the full lunch and dinner program (Mediterranean, Mexican, Indian, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, barbecue, plus Zerocater-exclusive vendor partners). CaterAi, Zerocater’s AI menu-planning tool, builds a catering plan from your guest count, dietary mix and budget, and ships the order through the same vendor-network operating model that Einstein Bros. uses at the single-brand level.

For an office that wants the bagel program one week and a Mediterranean mezze breakfast the next, the Zerocater bench delivers both through one ordering platform. For more on how the Zerocater model compares to single-chain catering across recurring office programs, see our office manager’s guide to ordering catering.

Build Your Catering Menu with CaterAi →

Which Einstein Bros. Order for How Many People?

The most-asked question on every brand-catering page is “what should I actually order for X guests?” Here is the cheat sheet for the most-ordered Einstein Bros. catering combinations by headcount band.

For an office in a specific metro, layer in the local context: a New York or Boston event can pair the Salmon & Bagels Platter with a local deli’s hand-sliced lox; a Chicago or Denver event can lean into the Powerbagel for the post-workout crowd; a Los Angeles or Austin event can run the Thintastic line as the lower-carb default for the macro-conscious office. For city-specific catering picks beyond Einstein Bros., see our listicles for the 15 best New York catering companies, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Seattle, Philadelphia, and the Boston catering scene. For cost benchmarks by metro, see our cost guides for Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. For events that pair Einstein Bros. with a broader catering program, see our holiday party catering planning guide and our company picnic and outdoor catering guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Einstein Bros. catering priced?

By format and serving count. Bagels & Shmear orders price by the Half Dozen, Baker’s Dozen and the two-dozen Shmearfuls and Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box, with Gourmet variants running higher than Classic. Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Boxes price by the dozen or half-dozen across Classic, Signature and Thintastic tiers. Signature and Classic Lunch Nosh Boxes price by the ten-piece or five-piece box. Individual lunch boxes and breakfast boxes price per box. Beverages, sides, sweets and fruit price by the gallon, tray, dozen or Nosh Box.

What is the lead time?

3pm next-day cutoff. Orders placed before 3pm local time are eligible for pickup or delivery starting at 7:30am the next morning at most participating locations. Orders placed after 3pm roll to the day after. Cancellations are accepted until 4pm the day before the order in the order’s local time zone.

What is the minimum order?

Smallest catering serving size is a Half Dozen (six) bagels or Half-Dozen Nosh Box (six egg sandwiches). Practical group ordering starts at a Baker’s Dozen or a five-piece Lunch Nosh Box. Delivery subtotal minimum is typically around fifty to one hundred dollars depending on market.

What is a Nosh Box?

Nosh Box is Einstein Bros.’s name for its boxed catering format. The Bagels & Shmear Nosh Box is a two-dozen bagel box with two Shmears. The Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Box ships hot egg sandwiches in a half-dozen or dozen quantity. The Signature and Classic Lunch Nosh Box ships five or ten lunch sandwiches halved. Every Nosh Box arrives as a labeled black catering box that lands on the conference-room table.

What Shmear flavors does Einstein Bros. offer?

Core rotation: Plain, Reduced-Fat Plain, Honey Almond, Strawberry, Blueberry, Garden Veggie, Onion & Chive, Smoked Salmon, and seasonal Hot Honey. Bacon Schmear is the protein-style upgrade where available. Most catering tables pair one savory and one sweet; add a third only on events of forty or more.

Does Einstein Bros. have gluten-free options?

No gluten-free catering bagel ships through the menu. For gluten-sensitive guests, build a parallel plate: Group Fruit Salad, Greek Yogurt Parfait 6-pack, Salmon & Bagels Platter (salmon eaten without the bagel), kettle chips, and sealed beverages. The Thintastic line is lower-carb but is not gluten-free.

How does Einstein Bros. compare to Panera, Bruegger’s and Noah’s Bagels?

Einstein and Panera are sibling brands under Panera Brands (JAB Holding portfolio, merged August 2021). Einstein wins on bagel-and-Shmear specialization and a lower per-guest check on the bagel table. Bruegger’s is the regional Northeast competitor with about two hundred locations. Noah’s New York Bagels is a West Coast sibling under the same Panera Brands parent.

What makes Einstein Bros. a good fit for office catering?

The Bagel & Shmear Nosh Box scales cleanly from six guests to dozens, the Shmear program is the most varied of any national bagel chain, the Fresh-Cracked Egg Sandwich Nosh Box ships hot breakfast sandwiches at all-day windows, and the Salmon & Bagels Platter doubles as the executive-breakfast hero course. With more than seven hundred US locations, an Einstein Bros. is in driving distance of most office buildings outside the smallest markets.

Where can I order Einstein Bros. catering?

Orders go through ebcatering.com, which routes to the participating store nearest your delivery address. ezCater and DoorDash for Business carry the menu in most markets. University campuses with Einstein Bros. concessions use the relevant campus dining ordering portal.

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