Jarrett vs. Town Hall: Feud May Cost West Orange Bagel Baron Big Bucks

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The dude can cook. There is little debate about this, even from Jarrett Seltzer’s detractors.

Since opening his eponymously named Bagels By Jarrett in West Orange (also known as BXJ), Seltzer has hammered out a reputation as one of the town’s up-and-coming food gurus. Like concertgoers waiting to get tickets for their favorite band’s next show, his customers have been known to hold stakeouts at the restaurant with a Deadhead-like fervor – all to get a taste of his latest bagel spread or one of his artisanal pizzas.

But over the past year, the New Jersey resident and small business owner has been feeling the heat outside of the kitchen as he battles with the township over code issues. According to Seltzer, he may be on the hook for as much as $1,500 per day due to citations involving BXJ, which operates out of two adjacent properties on Mount Pleasant Avenue.

At first glance, the controversy appears to revolve around an innocuous issue: window coverings. Town officials allege that Bagels By Jarrett isn’t using them properly; Seltzer says they’re nuts.

With a court date of Aug. 22 looming in the future, the clock is ticking down on a case that has captured the attention of many residents, foodies and restaurateurs on social media.

Here’s what you need to know about Jarrett vs. the Town of West Orange.

BIRTH OF A BAGEL BARON

Seltzer didn’t always dream of becoming a bagel baron. At the turn of the millennium, he made a living rocking out as the bassist for punk rock group Houston Calls, which recently reunited for what may be their “last show together ever” at the Four Chord Music Festival.

After the band broke up, Seltzer worked as a director/producer for video content. He got his start in the commercial world and ended up doing training content for major corporations, including Best Buy, LG and Intel.

However, life has a way of branching off in unexpected directions, and in 2020 – right in the heart of the coronavirus pandemic – Seltzer found himself holding a grand opening for his new “boutique bagelry” at 451 Mount Pleasant Avenue.

The launch of Seltzer’s brick-and-mortar base of operations was a godsend to his uber-devoted customer base. Prior to the grand opening, the restauranteur took an experimental approach to marketing, holding spontaneous giveaway events and popup appearances throughout the West Orange and Livingston area. It often meant that people would find themselves glued to social media, waiting for Seltzer’s next announcement about a new batch of bagels available for purchase.

• See Related: Bagel Baron Teases West Orange With Long-Awaited Restaurant

Since then, Seltzer has moved way beyond bagels. The menu at Bagels By Jarrett now includes items like chicken salad, tacos, burgers, turkey clubs, grilled cheese, fried chicken, “cereal donuts” and a variety of pizzas – which are offered for breakfast. It also features items that showcase the chef’s quirky sense of humor, such as “The Lawsuit” (a bagel with fried chicken, mayo and lettuce), “Chicken Up In Da Club” (a bagel with bacon and chive spread, chicken salad and tomato), and “The nuggets you may have had at another establishment but this is a better nugget” (with your choice of sauces).

Recently, Seltzer invested in a pasta extruder, something he’s been craving to add to his repertoire for a year. It’s been difficult to justify the purchase price – until pasta became the shop’s biggest grossing category for both June and July.

Making tough choices like that have become the norm for Seltzer, who like any other small business owner, has weathered a minefield of challenges and market forces – not to mention his own learning curve – on his way to success.

Part of that was learning to completely shift his business model overnight due to the pandemic, Seltzer says. And he isn’t alone: it’s something all of his restaurant peers in West Orange had to cope with.

• See Related: West Orange Restaurant Closes, Cites 'Force Majeure'
• See Related: Restaurant In The Oranges Is Pandemic Victim: 'We Can't Make Plans'

“Flipping a business overnight isn’t easy and I’m super impressed with how everyone has taken what’s thrown at them and come out on top with it,” he wrote on a social media post in April 2020.

For Seltzer, it meant turning his bagel shop into a “curbside only” model.

“Who would have ever thought that I’d build this beautiful bagel shop with walnut counters and $500 light fixtures only to go curbside three weeks in – certainly not me,” he wrote in a May 2021 post, which foretold of an expansion yet to come.

“Over the past year this shop has grown to a level that I absolutely expected but didn’t plan well for,” Seltzer wrote. “The long story short is that we no longer have room for customers inside the shop. Where you used to stand has more refrigeration and is essentially a pantry.”

“I miss seeing people and I miss the vibe, but I’m out of space,” he said.

The curbside model is something that Bagels By Jarrett still abides by to this day. According to the BXJ website:

“We miss your faces but curbside works for us. Order ahead or order when you arrive. It’s up to you :) When you pull up, we come right to your car, no need to call or attempt to come in (we yell at anyone who walks in because it says do not enter on our door and we encourage reading).”

Now that the pandemic has receded, the challenges have morphed into different forms. The Bagels By Jarrett team has also struggled with other headaches common to small businesses, including staffing.

“We’re too thin on crew and not willing to risk the customer experience,” Seltzer reported when he was forced to shut down for the day in June 2022.

Inflation has also caused its share of headaches at the shop, although Seltzer has lowered his prices with the ebb and tide, when possible. Read More: West Orange Restaurant Says Some Of Its Prices Are Going … Down?

Seltzer chronicled some of the other roadblocks he’s faced at Bagels By Jarrett in an April 2022 post in a West Orange community Facebook group. “I wanted to share what I’ve dealt with so far this week as a restaurant owner,” he wrote, sharing the following list of workplace woes:

• “My walk-in was leaking water on Tuesday and I spent over $500 to fix it.”
• “There’s a cream cheese shortage and my only connection to get cream cheese this week was to pay over $3 more per pound. I didn’t move my price so this week I’m losing money on the cream cheese containers that I’m selling.”
• “One if my potential new cooks was offered a job paying cash under the table so I’m back to interviewing and searching for someone.”
• “I can’t get hot coffee cups from my distributor for the past two weeks and if I don’t get any by the weekend, I won’t be able to sell coffee to my customers.”
• “Lettuce cost $40 extra per case this week. I go through five cases a week so that’s $200 lost in just one week.”

There have been moments of success, too, Seltzer says.

“When we started it would take us 34 minutes to run 450 bagels on our dough former; it now takes us seven minutes,” he noted in 2021, as the shop celebrated its first anniversary.

“We've sold enough bagels that if you put them all side by side, they would span the entire length of route 280 (and more),” Seltzer proudly announced.

• See Related: West Orange Bagel Shop Celebrates Strange (But Successful) Year

EXPANDING THE EMPIRE

But the latest hurdle that Seltzer finds himself trying to leap is something much different, he reports.

In October 2021, Seltzer announced that he’d decided to expand his growing empire to a second property in the same building at 457 Mount Pleasant Avenue. The buildout – which included pizza ovens – was expected to start in early 2022.

That’s when his relationship with the township stated to take a nosedive, he says.

Seltzer said that when he first opened, he asked a local zoning officer if Bagels By Jarrett could put a frozen “reefer trailer” outside for a few months while they figured out space issues.

“She responded that we could not,” Seltzer said. “I asked her why and she said, ‘Because no one’s ever done that before,’ to which I said, ‘Well that’s not a reason why it can’t be done.’”

In November 2022, Seltzer posted a message about an encounter he had with the same code enforcement official as he was trying to collect donations of turkeys for a holiday food drive. He shared a video of the encounter on social media two days later.

“Before BXJ and COVID, I was very involved with our local food pantry,” he wrote. “Once both hit, I had to back down in order to keep the shop running and my employees employed. If you follow the shop, then you know I was doing my ‘fill the pod’ event, which was where I personally paid to rent a pod to fill with goods to donate to the food pantry. The first year, we literally filled the whole thing, which had to be $20,000 dollars-worth of food.”

“However, the town of West Orange’s zoning department complained that I had a pod in our parking lot that was out of the way and approved by my landlord,” Seltzer continued. “I was looking to do the pod again this year, however, currently during our expansion, I’m yet again being harassed by the same department about my window shades. It’s super-sad that it has come to this and I can’t comfortably help feed those in need.”

• See Related: West Orange Bagel Baron Collects 100 Turkeys For Food Pantry

Meanwhile, the approval process for the Bagels By Jarrett expansion dragged on in West Orange. After applying for a certificate of occupancy, 46 days passed before the must-have document was in Seltzer’s hands. Over those frustrating weeks, the town refused to answer in writing why it was delayed, he said.

“While phase one of the expansion build out is now complete, I have to pause on phase two,” Seltzer told Patch on Wednesday.

WINDOWGATE

The heat ramped up again this summer, when the town served Seltzer with a citation for a code violation in mid-July, with a court date of July 27 if he wanted to contest it.

The town code that Seltzer allegedly broke, Section 14-8.2 (b) – Appearance of Exterior of Premises and Structures, reads as follows:

“All windows shall be left uncovered and shall not be opaque to the public view. All windows exposed to public view shall be kept clean and free of marks or foreign substances. No stock or inventory shall be permitted in the window display area. All screening of interiors shall be maintained clean and in a good state of repair. Under extraordinary circumstances and with the advance written permission of the Director of the Planning Department certain areas of the window may be screened from the public view.”

The violation carries a potential penalty of 90 days in jail. It also has a fine that runs to $1,250 … for each day that Bagels By Jarrett remains in non-compliance.

It’s a hefty price that Seltzer bashed in a Facebook post:

“$1,250/day fines from our town for having window shades. Yes, per day. Yes, for window screenings. The same shades that Dance Warriors left when I took over the space ... the shades that help keep my electric bill down. The shades that provide privacy from criminals. The shades that block commercial equipment, which you have to by code. The same shades that block the sun and headlights from shining in. Has everyone else in town today with window shades been sent a summons? Did Starbucks get theirs? Petco? Panera? [TGI] Fridays? Yes, that’s all just one strip … I’m willing to guess they didn’t get same letter and violation I got today.”

Seltzer elaborated on the citation, which was made out to him personally and not to Bagels By Jarrett:

“The use of ‘not opaque’ can honestly be a little confusing. The mayor even had a note on her paper when she came to my shop (and with fair reason) because it’s silly wording. ‘Not opaque’ basically means that light has to be able to pass through the window. My windows are clear, not covered, and can be seen through. My windows pass that portion of the code. That’s the only portion of the code that was put on the violation.”

Ironically, the prior tenants who occupied 451 and 457 Mt. Pleasant Avenue before Bagels By Jarrett were the ones who left the window treatments in place when Seltzer and company first moved in, he says.

“My landlord has owned the complex for nearly 30 years and said he’s never been cited for window treatments,” he told Patch.

On July 27, Seltzer attended his first court appearance on the matter, asking the online community to pack the benches in a show of support. While it was somewhat anti-climactic – the hearing was adjourned until Aug. 22 – an important point was made, he said.

“The judge did comment that it was the most people she’s seen in her courtroom since before COVID,” Seltzer said, thanking West Orange Town Council members Bill Rutherford and Asmeret Ghebremicael for attending the hearing.

On Aug. 2, Seltzer got another citation for violating Section 14-8.2 (b). This time, it was made out to Bagels By Jarrett (c/o “Jarrett Seltzer”), and came with a letter containing a warning about a $1,500 fine.

It also included another section of the code that he was allegedly flaunting: “No more than 33 and 1/3 percent of the square footage of any single window shall be devoted to signs.”

“We had to do that to block the back of commercial equipment,” he explained to Patch. “Keep in mind, all of this equipment was on our plans which were approved by the zoning official before we got our permits for both the original side and the expansion side.”

“The code mentions ‘screenings of all interiors must be clean and maintained,’ which means you can have window treatments,” he said. “How on Earth has the town allowed a zoning official to pursue this?”

As the potential court costs add up, Seltzer said he’s leaking money in an attempt to comply with the town code and stave off more fines.

“My electric bill was [over] $3,000 this month for BXJ with my shades up to comply with their selective enforcement, even though there’s no code against having window treatments,” he wrote in an Aug. 8 social media post.

“This is a serious charge with serious consequences – this isn’t a joke,” he underscored.

Some of Seltzer’s appeal to the public has taken place on the social media pages for his business, or his own personal pages. But much of the battle for the heart and mind of West Orange has been waged on multiple Facebook groups that cover the township – West Orange 411, West Orange 07052 and West Orange: Matters.Engagement.News. – where his story has gained a sort of meta-status, overtly referenced in unrelated posts and comment sections.

“Can anyone tell us what happened at the planning board meeting last night about the Target application?” a member of West Orange 411 inquired in a July post. See Related: Target In West Orange? Renovations Proposed At Shopping Center

“Will there be window shades?” someone joked.

“Oops, you mentioned ‘shades’ … that will be $12.50 please,” another person quipped.

If the number of interactions on his Facebook and Instagram posts are any sign, the same digital savvy that Seltzer puts to work for Bagels By Jarrett is serving him well as he jockeys for the public’s attention.

“I think the community is pissed off for multiple reasons, but I think the biggest one is that they were all part of me creating BXJ,” Seltzer said, when asked to comment on the feeding frenzy that often accompanies his posts.

“I gave away bagels for nearly three years from home,” he continued. “They watched this go from a guy on Facebook giving away these mystery bagels, to taking over the entire building –and they were part of that. We were a big part of the pandemic for people as well … the messages we got about how we helped get people through it were astounding and inspirational.”

Seltzer has also been reaching out to the mayor’s office – albeit with much less success, he says.

In May, he asked his neighbors to accompany him to one of Mayor Susan McCartney’s “open office hour” events, which she hosts at town hall.

“West Orange has continued to refuse to issue me my well-earned certificate of occupancy for my expansion,” he posted on Instagram prior to the meeting. “I did everything I was told to do, [passed] all my inspections, and still nothing. The mayor has not responded to my emails, so the best I can do is show up for the open hours, when I should honestly be home with my family spending the little time I get.”

MAYOR: ‘I THINK IT’S UNFAIR’

However, according to McCartney, she and the township have been trying hard to work with Seltzer to reach an amicable resolution to the standoff. That includes making some exceptions to the rules on his behalf, she recently told Patch.

“My understanding is that he has been out of compliance covering his windows 100 percent since November of 2022,” McCartney said. “That's when this all started.”

According to McCartney:

“I always felt that it might not be spelled out in the ordinance, but to have the windows closed 100 percent of the time, it's not safe for anyone driving by, or even for the employees or people inside. And our ordinance reads that the windows have to be two-thirds open … There's a special resin film that was put on one of the windows – so we allowed that one to stay 100 percent closed … He wanted his front doors covered – because he only has curbside pickup orders, no one comes into the shop – we allowed those to stay closed. And there was one other window that had some type of banner on it. So there were three out of eight windows that we allowed to stay 100 percent covered.”

The mayor said she remembered Seltzer’s visit to her office in May, including his claims that there are other businesses in town that also have covered windows.

“I do know from speaking with the zoning officers that some of them have variances … especially on the Main Street corridor,” McCartney said.

However, there have been other business owners who have been advised they have too many signs in their windows, she added.

“It’s a constant struggle,” she said.

McCartney said that after meeting Seltzer during her open office hours, she decided to make a visit to Bagels By Jarrett to learn more about the situation.

“I took pictures, I went back and spoke to the zoning officer, and there were exceptions that were made,” McCartney said.

The mayor continued:

“And while we were standing there – like I said it was a Friday afternoon, and his shop faces the west – as the sun was starting to set, it was really glaring. And it is difficult coming up Northfield or Mount Pleasant when the sun is setting, if you're familiar with that – I am. And so I told him that in this agreement, that they could stay closed while the sun was setting if they were working inside. If he would comply with that, we would issue his certificate of occupancy. And if he didn't, then he would get issued a summons.”

“That was in May,” McCartney said. “Even when we had the Canadian wildfires and we hadn't seen the sun in five days, the blinds were never opened. And only recently have they been open. So that was why he received the last summons.”

“I think it's unfair that he is saying that the town hasn’t worked with him, because we've actually made exceptions to the municipal code for him in this case,” she added. “I don't know why it's escalated this much.”

McCartney said that she’s seen social media posts about the situation, and that people may “tend to lean towards feeling sorry” for Seltzer.

“There's no reason why you can't open the blinds,” she said. “And I know it sounds so trivial. It really does. And I guess that's part of his power play, to make it seem like it's so trivial. And yet we're making such a big deal about it.”

“I think that in all fairness, we did try to work with him,” McCartney concluded, adding that the perception that the town is “targeting” Seltzer isn’t accurate.

“That's the kind of stuff that doesn't come out,” she said.

THE BATTLE TO COME

Despite McCartney’s assurances, Seltzer insists that there’s nothing “fair” about the way he’s being treated. And slapping him with an additional citation earlier this month was the straw that broke the camel’s back, he says.

“We don’t believe we are out of compliance,” Seltzer said. “We had an agreement at the first court date to work together to come to an agreement in good faith. The zoning official then decided to send an additional violation to us, as well as our landlord.”

“We didn’t find any of that to be in good faith,” he said.

For now, a showdown between Seltzer and the Township of West Orange seems inevitable. He is scheduled to appear in municipal court on Aug. 22 for a hearing – but it may be just the first step in a longer legal brouhaha to come.

The former punk rocker has lawyered up in the meanwhile, and he’s digging in for a protracted battle, he told Patch.

“If we lose in municipal court, we will appeal until it all gets thrown out,” Seltzer said.

The Bagels By Jarrett case isn’t happening in a vacuum, Seltzer has pointed out – there are larger issues at play. For example, he’ll likely be facing prosecution from Richard Trenk, the township attorney who is embroiled in a fiery legal controversy surrounding his own role with West Orange. See Related: West Orange Mayor Sues Town Council; Trenk Saga Continues

In a July 24 social media post, Seltzer also raised questions about the salaries for the town’s zoning officers, especially in the face of a proposed municipal tax hike that has been raising an outcry among local homeowners. See Related: Potential 16% Tax Hike In West Orange Chopped Down – But Is It Enough?

It’s worth noting that things weren’t always like this between Seltzer and the township.

In February 2020, as he prepared to open the doors of Bagels By Jarrett for the first time, Seltzer shared a photo of four key approval certificates – electrical, building, fire protection and plumbing – along with a “serious thank you” to town administrators for “being great to deal with during this entire buildout.”

“I’ve heard horror stories (from other towns) and honestly, West Orange was truly looking out for my best interests,” he wrote online.

But according to Seltzer, his message from 2020 was made at a simpler time, when he was still flying under the radar of zoning officials.

“That was a shoutout to those departments for being reasonable to work with,” he told Patch. “Zoning wasn’t part of that.”

It isn’t the first time Jarrett has raged against the machine. According to the restauranteur, he’s gotten into David and Goliath-style scraps in the past – and come out on top.

“In 2012, I lost my entire home in a fire,” he recalled. “I had renter’s insurance and Geico was being a pain about paying up. I was fighting with Geico for months and then got a letter from Verizon that they sent me to collections for the old cable boxes and router. I had asked them multiple times to send me an itemized bill so I could submit it to Geico, but they never did.”

“That night I made a video, posted it on YouTube and that hit #1 on Reddit overnight,” Seltzer said (watch it here).

“Verizon expunged the debt a few days later, and two weeks later, Geico settled our entire policy,” he said.

Although his arm-wrestling match with the township is weighing heavy on him these days, Seltzer is still trying to make a difference in his community … and have fun while doing so.

In April, a Facebook user reported that Seltzer donated food for a meal train to feed a neighbor who lost a child in a car accident. Two months later, Seltzer showed up at the town’s highly attended LGBTQ Pride event – bringing a huge stack of free pizzas along with him.

The Essex County chef is also helping to build a network of like-minded restauranters in the area – an underground cooks’ circle, if you will.

“Every month or two a bunch of us pizza and food guys get together for a food hangout,” he previously told Patch. “We make tons of pizzas (mainly) and other food and just share stories, talk as friends and give advice.”

Meanwhile, BXJ continues to make a name for itself among local foodies, recently emerging at the top of a “Jersey Choice Restaurant Poll” for its mouthwatering bagels.

Still, it would all be a lot sweeter if Seltzer didn’t have this dark cloud hanging over him, he acknowledges. It’s all taking a toll – and cutting into his profits.

At least one person has asked if West Orange’s bagel baron might be better off doing what most other business owners would have done months ago: bite the bullet and do what the town says.

When Seltzer posed an eyebrow-raising question on Tuesday – asking “Anyone want to buy a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen?” – it set off another frenzy of comments on social media, almost all of them in his favor.

But one commenter had a different response:

“If I were your lawyer, I would advise you to take down the shades and signs and get yourself 100% in compliance with the town's ordinances. I would ask that a town official put in writing what you need to do and that once those things are done, that's the end of it. I would then work through the town council and other administrative bodies to either change the ordinances or get waivers/permits for the shades and signs. That is the most effective way to solve this issue … Fighting till your last breath sounds romantic and principled, but in practice it's a bad move personally and for the business.”

The commenter added that they have admiration and respect for what Seltzer has accomplished, and that “this town has enough problems – and Jarrett isn't one of them.”

When Patch probed Seltzer on this topic, asking him – “What’s driving you on?” – his answer revealed a glimpse of his punk-rock past … the bass player who once partied on the road as a touring musician … the dude who once took on Geico and Verizon when his home burned down.

“I’m the first guy to choose happiness over being right,” he said. “I learned that lesson about 10 years ago.”

“Ever since the zoning official showed up at my business and yelled at me on camera, it’s been nonstop issues with the town that have impacted me both financially and mentally,” Seltzer said. “I don’t want to worry about this daily, I want to worry about making the best food – but they’ve put me in a position that I can’t sit back and just take.”

“They’ve put me through way too much hell for me to just bow down to their nonsense,” he added.

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