Hole in one

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2020 (2185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven months ago, Phil Klein was on the verge of achieving his dream: opening a Montreal-style bagel shop in downtown Winnipeg.

The city’s core, made up of hundreds of offices with workers trying to stuff their faces as efficiently as possible, was the perfect entry point for such a pursuit.

“There is really a hunger for bagels,” Klein said of his concept, which focuses on the thinner, chewier type of bagel made with eggs, hand-rolled and boiled in honey water.

“Downtown, time is of the essence,” he said in January, as his Bagelsmith shop was finalizing its lease and nearing a pop-up shop opportunity.

On March 1, the pop-up came, and in two hours, Klein, a former government employee who tossed that career aside to pursue his passion for poppy seeds, sold 2,000 bagels.

A few days later, the coronavirus, then still-novel, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and Bagelsmith’s plans hit a snag: opening would be pushed back, and now, the restaurant had a fan-base it needed to feed. “So we had to pivot,” Klein said.

The shop moved online, offering home delivery, and the response continued to be overwhelming. The first four weeks of online sales saw the entire bagel stock — poppy seed, everything, plain and the ever-popular sesame — selling out in less than one minute each time.

Working out of a small catering kitchen, Klein had to scale up, so the operations were moved to the suddenly idle kitchen at the Holiday Inn Express on Ellice Avenue, in a deal that was mutually beneficial to the owners, who were struggling with decimated reservations and banquet-hall rentals. Since May, without even “opening,” Bagelsmith has sold more than 100,000 bagels online and in stores such as Piazza de Nardi and Myer’s Delicatessen.

For Klein, it’s been a whirlwind, and as a first-time business owner, an experience he can’t quite believe.

This week, the shop was finally able to open in a street-level storefront at 185 Carlton St., which will hawk not only bagels (individually or by the bag), but nearly 20 shmears and spreads, including roasted jalapeno cheddar, honey dill, smoked butter and caramelized onion varieties. There are also bagel sandwiches, such as the wasabi-based Bento, the traditional lox sammy, and a ’wich topped with smoked meat straight from Montreal.

Keeping with the interest Klein saw during the pandemic, there was a lineup at the shop at 6:57 a.m., Wednesday, three minutes before the official opening. On its first day, 250 people ventured through the shop, which features a window-side kettle and smells of sweet onions and honey.

Klein said starting a business during a pandemic has been eye-opening, but that it’s clear from the reception that Winnipeg was indeed hungry for bagels, no matter what was happening in the world.

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Another pair of new entrepreneurs is hoping the craving extends to Wolseley.

In July, Jessica Wylychenko and Chris Silva were sipping vanilla lattes outside the Thom Bargen coffee shop on Sherbrook Street when Silva, a seasoned entrepreneur, looked across the street to see a “For Lease” sign in the window of the former Boon Burger, a longtime vegan staple in the granola belt.

“Chris called the number that day, and two days later, we had a tour,” said Wylychenko, a professional dietitian. “It was almost like the stars had aligned.” Shortly thereafter, they signed a lease, and Hudson Bagels — a play on Hudson Bay — was born.

The couple had spent the first few months of the pandemic reminiscing about past travel experiences, including to bagel capitals like New York City and Montreal, and were considering how they could bring something new to Winnipeg.

“Bagels were top of mind, and I just happened to have in my repertoire a great bagel recipe we’d enjoyed,” she said. They started playing with ideas — a vision for the business, a slogan, a visual identity — and all they needed was a location. The storefront’s availability was almost too good to be true for the former Wolseley residents.

The next three months were spent getting the building prepared for doing business during a pandemic — a gargantuan task that Wylychenko likened to taking things one bite at a time. The kitchen needed some new equipment, the floors needed some work and the walls needed a fresh coat of paint. Luckily, the bagel recipe was sound.

Wylychenko called the bagels a New York-Montreal hybrid — with the sweetened water for boiling consistent with the Montreal tradition, and the baking, in a convection oven, more consistent with the Big Apple. “We call it a Winnipeg bagel,” she said, and they’re to be rolled fresh every day.

Last week, the baking made its debut at the St. Norbert Farmers Market, and the response was “humbly overwhelming.” Like their downtown competition, Hudson Bagel sold out in two hours.

The doors on Sherbrook, Wylychenko said, should be opening in November, but the shop will continue to sell at markets until then. The full menu will feature sandwiches, several spreads and shmears, a selection of local beverages, and possibly items from other local vendors, Wylychenko said.

When it opens, Hudson will be a natural fit on Sherbrook, which in recent years has become home to several new and thriving restaurants and shops, in addition to longtime neighbourhood staples.

“It’s truly the location and neighbourhood that made this happen,” Wylychenko said. “We really love this area and miss it, so it was an easy decision to make.”

The only difficult decision may be the one facing customers: Which new bagel shop to buy from first.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca