You “knead” a bagel: BagelBagel to begin selling fresh-made bagels Monday in Lock Haven
By Christopher Miller
LOCK HAVEN – BagelBagel, the brainchild of Lock Haven resident Nathan Burns, is set to begin selling bagels Monday morning at Avenue Coffee, 209 Bellefonte Avenue.
Owned, operated, and baked out of the kitchen at Avenue Coffee, Nathan and BagelBagel will be providing the Lock Haven area with hand-rolled, boiled, and baked NY style bagels.
“My test subjects at It Is What It Is, particularly Art, loved it,” Burns said in an interview with The Record. “Art claims to have eaten more bagels than anyone else in town, so it is now my challenge to him to buy more bagels from me than anyone else in town.”
Having first experienced the world of fresh bagels from his time volunteering at a summer camp, the thought of fresh bagels never left his subconscious mind.
“When I was volunteering at the summer camp, Chef Glen used to bring bagels in for the staff all the time from New Jersey and I have thought about this bagels often,” Burns said. “It wasn’t until after Eric at The Craft Barber told me that I should open a bagel shop that the idea materialized into something greater: a viable business opportunity.”
Blending his love of food and science, starting a business just came easy to Nathan.
“It seems like a bagel shop is a pretty good idea and I think that most of the folks in town that I’ve spoken with agree with me,” he said.
Having had the thought of opening a restaurant in the past, Nathan further explored the idea of a bagel shop with the Penn State Small Business Development Center at their Lock Haven satellite office.
“I started to figure out the business background and aspects with Tom Keiffer at the SBDC because I could not stop thinking about doing this,” he said.
Aside from the usual business filings and kitchen inspection, Nathan is fascinated by the science behind baking, learning quite a bit from YouTube bakers and Food Network’s Alton Brown.
“Baking is my favorite thing to do, and I love learning the science behind it and the techniques such as why bread flour is important because it provides the extra gluten needed for hydration and to give it the chewy-ness you’d expect, and how boiling is key to one of the finishing processes of baking a bagel to allow the exterior to gelatinize and get crispy on the outside with the microblisters which are the hallmark of a NY style bagel,” he passionately explained.
Nathan never thought he would be a business owner.
“This fell into my lap to be honest, every step of the process has just happened and it feels a little “fate-y,” like it’s what I am supposed to be doing, I am supposed to be here at this step right now,” he said. “It has been stupidly easy to do all of this with every obstacle being cleared without any resistance.”
“In the future I will only accept having my own downtown location,” Burns exclaimed. “I can’t wait to build a little custom photo booth for my bagel pictures, I will need a million TikTok videos of me tearing open a hot, steamy bagel because apparently that’s the trick that gets views.”
The bagel variety menu available will be plain, rye, pumpernickel, cinnamon raisin, marble, seasonal, and other limited “product drops” to come. Toppings available are everything, onion, salt, poppy, sesame, and aged gouda. Nathan also bakes and provides some “uncommon pastries” such as baklava and other seasonal and limited drops in the future.
“I am so thankful for the moral support I have received from family and friends, and for those who will be coming out to buy my products and helping to inject money into the project to help me take it as far as I can,” he said.
Pre-orders are available by sending an email to bagelbagelco@gmail.com. All others are first-come, first-serve at Avenue Coffee, 209 Bellefonte Avenue in Lock Haven. Wholesale options are also available.
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