If you’ve been to the Bagel Bakery in the last six months, you may have noticed the new man behind the counter – our manager, John Raspperry.

Born in Maryland, John was raised in Broward County. He  grew up in a big family full of siblings, aunts, uncles and lots of cousins. He has two brothers and two sisters, and they all attended high school in South Florida together.

John moved to Gainesville when he and his wife, Holly, were getting ready to have their second child. John and Holly have resided in Gainesville for three years now and love it. They appreciate how family-oriented and peaceful it is. The couple have an 11-year-old son named Anthony and a 2-year-old daughter named Thea.

John comes to his job at Bagel Bakery with years of restaurant experience. He was involved with Tijuana Flats for 10 years and ran a BBQ restaurant along with V-Pizza downtown for a while. John also was involved with restaurant marketing for businesses such as BurgerFi.

After several meetings with Bagel Bakery owner, Ken Rembert, the two realized they were a good fit for each other.

John says that he has loved his time working at Bagel Bakery and appreciates the history the business holds along with its various loyal customers. He also shared that the staff welcomed him with open arms and that they have all been growing as a team ever since.

So, come on in and say hello to the man behind the mask – manager John Raspperry.

Thanksgiving is great. Halloween is fun. The Fourth of July has fireworks and hot dogs. But none of these holidays even begins to compete with how much we love National Bagel Day here at the Bagel Bakery.

Bagels are delicious and so versatile, and they have brought us all together as a family, and for that, we are so grateful! Aside from this, bagels have had a long history of providing sustenance to people from all backgrounds. The bagel is truly a gift to this world.

Here at the Bagel Bakery, we have watched you feed your children their first bagel, grab a bagel and coffee with your best friend as you catch up, grab a bag of bagels to share with your work friends at the staff meeting, and so much more. This year especially, we have seen our bagels help so many people throughout the community, and it has brought us nothing but joy. We strive to be your happy place!

So today, we invite you to the Bagel Bakery to celebrate all that bagels have done for us this year and every other day! We can’t wait to see you!

Thanksgiving may look a little different this year, but your stomach shouldn’t have to suffer.

Whether you have family sitting beside you at the table or on the other end of a video call, there should still be an oven full of food, and there should definitely be a plan for what to do with the leftovers. In case you’re out of ideas, The Bagel Bakery can help!

Sure, there’s the traditional turkey sandwich on a bagel. But here’s something a little different.

On Friday morning, the best way to recover from your Thanksgiving food hangover is with turkey cranberry bagels!

Here’s the recipe:

1. Bagel Bakery Bagels (any flavor is good, but we recommend jalapeno cheddar)
2. Leftover turkey
3. Leftover cranberry sauce
4. Cheese of your choice

Place the turkey on top of the bagel, top with your favorite cheese and place in the oven until the cheese is melted. Once it is out of the oven, top with cranberry sauce and enjoy! Stop by the Bagel Bakery today or Wednesday and pick up your bagels now! And don’t forget to call ahead for your large orders.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, Thanksgiving and Christmas are great, but here at the Bagel Bakery, we have a different favorite holiday. Because we work so hard day in and day out to provide the Bagel Bakery Family with the best quality coffee straight from Guatemala and roasted fresh in-house each week, we can’t help but get especially excited for International Coffee Day each year.

We love to take this time each year to look back and reminisce on all the great memories coffee has brought the Bagel Bakery Family. From the annual trips to Guatemala that our owner, Ken, has taken, to the thousands of great conversations our customers have had over a fresh cup of our coffee, we love every minute of being able to serve you the best coffee in Gainesville (yes, we’re biased).

Our favorite part about coffee at the Bagel Bakery is that it is not just something you rush to do at the drive through on your way to work, and it is not something you risk spilling on yourself as you run into the office. The coffee at the Bagel Bakery is something you get while you catch up with an old friend, or a companion to get you through a long day of work. Coffee at the Bagel Bakery means something to you, and that is why it means everything to us.

The holiday falls on Tuesday, Sept. 29, this year, and we have a great promotion for you! Stop by the Bagel Bakery on International Coffee Day and get a free small coffee with any purchase. This deal is too hot to pass up, so make sure to not miss it!

These are scary and uncertain times for everyone. We don’t know what the future holds now more than ever, and we are clinging to any positivity. Fortunately for the Bagel Bakery community, we have each other.

Throughout the ups and downs of the COVID-19 journey, we have stuck together. The bonds made in the Bagel Bakery have withstood social distancing and have found creative ways to exist despite the restriction.

We at the Bagel Bakery want to ensure you that we will be here for you. We will be here to serve you soft, homemade bagels; to brew fresh Guatemalan coffee; and to make your breakfast and lunch dreams come to life.

While it is important that you know that we are here for you, we want to thank you for also being there for us and continuing your support for us through these rough times. Without you and the Bagel Bakery community, waking up so early and not knowing what the next day will bring would not be as enjoyable as it is. Thank you for your loyalty to our restaurant and for making our jobs easier.

As always, we can’t wait to see you and make your favorite meal! Stop by and say hello to us today!

By David Greenberg

 

I grew up and spent my first 21 years in New York City. Bagels were a staple of our diet. I’m talking about real New York bagels – not Jersey and not Connecticut – but fresh, delicious bagels made on the spot in those little New York City storefronts.

I’d say that makes me an expert, as much as anyone in Gainesville, on what is a real New York bagel. If you want to experience the fresh, delicious taste of a real New York bagel, go no further than the Bagel Bakery in the Millhopper Shopping Center.

That’s because every day the bakers at the Bagel Bakery arrive at 2 a.m. Starting with bags of flour, four days a week knead and shape the fresh dough. Every morning, the bagels are boiled and then baked. If they are not boiled, they are not real, fresh New York bagels.

That may be enough for some people to get their bagel fix at the Bagel Bakery, but there’s more.

Bagel Bakery offers fresh-ground, specialty coffee, roasted on site. Much of the coffee comes directly from farmers in Guatemala. Bagel Bakery owner, Ken Rembert, makes trips every year to Guatemala to do charitable work, and he pays the farmers better-than fair market price for their coffee.

There’s delicious pastries or muffins, and if you prefer, you can have sandwiches for breakfast or lunch substituting wraps or focaccia for your bagel.

You can eat in, take out or have the Bagel Bakery cater your special affair.

Plus, Ken is known for his charitable activities in Gainesville, as well as Guatemala. The Bagel Bakery regularly sponsors special events in the community.

But that’s still not enough. The Bagel Bakery may be the friendliest place in town. Stealing a line from the TV-show Cheers, it’s the place where everyone knows your name.

Here’s an example. Recently two people met at the Bagel Bakery. One had moved away from Gainesville years ago and just returned. When they saw each other, they realized they went to elementary school together – 50 years ago.

The Bagel Bakery is a spot where Gator fans tolerate Seminole and Hurricane fans. You can’t find that in a lot of places.

Even more than that, it’s a place where a Red Sox fan and a Yankee fan can get along – at least some of the time.

So, if you want to experience a place with delicious New York bagels, great fresh-ground coffee and other culinary delights, as well as a friendly atmosphere, you’re looking for the Bagel Bakery. Join us!

Thanksgiving, New Years and the Fourth of July are great, but the Bagel Bakery’s all-time favorite holiday is National Bagel Day, which is Wednesday, Jan. 15.

Here at the Bagel Bakery, we celebrate these tasty and warm treats every day, but we love to have more reasons to talk about how great bagels are. This is why we always get so excited when National Bagel Day comes around.

Every January 15, we at the Bagel Bakery have an excuse to be even more excited about our bagels. Our bakers come in every morning at 3 a.m. to bake our fresh and delicious treats. Why shouldn’t we be excited to serve them to you?

Come into the Bagel Bakery between 6:30 am and 4:00 pm on Jan. 15, order your favorite bagel and cream cheese combination and post it using the hashtag #bageldayatBB! We can’t wait to see all the ways that you and your loved ones celebrate our favorite holiday.

 

As we approach the middle of this very busy holiday season, where school is out and the days are long and tiring, we want to give you another delicious holiday pairing that is sure to pick you up in the middle of even the craziest day.

Every week of this holiday season we will present you with a coffee and food pairing that is sure to give you the energy to buy one more gift, listen to one more holiday song and go to one more party.

This week, we encourage you to try our blended peppermint hot chocolate with your choice of milk. It is the perfect combination of peppermint and chocolate flavor, all topped with whipped cream, a drizzle of chocolate syrup and a Hershey kiss.

This sweet treat tastes even better when paired with a delicious spinach everything bagel hot ham and cheese sandwich. This sandwich includes perfectly sliced ham with your choice of cheese run through our toaster oven and melted to gooey goodness.

Stop by the Bagel Bakery today for this week’s pairing and take a break from your busy day.

 

Holiday season is stressful for everyone, and it often comes with a lot of long days.

On days when you’re not working, you have to divide your time between making memories with your family and shopping for gifts. The entire season can be exhausting, and we often forget the real purpose for the season. To make things worse, your favorite coffee chain always has enormous lines, it doesn’t sell good food and the coffee doesn’t have much of an effect on you anymore. The Bagel Bakery has the perfect solution to this issue.

Our caramel macchiato with hot vanilla syrup, espresso, steamed milk and caramel drizzle has the perfect balance of festive flavor and energy-boosting caffeine that is sure to make even the busiest holiday shopping days more bearable. It is a hot and sugary coffee drink that puts every coffee chain to shame. Come in for breakfast and pair it with one of our freshly-made bagels or an eggel-bagel, or stop by for a mid-day shopping break and pair the delicious caramel treat with our turkey bacon sandwich, which you can get as a wrap, bagel or on focaccia.

We at the Bagel Bakery want to see you come out of the holidays victorious, so we make these energy-packed and nutritious treats with love every single day. We can’t wait to see you and hear about all of your holiday successes, big and small.

 

Many people think that the Bagel Bakery is the same as any other bagel shop. They think that we sell bagels and other breakfast food, and that it tastes good, so they continue to come back. But very few of our customers actually know what it takes to be a Bagel Bakery bagel. Very few realize that our bagels are freshly crafted and put through a tedious process in order to be nothing less than the best for our customers.

In fact, we are one of the few remaining bagel shops in Florida where you can get a real, fresh, boiled, New York style bagel.

If you are one of the many who are not yet in the know about what it’s like to live a day in the life of a Bagel Bakery bagel, keep reading.

The bagels start their day at 3 am, when they are transformed from bags of flour into dough.

The dough is then kneaded in our custom-made mixer that has been with us from the beginning.

They are then shaped in our state-of the-art machine.

Each of our round and beautiful bagels are placed on boards and left to get some rest as they prepare to reach their full potential as bagels (also known as your breakfast).

After hours of beauty rest, the bagels are ready for a nice hot dive in what we like to call the bagel jacuzzi. This helps them become the chewy and delicious treats you know and love.

As if these star-athlete bagels have not been through enough, there is still one more step before they wait to fulfill their destiny as your favorite breakfast treat.

After the bagels are boiled, they are baked in our rustic, custom-made oven and cooked to golden perfection.

They are then left to cool and stacked on the shelves for you to enjoy.

Come into the Bagel Bakery for one of our all-star bagels freshly made just for you! Can’t wait to see you soon!