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Bagel Bytes

The

Bagel

Bagels evolve into a
generic' food; bagel shops
multiply and dress up.

JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER

is voice could make the
poppy seeds scurry for
cover and the raisins run
away. "Who makes the best
bagels?" Charlie Kaye bel-
lows. "We do!" comes the
rowdy response from the
uniformed workers behind
the counter.
That's part of Mr.
Kaye's pep-rally showmanship
at Bean & Bagel, a coffeehouse-
bagel shop he opened earlier this
month at 12 Mile and

Hottest Bagels:

• Bean & Bagel: Salt,
followed by egg, poppy
seed and sesame seed
• Brother's Bagel: Plain
and salt, followed by
raisin
• Bruegger's: Plain and
cinnamon raisin
• Detroit Bagel: Plain and
salt, followed by onion
• Elaine's: Cinnamon
raisin and salt, followed
by spinach
• New York Bagel: Raisin
and salt at the Ferndale
location; plain and egg in
West Bloomfield

OM

Farmington roads in Farming-
ton Hills.
It's also a response to the in-
tense competition bagel makers
face in a market bursting with
franchisers and independents
clamoring to satisfy a huge na-
tional appetite. The metro area
supports over three dozen bagel
shops, including franchises and
independent operations like Bean
& Bagel, Uptown Bagel and Blaz-
ing Bagels in Royal Oak, Elaine's
in Troy and Broadway Bagel in
Birmingham. That doesn't in-
clude general bakeries and cof-
feehouses, where bagels are
standard fare.
"I do believe there will be a
bagel shop on every corner one
day," Mr. Kaye says.
According to Ed Kazak, presi-
dent of the fledgling American
Bagel Association in Dayton,
Ohio, about 3,200 bagel shops dot
the American landscape.
Doug Krumrei of Baker), Pro-
duction and Marketing magazine
in Des Plaines, Ill., says bagel
sales have increased by 15 per-
cent each year since 1993.
And the Wall Street Journal
reported last August that the av-
erage American ate 3.6 pounds
of bagels in 1993, a 46-percent in-
crease from 1988.
Mr. Kaye, of West Bloomfield,
emphasizes that Bean & Bagel
is a new concept in bagel con-

k BAGEL

oho DEL

Howard and Harvey
Goldsmith at the
Ferndale location
of New York Bagel,
Detroit's oldest
bagel chain.

According to
Modern Baking magazine:
- 49 percent of bagel buyers live in met-
ropolitan areas of 2 million people or
more.
- 47 percent of bagel buyers are be-
tween 35-55 years old.
- One-third of bagel buyers earn
$45,000-plus annually.
- 28 percent of bagel buyers live in the
Mid-Atlantic states, followed by 16 per-
cent each from the East, North Cen-
tral and South Atlantic states.
According to Information
Resources Inc., in Chicago:
- Supermarket sales of fresh bagels
during the past year amounted to
$226.2 million, up 57.8 percent from
the previous year.
- Supermarket sales of frozen bagels
in the same period amounted to $247.3
million, roughly the same figure as the
year before.

sumption. It makes
its own bagels, the old-fashioned
way — boiled and baked — but
it also offers cappuccino, cafe au
lait, espresso and other fancy
javas in a funky setting designed
by architect John Sarkisian and
Mr. Kaye's wife, Helen.
The mod surroundings are de-
signed to work by day and by
night. Next month, customers
will be able to sip cafe au lait and
nibble on bagels while they lis-
ten to live folk music on weekend
nights.
"I plan to be like a Chessmate
or Raven on weekend nights," he
says, referring to two defunct
cafes that offered coffee and live
folk music to Detroiters in the
1960s and 1970s. He also plans
to 'open more Bean & Bagel lo-
cations in the area.
Mr. Kaye's business venture
is sealed with a coat of corporate
professionalism: He assembled
a team of consultants to help
him develop a concept to present
and sell bagels. Part of the
plan included the hiring of
Dino Grecu, the longtime chef
at Tam O'Shanter Country
Club, to create about a dozen
flavored cream cheeses for Bean
& Bagel and make its soups and
salads.
Morris Goldsmith and two
partners had one concept in mind
when they opened New York
Bagel in northwest Detroit
almost 75 years ago: Feed-
ing the Jews in the neigh-
borhood.
But Mr. Goldsmith's
grandson, Howard Gold-
smith, who has worked in
the business with his father
Harvey for the past nine
years, acknowledges that
bagel eating is much more
complex today.
"Of course, having a cap-
puccino and espresso ma-
chine is a natural extension
to having coffee. In the fu-
ture, we hope to open some
stores that do have some sit-
down in them and carry a
more extensive line of bagel
sandwiches and coffee," he
says.
Of New York Bagel's four

locations, only its Ferndale
store offers a few seats for dining
in.
"Bagels have become a less
ethnic food, but that trend start-
ed when people like Lender's
started putting their bagels into
every supermarket in the coun-
try," Mr. Goldsmith says. "That
awakened a lot of people to what
bagels were. Then people start-
ed to eat the fresh bagels. It's
pretty much a general American
food now," he says.
"It's become a cross-cultural
thing," attorney Mike Wachsberg
agrees.
Mr. Wachsberg, whose fami-
ly opened Brothers Bagel and
Deli in Troy four years ago and
later a second branch in Farm-
ington Hills, remembers the
days when folks were happy
with plain, salt, egg and onion
bagels.
"Then some people wanted
raisin and that was the big break
in the tradition. Now you've got
strawberry and blueberry bagels
and fragels, which are close to a
donut. With the popularity, the
selection and variety have ex-
panded as well," he says.
Mr. Wachsberg, who learned
the ropes at New York Bagel,
speculates that bagels have en-
tered the American foodstream
as people have become more
health-conscious.
"They're a low-calorie, low-fat
item. That's drawn people to
bagels as opposed to a donut, he
says.
The most fertile frontier for
bagel shops is actually outside
the Jewish community, Mr.
Wachsberg says. "In terms of
some of our wholesale clients,
you're talking about factories, of-
fice buildings, schools. Part of the
local catering wagon has bagels ity,
these days."
Late last year, the Shifman
family opened Elaine's Bagels in
Troy, which has seating and will w
add cappuccino to the menu.
Steve Shifman said they've found LLJ
their customers don't associate
the bagel with brunch or break-
fast.
"You're dealing with a group
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