After getting cut off from my Monday bagel delivery from Sour Flour (sob), things got desperate again on my own personal bagel front. So I was happy to learn about artisanal bagel maker Jay Glass coming to the Bay Area with his business SPOT BAGEL. He knows a thing or two about bagels: when he had his bakery in Seattle, he made 30,000-plus bagels per day. But this isn’t a storefront—he’ll be selling his bagels through retailers like Bi-Rite Market, and Dolores Park Cafe and Duboce Park Cafe have also committed to using his bagels, along with pop-up Wise Sons Deli. The production bakery will be in Burlingame, and he has brought on Holly Pugliese as chef/baker (she taught baking for seven years at the California Culinary Academy, and was at Post Ranch Inn and Il Fornaio in Monterey).
Glass’s passion is to make bagels in a traditional way, using organic ingredients, and to create both savory and sweet flavor combinations (like orange-poppyseed, or Meyer lemon and sea salt). The seasonal and fresh ingredients he insists on using make all the difference. (Let’s just say I’m normally not a fan of cinnamon-raisin bagels, but a sample I tasted was delicious, and included plump sultanas.) He expects to begin construction in April and open for business by mid June. It also sounds like Seattle-ites who miss his bagels will be able to order them for shipping. You can keep track of progress on Spot’s Facebook page and on Twitter.
A comp of the upcoming Burlingame facility.
