Posted on: 21st April 2009

Making gourmet bagels doesn’t happen by simply following the “recipe”. Artisan bagel baking is a process. It take hands, head, and heart. There is a lot of repetitive labor involved and it’s a challenge for us to stay consciously conscious while we’re in the process. There are many variables in bagel baking that we have to be alert too. I was racking my brains trying to figure out how I could help keep everybody as passionate about really doing the best they can every day to make GREAT bagels. If the baker’s hearts are in the process you can absolutely sense the difference in the bagels. They taste and look better. No joke.

I put together a “walking chart” for the entire bagel team and once they complete 15 twenty minutes walks they receive an hour massage at Sport & Health in Bethesda. The goal is to get everybody out of the shop for 20 minutes during their scheduled work time. We’re located near the Bethesda Crescent Trail. First, it changes everybody’s disposition to step out in the fresh Bethesda air and walk and have time to think about who they are, what they’re doing, and where they’re going. They come back and BECOME a breath of fresh air. It’s like they are ready to mix, form, boil, bake and wait on customers as if there were no tomorrow. Stepping outside and going for a walk shifts the pattern and a renewed consciousness appears once bagel life starts again.

I can not begin to tell you how amazing the results were after my team experienced their first massages!

When you’re in our Bethesda bagel shop for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, ask our artisan bagel team how their walk went.

Tags: bagels, team, walking chart

Posted on: 23rd March 2009

It’s rough making a great bagel when the oven breaks down! Fortunately for us, our bagel baking team has been around long enough and worked together well enough that we’ve created solid work habits that produce the most beautiful bagel, arguably in the country.

Today, the bagels survived, and so did we, even though everybody was exhausted from the longer hours. Late yesterday afternoon, the engine in the oven blew out. We were unable to get the necessary parts, but we were able to rig it so that the shelves would rotate. They rotate in one direction right now and normally they rotate both forward and backwards. This slows things down, but at least we can bake in one direction and we don’t have to manually crank the shelves around. We can bake on all the shelves instead of just one. Since we sold the Georgetown DC location 3 years ago, we haven’t had a back-up oven and this is definitely something to think about… nobody lost their passion to complete the bake and all I can say is it takes patience, commitment to the process and a lot of love to work a night like this.

Thanks Georgetown Bagelry team!

Tags: bagelry, oven, team