Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Rosen.
Hi Tom, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I took a deeply millennial route to start a bagel company. By that, I mean I graduated from college with a degree in Political Science and Women’s Studies in 2010 and joined the program Teach for America (TFA) in Phoenix, Arizona, all with the intent of eventually going to law school. After struggling through TFA, I reconsidered this career path and in lieu of law school, opted to go to culinary school.
In my mind, the student debt calculus of taking out ~25k compared to ~180k, in addition to the fact that I’d be able to study a subject I was passionate about and provided intrinsic satisfaction, made this an easy choice. Culinary school proved fulfilling, challenging, enriching, everything my aimless 23-year-old soul was looking for. I worked in a few fine dining restaurants and became intrigued by the idea of why people order and eat what they eat. I applied to study this and got accepted to the University of Texas’ PhD Sociology program. So, I moved to Austin in the summer of 2013 and immediately fell in love with just about everything Austin-related. Well, with the exception of graduate school and the lack of a good bagel. The kitchen kept calling me and I decided to leave graduate school and learn how to make a traditional, New York Style Boil-and-Baked Bagel. It was an engrossing process, one that took me to New York for r&d and through countless cookbooks.
After a year or so, I felt comfortable enough with my recipe to start exploring if other folks in Austin yearned for a traditional bagel. I was introduced to a few coffee shop owners, including Matt Wright at Wright Bros. Brew and Brew. He suggested we do a weekend pop-up and in the spring of 2017, I officially launched Rosens’ Bagel Co. Feedback was enthusiastic and positive. We sold out every pop-up at Brew and Brew and started to sell at other spots on weekends. By that Summer, Brew and Brew asked if we wanted to sell bagels daily there and we agreed. Quickly, we started to sell bagels daily to over 20 coffee shops throughout Austin. I wanted to wait on a Brick and Mortar until we reached a revenue target of $30,000/mo in the wholesale, and I reached that figure in February 2020. Of course, the pandemic changed things and forced me to put the brick-and-mortar search on hold. The ‘demic also forced us the company to pivot and a silver lining of this refocus is we started to sell to local Whole Foods, and that got the company back to pre-pandemic numbers and ready to launch a brick and mortar. I signed a lease for a spot outside the domain in the spring of 2021 and we are hoping to open by the end of the summer!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Steve Jobs is quoted as saying careers only make sense in retrospect. I think this also applies to most businesses. There is so much uncertainty in any entrepreneurial venture, and especially one as demanding as the foodservice industry. I started the company mostly to fill a personal need for quality, traditional, boil-and-baked bagels and only really had my personal savings to fund it. There are so many hats to wear when starting a company- logistics and operations, customer relations, people and employee management, finance and accounting, to name a few- that when it’s your first time doing it, struggles are inevitable.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Rosen’s Bagel Co. specializes in bringing traditional, boil-and-baked bagels to the greater Austin area. Our process for bagel production is rigorous. It takes over 36 hours from start-to-bake and even involves altering the water we boil our bagels into approximate New York Water (contrary to popular opinion, it is not the water in the dough that makes northeast bagels special- we tried all different water in our dough, including shipping in New York water during out r and d phase, and nothing made a discernable difference. What did matter, though, was the pH of our boiling water and New York water is naturally more basic. So, we alter our boiling water to make it more basic. This was essential to achieving that distinct crust and chew that defines a traditional bagel.
We also offer a unique frozen, bake-at-home bagel, where we do the whole process for our bagels (mix, roll, ferment, boil, seed) except for bake, and instead of baking, we freeze the bagels. Then, folks purchase the bagels and bake them at their own convenience, turning their home kitchen into a bagel shop.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think the biggest shift will be towards more delivery and convenience. We currently offer free delivery for orders with 36 hours’ notice. At our brick and mortar, we’ll have a drive-through and many different options for delivery and curb-side pick-up. Otherwise, bagels are a traditional food that has withstood many trends- eg, low carb, keto- that suggest there’s an enduring craving for the product.
Contact Info:
- Email: tom@rosensbagels.com
- Website: www.rosensbagels.com/
- Instagram: @rosensbagelco
- Facebook: @rosensbagelco
