This week’s Shoutout goes to the “Bagel Belt” and buy that I mean New York and New Jersey with its roughly 40% of all bagel shops in the US.
Let that sink in for a moment. In an industry defined by fragmentation, this is concentration and concentration creates culture, standards, and expectation.
But here’s the twist: while the Bagel Belt owns the legacy, the rest of the country is chasing the playbook.
Bagels are having a moment. Call it nostalgia. Call it comfort carbs. Or call it what it really is, a product with unit economics that work:
High-margin staple
All-day relevance (breakfast, lunch, snack)
Operationally scalable
Customizable without complexity
Translation: this is not just a food trend, it’s a format.
And like all great formats, it’s expanding beyond its home turf. You’re seeing artisan bagel concepts pop up in markets that historically couldn’t spell “everything bagel” correctly. Why? Because operators are realizing what New York and New Jersey have known forever, the magic isn’t just in the dough, it’s in the discipline.
Water, technique, timing, and muscle memory. The kind of “analog excellence” that doesn’t get disrupted by tech, but gets amplified by it.
Here’s the real Shoutout, to the operators in New York and New Jersey who didn’t just build bagel shops, they built a category.
B/c in a world chasing the next big thing, sometimes the smartest move is doubling down on what already works.
AI might be writing menus, but it’s not boiling bagels, and until it does, the Bagel Belt still owns the crown (but I’m loving and enthusiastically welcoming the growth of this category across the country).
And for avoidance of any doubt, no Schatzy, a bagel is NOT a sandwich. It can become one, but in its purest form, it’s not a sandwich, it’s a bagel.
