Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Visiting Barry Bagels


Good Morning,
Yesterday I left AA and jumped back on US 23 south....a light come on my dash...I was low on gas. I pulled over on exit 1, just before the Ohio border....it's one of those exits that sells fireworks that aren't legal in Michigan....well I needed some fireworks alright, but just for my gas tank, so I fueled up....holy cow!...gas is gettin' expensive, but I gotta get around, and until I can use the words 'beam me up Scotty' this is still the best choice.
I was only a few miles away from Barry Bagels (they are just across the line) and I was getting hungry for an Everything Bagel fresh out of the oven....with a hunk of cream cheese...I could already smell them. I turned off the GPS and decided to just let my nose do all the work.

See the picture with the two guys.....that's Mark and Barry, son and father (can you tell :) )
Now you would think that Barry may have put that BIGGBY hat on just for this picture....but that's not the case....he always wears it....it's just the kinda guys he is. You have to understand these are the best bagels ever....and if you are ever in Toledo you must try...for a location go to http://www.barrybagels.com/ .....besides the bagels if you love corned beef or pastrami, this is the only place to go....YOU MUST GO! Well I roll into his store....and as always he is right there saying hello to everybody.....it's not a schtick...it's what he does. Keep in mind this is not a factory, this is a retail operation....Barry says hello to everybody and he makes the bagels, no foolin'. These aren't shortcut bagels either....they are boiled and then baked...the only way to make a traditonal bagel. Barry grew up in Detroit and learned some bageling there (Detroit style bagels are unique), but he moved toToledo many a moon ago....and has been making bagels there forever...and everybody knows him...whole schools come to visit, the kids love him....he knows everybody...and I mean everybody. When I took these pictures he was making our bagels, there is extra ordinary pride in every one of these, he pulls them out of the oven himself, and if he is not happy with them...they don't make it out of the store. We sell a lot of bagels now, but when we just had five stores and I was trying to convince Barry this was a good idea, he was really concerned about whether we could maintain the quality....we talked about it, worked out how to deliver them...the flavors and so on. Working with Barry is one of the best choices all of us could have made, and it's worked out for us, for him and for our customers ....when you can make everybody happy you know you made the right decision! Thanks Barry




2 comments:

Cathy H said...

Hey Bob, did you bring any bagels back for the rest of us? They look yummy!

BIGGBY BOB said...

Oops...you know I walked out with some, but their gone now :)