The “next generationbakery prototype,” as Bruegger’s calls it, features an inviting interior withcushy seating, warm lighting, free Wi-Fi and a large community table. A rusticbrick and stone hearth in the bagel display area gives the bakery an Old WorldEuropean feel, while the glass bakery “theater” offers visitors an opportunityto watch as the bagels are kettle-boiled and baked in the traditional style.
“We’ve learned overthe years that people are fascinated by the bagel-making process,” Grecoexplains. “We’ve had bakeries where people couldn’t see the process and theydidn’t like it. Our customers like to be able to see how the bagel is made andknow that it’s fresh.”
One of the reasonsBruegger’s is such a successand it is, with 295 locations in 26 states, D.C.and Toronto serving 87 million bagels and 2.5 million pounds of cream cheeselast yearis that it offers authentic New York-style bagels. This distinctionlies in whether the dough is boiled in water before being baked in an oven(many devout New York bagel lovers will sayit’s the New Yorkwater that makes the difference, but chef Smith deems this factor a myth).
During his “bagelcuisine” demonstration, Smith explained that Bruegger’s makes its dough withfive basic building blocks: flour, salt, malt, yeast and water. After it’smade, the fresh dough is stored in a walk-in cooler aerated by a fan where two thingshappen: The yeast starts to develop a stronger flavor, and a tacky skin startsto develop on the outside of the dough. Because the dough behaves differentlyaccording to temperature and humidity, the experienced Breugger’s bakers relyon the dough’s texture, sort of like taking a person’s pulse, to determinewhether it’s ready to move on to the next stage.
The bagels are thensubmerged in a 50-gallon kettle of boiling water where the yeast activity stopsand the oxygen within the dough starts to expand, forcing the bagels to rise tothe surface. The bagels are pulled from the water, placed on a burlap-coveredsurface and flavored with ingredients like sesame or poppy seeds. They areplaced on rotating shelves in an oven the size of a Volkswagen Beetle andheated to 470 degrees. The end result: a firm, chewy bagel with a golden-browneggshell crust.
Rather than gothrough the hands-on process of boiling the dough, many bagel purveyors employovens that inject the bagel with steam to puff up the crust, a method thatresults in “a roll with a hole,” Smith says.
While Bruegger’s isknown mostly for its New York-style bagels, the fast casual restaurant chainoffers a broad menu that includes a number of unique cream cheese flavors, FairTrade-certified coffee, sandwiches, panini, salads, soups, breads and desserts.
