If you still subscribe to the old adage that the best part of waking up is Folgers, then you have not had a Bagel Face Bakery Bagel.
With a retail store located at 700 Main Street in Nashville and other wholesale locations carrying their bagels including Bongo Java East, Germantown Café, Frothy Monkey 12 South and Ugly Mugs, you have probably tasted a Bagel Face Bakery creation and not even known it.
Owned by partners Rae Schobel and Kristen Skruber, Bagel Face Bakery is known for its creative flavor specials. Chocolate espresso? Rosemary garlic? Sundried tomato and basil? These are just a few of the daily specials that are only purchasable at their main retail store.
O&AN chatted co-owner Rae Schobel up to find out just how she got into the bagel business and does that mean she is a morning person.
Can you talk about the origins of your passion for food … bagels?
Well, that’s a funny story in the way that neither of us had food backgrounds. Kristen was a chemistry major, and I majored in vocal performance and music business. However, the business and chemistry combined together perfectly when it came down to opening a bagel shop.
Aside from our qualifications, I love to eat and I love to cook, specifically bake, for other people and see their faces light up when they take the first bite. Honestly, isn’t that why everyone creates food? It’s a great feeling.
Assuming you work in an industry that focuses much on a breakfast food- are you a morning person?
Oh my gosh, not at all. I thought this would turn me into a morning person, but I was so wrong. I have adjusted for sure, but I can wholeheartedly say now that I will never ever be a morning person … organically. Meaning, I can function as one if need be (which it does now) but when given the option my choice would be a happy medium of starting my day around 9 or 10 a.m.. The trick is to drink good coffee.
There are several different varieties- what is your favorite? Have you ever experimented with creating different type of bagels?
We create all kinds of bagels! Experiments are always happening. My favorite out of the traditional flavors would have to be the everything bagel. As far as specials are concerned, it’s so hard to choose. Cracked wheat jalapeno, pumpernickel, rosemary garlic, mexicocoa—the list goes on.
So are bagels just a breakfast food?
Not at all! Lunch is great on a bagel too—turkey pesto sandwich on a basil mozzarella bagel? Yes, please! Bagel Face Bagels makes great chips as well.
What makes a Bagel Face Bakery Bagel the best?
We love our product and we love feeding people. Kristen and I are excited to be able to share our food with everyone. Also, we love being a local business in East Nashville.
A lot of time goes into each one of our bagels, it takes us around 16 hours from start to finish. We use a slow ferment process which draws out the flavor. Our staff almost exclusively works on bagels, we get requests for other baked products but we’d rather concentrate on one thing and make it the best.
Bagel Face Bakery is located at 700 Main St. and open Tuesday-Sunday from 7 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.. You can follow Bagel Face Bakery on Twitter @bagelfacebakery or ‘like’ their Facebook page.