On Bagel Oasis, fathers, and 'smart idiots'
On Bagel Oasis, fathers, and 'smart idiots'
Chatting with Bagel Oasis owner Peter Ryan brought up more than just bagels.
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Bagel Oasis owner Peter Ryan is my dad.
Not literally, of course. But as I stand there listening to him regale me with the stories that define his 35-year bagel-making career, I am struck by all of the similarities.
He looks like my dad, with a handsome face weathered by time and experience under short-cropped white hair.
He walks and moves like my dad, with hips and knees that have started to betray him and calloused hands that have put in their time.
He’s physically imposing like my dad. Listening to him, I realize my head is angled upward exactly how it would if talking to my father.
He tells stories like my dad, launching into diatribes about the things that annoy him and well-worn anecdotes his staff has already heard a million times.
He’s blunt and foul-mouthed in the best way like my dad, completely unconcerned about calling someone an idiot but also very willing to be self-deprecating about his own mistakes.
He’s obstinate and unwavering in his correctness like my dad, completely sure about how the world works and the proper way to navigate it.
He’s incredibly prideful of what he’s accomplished like my dad, both self-made men who succeeded at what they set out to do in spite of the obstacles and roadblocks along the way.
When I was interviewing Ryan for an Eater Seattle article about the sustained success of Bagel Oasis, I figured I was going to get a lesson on what it takes to keep a bagel place going for over 30 years. What I didn’t know was that I was going to have to grapple with the sensation of doing so with my dad’s presence looming so large.
The irony is that my father, who passed away in 2013, was the least Jewish thing about me. Growing up as an Episcopalian, he was an avowed atheist as far as I ever knew. An extremely athletic 6’2” with blonde hair and blue eyes, he looked like he would have made more sense living in the Midwest, which he did for a large portion of his childhood. A three-sport athlete in high school who was drafted by the New York Mets and remains an iconic figure in Chatham, NJ sports lore, he was unlike any of the Jewish dads I knew. A rare attendee at Temple Shalom, he did his duties when needed but was way more likely to be found playing golf than ever eating gefilte fish.
Growing up, my dad was around the Jewish aspects of my life, but not of them, if that makes sense. So I did not expect to be confronted with his presence when I walked into Bagel Oasis that morning. As I listened to Ryan explain how invested he is in making good bagels and how important they are to him and his family, it struck me at an odd angle. Bagels are Jewish, my dad was not. So how can he be standing there explaining the nuances of good bagel dough preparation to me?
What does it all mean? I don’t really know. I suppose it means I have a soft spot for Ryan and Bagel Oasis, though let the record show that I loved their bagels long before I met him. And it was nice to finally find a way to marry some aspects of my life that never quite squared up before.
What comes up while writing this bagel newsletter continues to surprise me. I figured it would be a fun hobby or side hustle that allowed me to be creative. That part remains true. But it’s also become a window that allows me to look back fondly on nostalgic memories as well as confront the unresolved aspects of my Jewish upbringing.
Who says bagels are just simple bread circles?
There was only so much I could fit into the Eater Seattle piece. Below, I’ve collected the musings, learnings, and interesting stories that Peter shared that I wasn’t able to include. His and Bagel Oasis’s story is also the story of how Seattle’s bagel scene, and the city itself, have evolved and grown over the past four decades.
Ryan mentioned that wholesale bagels used to be a substantial part of his business, with Microsoft being one of his biggest clients. That started to taper off over time and eventually ended with the pandemic. But he’s found that delivery apps like DoorDash and UberEats have more than made up for that.
"Right before the pandemic, I was like, let's give this Uber[Eats] a shot. And Grubhub is calling. DoorDash is calling,” said Ryan. “They were almost kind of like a nuisance on the weekends… I mean, it might have paid a bill or two.
As soon as the pandemic hit, those kinds of orders took off and they haven’t abated since.
“It now pays the rent and a bunch of bills.”
One thing that came up a lot in my initial research for Bagel Oasis was its purported connection to The Bagelry in Bellingham, which was started by Ryan’s brother Ken. Some people think Bagel Oasis is an offshoot of The Bagelry and others think that they’re part of the same company. Ryan was very adamant about making it clear they are two distinct bagel shops that just so happen to be run by brothers.
“Ken is my brother. Ken ran his own business. I ran my own,” said Ryan. “He opened his store with his own money and his own ideas. I opened my store with my own money and my own ideas.”
Old-school Ravennaites (Ravennans? Ravannetians?) will appreciate that Bagel Oasis is located in what used to be known as Schumacher's Bakery. A Ravenna mainstay for eight decades, the bakery was started by William Schumacher and mostly run by his son, William Schumacher, Jr. The latter became an avid waterskier and hydroplane driver, once water-skiing from Seattle to Anacortes. You learn something new every day.
Ryan told me that as he gets older, he’s rediscovered his appreciation for the bagel shop through his younger employees. He’s gained some wisdom in how they see the world differently.
“I used to run like a madman,” he said. “When you put everything into something, it's kind of just the way to do things is a little different because you've taken ownership of everything. You've kind of worked yourself into the ground.
“We've had our ups and downs over the years… Right now we have a great manager, and we have a great crew, and that's just the way it is.
“These kids, they’re great. They don't want the same things that I wanted growing up. They don’t want to work long hours. They want to work 40 hours and enjoy life and I think that's kinda cool. And they're really nice kids. The customers that come in…it's like the 80s all over.”
If you’ve ever wondered when the best time to visit Bagel Oasis is to avoid crowds, it’s probably exactly when you think it would be.
“Friday is the busiest weekday,” said Ryan. “Saturday and Sunday are great days. When people come in during the week…we schedule our crew and, you know, sometimes we look like we're not busy because all the orders are coming in through the [apps].
“If it's busy, great. If it's not, we'll do some prep. The goal is not to throw out any food. We donate all our end-of-day bagels to food banks. I'm kind of big on [helping those with] food insecurity and stuff like that.”
Like any good bagel maker, Ryan had a few rants in him about the rights and wrongs of bagelmaking.
“Some people are like, ‘Well, why doesn't everybody do bialys?’ Well, my opinion is if you're a bagel shop and you don't do bialys, you're not a bagel shop. And a lot of people go, ‘What kind of bialys do you have?’ I’m like, bialys.
“‘Do you have garlic bialys?’ That's not a bialy.
“I've watched all my competitors try to make one and it's laughable. I mean, Spot Bagel back in the day made bialy sticks. I'm like, what are you supposed to do with that? They would take dough and roll it in onion and poppy seeds and call it a bialy.”
I get a lot of requests from people asking to find a good egg bagel in Seattle. You won’t find one at Bagel Oasis, however.
“You know, the thing about egg bagels, if you turn dough that yellow with real eggs, you'd be giving the world a heart attack,” said Ryan. “I use all-natural ingredients in my bagels. The thing with egg bagels is it's a powder that you buy, and it's yellow. It has eggs in it. It has a flavor in it. It's as artificial as it gets. And I get it. It's a New York thing. And I'm a New York thing. But no, not my thing. That's one thing I don't do.”
Ryan also explained why you won’t find gluten-free bagels at Bagel Oasis.
“That's really the biggest one we are hearing these days,” Ryan told me. “A lot of ‘Oh, you don't have gluten-free?’” In a facility like this, we physically could not make a gluten-free bagel that would be completely gluten-free… You actually need a separate facility.
“So any [bagel shop] who's saying we're doing gluten-free, if you have celiac disease, you shouldn't be eating those bagels. Because in order to do a real gluten-free bagel, you need to wipe out every trace of gluten in your bakery.”
Finally, here’s a great quote and piece of advice from Ryan that I think sums up his whole ethos.
“Sometimes you just have to do what's in your gut,” said Ryan. “Sure, MBAs are real smart. They went to school a lot. But I've met so many smart idiots in my lifetime. You will, too.”
It sounds exactly like something my dad would have said, too.
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