Starting fresh with Hey Bagel, Andrew Rubinstein feels 'lucky'
Starting fresh with Hey Bagel, Andrew Rubinstein feels 'lucky'
"It’s all about helping make people’s day better."
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If you want to find Andrew Rubinstein and his bagels, don’t go looking in Rubinstein Bagels.
That sounds a bit counterintuitive, I know.
After selling his stake in the local bagel chain earlier this year, the founder now finds himself competing against his namesake. He’s not going head-to-head just yet, selling his small-batch bagels out of the back of his SUV and at pop-ups in coffee shops and breweries, but the day is likely to come when his new venture, Hey Bagel, might be down the road from Rubinstein Bagel.
“It’s weirder for some of my family members than it is for me,” Rubinstein told me in a phone interview last week.
Bagels have long been a passion for the Milwaukee-born Rubinstein. He remembers going to Benji’s Deli where his appreciation for a good sesame bagel began.
“My go-to is a sesame bagel, chive cream cheese, cucumbers, tomato, red onions, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper,” says Rubinstein.
After moving to Seattle, Bagel Oasis became his “go-to” but the overall bagel scene was lacking. So, he decided to help jumpstart that scene, opening the first Rubinstein Bagel at the tail end of 2020.
Things moved quickly from there, with a Capitol Hill location opening in 2021 and a Redmond outpost announced in 2022. The future seemed bright for Rubinstein and his burgeoning bagel empire.
So why did he decide to walk away?
“I was losing control of the wizardry,” said Rubinstein, who was wistful for the days when he was working the kitchen instead of training and managing a staff of dozens.
“I didn’t do a good job as a boss,” he added. “I think I can do a better job next time.”
That next time arrived in the form of Hey Bagel, which so far consists of just Rubinstein and a rotating cast of part-time workers and volunteers.
Going back to basics has paid off as Hey Bagel’s output is, at least in my opinion, the best bagels you can currently find in Puget Sound.
It was interesting looking back at Andrew’s comments back in 2019 when it came to what he wanted his bagels to be.
“A bagel that has a crust. A bagel that has a chew. A bagel that the dough tastes like something,” he told the Seattle Times. “I’m just making a bagel, one you want to keep coming back for.”
“My goal is that people are always delighted by these bagels,” he told Eater Seattle at the time, “and eventually they can’t be without them.”
While those descriptions seem very apt for his current bagels, it doesn’t seem as though the same can be said of Rubinstein Bagels these days.
“Nothing bothers me more than hearing people say the quality of the bagels is medium or poor,” said Rubinstein of his namesake bagel shop. Still, he remains proud of what he accomplished there and the hard work his staff put in to make it a success.
While quality can often be the trade-off when it comes to expansion and growth, Rubinstein says he’s learned a lot from his experiences with his former company and is excited to put that knowledge to work on his new venture. More importantly, perhaps, is that he’s excited to bring a little joy back into people’s lives.
“It’s all about helping make people’s day better,” he said regarding what bagels and bagel-making means to him.
While Rubinstein is currently crisscrossing Seattle and the Eastside to keep up with mounting demand, he’s got his sights set on an eventual brick-and-mortar location, though he’s not rushing. Wanting to “balance life and work,” he’s been focused on the Eastside, closer to his Sammamish home. However, he hasn’t ruled out a return to Seattle either (one of the benefits of not having a non-compete with his former company).
In the meantime, Rubinstein’s new bagels have already built up a cult following, prone to pop-ups with long lines and sellouts. While he admits he’s torn around the notion of waiting in line for an hour for a bagel (“No bagel is worth that”), he’s also incredibly appreciative of the support he’s received so far.
“I’m lucky to be able to do this.”
Based on the early responses, Seattle-area noshers are lucky that Rubinstein recaptured the feeling of why he started making bagels in the first place.
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