Hey Bagel's Andrew Rubinstein on U Village plans, bialy dogs, & the Seattle bagel scene

"I want it to be a safe space for everybody. I want to encourage everybody to support each other."

May 03, 2024

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In case you haven’t heard, Hey Bagel has finally found its new home. When I spoke with owner Andrew Rubinstein in December, he was still trying to figure out whether to set up shop in Seattle or the Eastside. Ultimately, Seattle won out and Hey Bagel will open its doors in University Village this fall.

I sat down with Rubinstein earlier this week to discuss the big news, see how business is going, and find out what lessons he’s taking from starting (and leaving) Rubinstein Bagels as he starts a new shop.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

So, why U Village?

It was just an opportunity that I think I couldn't say no to. I really did want to be on the Eastside for my ease of life and all that other stuff. But it's too expensive on the Eastside for the amount of people.

[With U Village], you feel like it's a gold medal opportunity. There's so much foot traffic and there's so much cachet to it. If I ever do want to expand and do more, there's a lot of attention just from that location. But I think the high level of population and foot traffic, it allows me to do that thing that I've been talking about all along, which is pacing my baking and baking all day long and getting that hot bagel out as much as I possibly can to people.

It's just the logistics of the fact that we don't have a lot of people in the city, but it's a bummer that if you come in early to a bakery, you're hoping to get the bakery smells, the ‘It's so fresh, it's still warm’ experience. And because of production and trying to keep up with things, you can't do that very easily sometimes. And you have to bake earlier in the morning. It's still fresh, still great, but it's a different experience.

So, I'm hoping to flip that. I feel like this could be that opportunity.

What is your vision for what Hey Bagel: The Store and its menu look like?

I might not even have the names of the bagels on the menu board. It might just be bagels in the cases and dozens and half-dozen and quarter-dozen and things like that. And then so it's going to be a menu of just straight bagels and bialys and schmears and a schmear case, like an ice cream case. It's going to get a little kitschy, but it'll be fun. I think it'll allow us to take some chances on some weird flavors.

I'm partnering with Anchorhead Coffee, so I'm really excited about bringing them to the mall. They've got all these pre-batched drinks. I think that'll also help. If we're really busy, people can get a really yummy coffee drink, but we just pour it and they can go. We've made it already for them.

I have to stay open till 6:00 p.m., so I'm planning on doing either bagel dogs or bialy dogs, I think the bialy dog could be a cool iteration of this thing. Then I don't have to boil anything.

How does a bialy dog work?

Bialy dog, I'm thinking I'm going to shape the bialy and then I might blind-bake it with a foil-wrapped dowel to make an impression. Then people come and they want whatever bialy plus the dog, we can take a heated dog, drop it in, whether it's a veggie dog or maybe a sausage like a brat, and then we can top it with whatever, like the cream cheese.

My thought is it will be like a protein bump midday that people can get. And hopefully, I can find some really great dogs. I like a hot dog. I think that'd be fun.

When you think about opening your own place again, what lessons are you taking with you from Rubinstein Bagels?

Well, I think a couple of things. Hopefully, not so serious. I was pretty intense the last time around. Particularly with baking, I always had a lot of anxiety that every moment somebody had a bagel was a chance for a first impression, even though it might have been their third time having the bagel. Hopefully, I've created a better system that will make it more ironed out. Sometimes we struggled, and I have a tendency to wear my moods on my face. Hopefully, I've learned to change that thing a little bit better.

The other lesson for me, and I'm not saying that Rubinstein did this poorly, but for me, I felt like the complexity of all the sandwiches was just too much of a menu for me. I'm hoping that we can limit it to just potentially two or zero sandwiches and maybe have a build-your-own kit you can walk away with, at least in the beginning.

I don't want my team to be so stressed out. I felt like in the beginning, and I know that part of it was my fault, but I don't want everybody to be so stressed out. I want it to be as simple as possible, and I'm hoping that we can do that.

There was a lot that was provided to me by the ESR (Ethan Stowell Restaurants) relationship that I have to do myself now. I've got anxiety with that, just doing it right and hiring the right people. Making sure I've got my handbook in place, things like that.

Are you envisioning still doing online orders or doing wholesale?

I'm not going to do wholesale. Right now, there's just no reason to. I am going to do online orders, likely, but I think I'm going to do a minimum 24 hours. Because, again, in the beginning, let's see how things go. Can we handle the thing being on during the day?

What happened with Rubenstein is we might have [a line] 30-40 people long, especially in the beginning. And then we'd get all these online orders. And sometimes you get an online order for a meeting, and they want it at a certain time. And then so they're trying to juggle all these people here. And then this big order, like 30 sandwiches comes in. And I didn't know how to manage that well. I think I was of the opinion, well, ‘Just get it done,’ which isn't the right thing.

My first general manager, she wanted to turn off the online ordering. At the time, I was like, ‘No, we can't do that.’ I got aggro about it. And now when I look back at that, that wasn't fair. We should have kept it off for a while. We should have just let the team do what they need to do, which is right for them, and change some of the ways that we do it. And take a chance that we might lose the sale if somebody really wanted to order it the day-of. And maybe eventually they'll learn if you want to order for an event, you just order the day before.

You’ve been doing Hey Bagel for a while now and you’ve gotten a chance to meet and speak with a lot of your customers. What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned in that process?

Well, the most surprising thing is I'm having people come and meet me at these pickups at almost every location I'm at. I've got people from West Seattle coming to Woodinville. I had a woman who's been to my parking lot drops, my in-store drops, and she was there just at another one. It’s just super flattering that they're doing that thing and keep following me.

I think it’s fair to say Hey Bagel has developed a very good reputation in the local bagel community. Are you thinking about how to translate the way you’ve been making bagels to how you’ll do it in the shop? Does anything change?

Well, I have concerns about leaving the Eastsiders. At some point, I want to figure out a way to have a drop for something on the Eastside once a month, at least. I don't know how to do that right now. Partially, it's because I think the U Village situation is such a large bite to take, that I want to make sure I can digest that appropriately. I don't want to take my eye off that ball, but I also don't want to leave people high and dry.

I hope to continue to be able to be the direct communicator that I have been. They won't have those Bottle notifications anymore. I mean, I might keep Bottle for some of the remote things, but they're just not going to be a POS solution for me.

I'm super lucky that my audience keeps growing. I'm super lucky that people like them. I love making them and I love the product that they are right now. I'm just so happy with them. And I feel like I still experiment. I experimented this weekend. But part of it is just always trying to chase the best thing. And I think I'm pretty much there now. So my hope is that people will come and visit and we can do this.

As far as what to do about scarcity or volume and things like that, they've all known that my premise has been ‘As hot as I can make them’ and that I wanted to produce on my heels. ‘Come in, we're a little behind the eight ball,’ so that means they're coming out hotter. If it turns out that we're really making people wait too long, maybe we start half an hour earlier or something like that. But I think that I can level up people's expectations by delivering the hot [bagel] to them, and maybe they won't miss the drops as much.

When you think back to when you started and now, when you think about the Seattle bagel scene, how much has changed and where do you think it's at right now?

Well, it's changed massively. When I started, I thought I was the only guy thinking about this. And then Mt. Bagel came on the scene, and then I was watching Porkchop & Company, now Rachel's, start making bagels. And then, once the pandemic hit, you had places like Canlis doing bagels. And I was a pretty envious, jealous dude when people did that stuff back then. I was like, ‘Get off my lawn, this is my space.’ I'm not as much anymore.

I think what I've learned is bagels can be neighborhood-friendly. You really can have this neighborhood being served by this bagel company and this one by this company. I think there's a ton. I think some are going to close eventually. But I think that it's good. You know that saying, a rising tide raises all boats? I think the good news is that there's a lot of people who are putting in a lot of effort to make a great bagel or to try to make a great bagel, either way. And then they have their stark-raving fans. And that pushes everybody else to continue to not rest on their laurels and just punch out a product, for the most part.

I think some places are sitting back on their heels and thinking volume-only and that good enough is good enough. But a lot of us don't believe good enough is good enough. A lot of us believe exceptional is the way to serve a customer.

I know that the U Village location means as long as we deliver something great, I don't have to worry about competition because there's an audience there. Not because we're so amazing, but just as long as we do what we need to do, people need to eat. There's a volume of people there. There's parking there. There's a solution. I think if I was in a little neighborhood, I'd be more nervous.

It sounds like you don't know exactly when you’ll open, but you’re shooting for fall.

Yeah, I think around November. We might have an opportunity to open up earlier, but I doubt it. Just given the way construction and permits go. I'd like to spend some time with my family because my wife's preparing to be a bagel widow again. It was tough the last time.

I can imagine. And what time do you start in the morning?

I want us to start at a reasonable time between 5:30 and 6:00 in the morning. Whereas we were starting at midnight [at Rubinstein]. I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want it for my life and I don't want it for the staff. I just don't think we need to do it. I think I figured out a better way. I'm watching other places. I can do some version of that, too. I mean, if you watch Courage Bagels, the pacing that they do everything is very not rushed. But that’s LA. LA might be okay with that. It was a very not-hurried process.

Well, you do see that at some places here.

I think that, on the one side of it, as a customer, I could feel like that could piss me off. On the other side, I would hope a customer would say, ‘What's the hurry?’

I just think there's so much stress out there right now. There's that song, “I Love Love, I Hate Hate.” I just really hope that Hey Bagel can be the “love, love, hate, hate” type place for everybody. I want it to be a safe space for everybody. I want to encourage everybody to support each other. Ideally supporting me. I'll support them. And then supporting the customers.

I hope it works out that way.

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