The Short Version
I came out of the fine arts world, which meant, with a family and a mortgage, I quickly found myself in sales and marketing. I learned a lot, but what I ultimately learned is that I’m probably not the best employee. I didn’t love sitting behind a computer, cold calling, and selling things I’m not personally creating.
In 2016, I had a bagel. At that moment it was unlike anything I’d had in Seattle. A fresh take. For me, at that moment, the bagel landscape in Seattle was lacking. Nothing special was being made. The bagels pushed on the consumers were created with refined white flour, and no flavor or depth.
At the time, I was working for a brand strategy firm which focused on food. Thinking of the broader landscape of fast casual food culture, bagels felt like an untapped market. We already had better burgers, better cupcakes, elevated ice cream, reinvented cookies, and a rebirth of donuts, but bagels hadn’t yet arrived.
I thought if I could just focus on one or two things, rather than a broad menu, I might be able to be a successful neighborhood bageler. I didn’t have extensive restaurant experience and wanted to keep it simple. I wanted to make people happy by providing an exceptional product and experience, while justifying my existence with a decent paycheck.
With a business plan in hand, and the recipe development humming along, I got rejected by landlord after landlord. When I finally found the right space, and I was ready to sign the lease, a close family member who was going to loan me some money pulled out just days prior to signing the deal, noting that the dream was likely to fail.
I almost quit. Fortunately, I got introduced to a local restaurateur who had an established organization. We seemed to be on the same page. He liked what I was making and saw my vision. I felt anointed when he agreed to form a partnership. I then spent a year alone in the kitchen of one of his downtown restaurants refining my process, and ultimately launching the bagels into the world, May 20th 2019. The bagels were flat and over proofed that first day. Not the grand release I had hoped for, Luckily all was right on the second day. Things were humming along for months as I registered overnight hours until COVID and lockdown.
I just lost my retail outlet. And the corporate clients I was establishing all went home. I had a decision to make, fold for now, or go into delivery. As soon as I launched online ordering, and delivery, my business multiplied by 5x. I was swamped. My new stress was calling people to break the news that their delivery order they placed for Thursday couldn’t be fulfilled until the following week. Everyone was lovely. There was a communal feeling. It was such a time that folks were locked down and food producers like me could bring them a moment of joy and indulgence.
December of 2020 saw the launch of Rubinstein Bagels first brick-and-mortar location in Seattle known as South Lake Union. It felt like the wild west back then. We were making it up as we went along with so many moving targets. In October of 2021 we opened our second location in Capitol Hill. In 2022 we agreed on a third location in Redmond, Washington.
At this point, the relationship between my business partner and I was changing. In addition, my youngest was hospitalized for a heart infection which culminated in open heart surgery. In Q1 of 2023, I parted ways with my eponymously named company to regroup. It was a hard time, but most importantly my daughter recovered well after her surgery. I took a little time to lick my wounds and figure out my next steps.
I wasn’t done chasing the bagel of my dreams. It’s just a bagel, but it’s an object of desire. The blistered crust that crackles with each bite. The tang of sourdough, and the promise of a soft and chewy warm interior. Hey Bagel was born.
The brand name came from my commitment to be me this time. To follow my vision this time. To be unadulteratedly optimistic, honest and friendly. I didn’t want to just make a great bagel, but I wanted to create a team culture that exudes these qualities and, if only for a moment, sticks to our customers and buoys them in these complex times. An oasis that also sells amazing bagels.
I went way back to the basics. Research and design in my kitchen. Posting free “mailbox” bagels online for the first takers. Eventually, I rented a commissary space, and generated buzz with popups around the Seattle region. When I wasn’t doing just popups, I would take preorders and meet up to 25 customers in transit parking garages, parking lots of grocery stores and libraries and other unusual locations. I was once again reinvigorated by the customer interaction.
In January of 2025, we opened our first shop at Seattle’s University Village, the city’s preeminent lifestyle shopping center. It never occurred to me that Hey Bagel would be in a destination like U Village. It was too ‘pie in the sky.’ It was a result of building a genuine relationship with the folks running the property. I never pitched Hey Bagel, nor made any overtures of the sort.
Since opening we’ve been the recipient of unexpected attention and business. On the weekends, we are still fortunate enough to have lines that snake out the door for the better part of the day. We stick to the mission of serving warm-to-hot bagels all day long. Sometimes it’s a dance when the day is ending, but on the weekends, we’ve got that oven kicking out 180 bagels every twenty minutes. We’ve also introduced Seattle to the bialy, a cousin to the bagel. We serve creative twists, such as our super popular caramelized onion & gruyere bialy, or our Neapolitan inspired pizza bialys.
In April of 2026 we went down to LA to compete in Bagelfest West, an offshoot of the popular Bagelfest in NYC. We took home the prize for best bagel on the west coast. We have our second shop slated to open early May 2027 in the heart of West Seattle, just a block north of the Alaska Junction. On our roadmap is to open a shop in the downtown area as well as something on the east side. On November 15th we’re heading to New York City to compete for the big prize! Wish us luck!