Story by Britney Nguyen

With a slightly crispy outside and a chewy airy inside, the boiled and baked bagels at Brandwein’s Bagels have the authenticity of a New York-style bagel.

Born and raised in New York, Alex Brandwein, the owner of Brandwein’s Bagels, located at 505 W. Rosemary St. in Chapel Hill, grew up eating bagels every day. He came to UNC to get a master’s degree in business administration, but did not know what he wanted the next chapter of his life to be.

“I started to think about what means the most to me, and that’s to be a part of a community, and I started to just fall in love with Chapel Hill,” he said. “I also noticed on the other side, just as someone living here, that there wasn’t a downtown bagel shop.”

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Brandwein thought starting his own bagel shop would be a fun way to be part of the Chapel Hill community while also bringing a bit of New York to the area.

“For the menu, I really wanted to have classic New York sandwiches that are elevated,” Brandwein said. “We want to take those classics and make it something special, something that you can’t get anywhere else.”

For example, Brandwein’s take on a lox sandwich is adding fresh dill and lemon to the smoked salmon – which he sources from Brooklyn’s Acme Smoked Fish – along with plain cream cheese, red onions, capers and tomatoes. For the classic egg and cheese, the eggs are mixed with the cheese so every bite has a little bit of everything.

The shop serves up eight ‘House Favorite’ sandwiches that include the lox, the egg and cheese, the roast beef deluxe, the pimento club, the BLT and the reuben. One of Brandwein’s favorites is the hot honey turkey: it has roast turkey, swiss cheese, sliced green apples, arugula, plain cream cheese, deli mustard and a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey.

Another favorite is the veggie sandwich, which has roasted red pepper hummus, plain cream cheese, feta, tomato, red onion, pickled cucumber, arugula, Mike’s Hot Honey, sprouts, dill and lemon.

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Brandwein said their authentic New York bagel keeps it simple with just five ingredients: yeast, flour, water, salt and barley malt syrup.

“What makes it ‘New York,’ is after you make the dough and you keep it in the refrigerator overnight, we boil the bagels in water for just about a minute or so before we put them in the oven,” Brandwein said. “That boiling process actually creates that nice thin exterior that you wouldn’t get otherwise.”

Brandwein said being in Chapel Hill has influenced the flavors of the sandwiches at Brandwein’s Bagels, like having pimento cheese on one of the House Favorites.

“We take our classic New York bagel, we hit some of the classics and then we pay homage to where we are which is in North Carolina,” he said.

Brandwein said the reception from the community so far has been incredible.

“It’s made me fall in love with this town all over again, honestly,” Brandwein said.” People are really rooting for us. It feels good in so many different ways.”

During COVID, Brandwein said the safety of the team and customers is priority number one. The team does wellness checks every day, everyone is required to wear a mask and there are partitions and sanitizers. Customers are asked to keep a six-foot distance and asked to wait outside while their bagels are being prepared. Bagels are wrapped up and made to-go. Brandwein’s also offers catering with individually-wrapped bagels.

Brandwein said the shop could go in a lot of different directions, but right now he is taking it one step at a time and trying to be as safe as possible.

“What excites me most is, hopefully, we can be a staple in this community for a really long time,” Brandwein said. “We’d love to be that go-to bagel shop in the downtown area of Chapel Hill.”

Brandwein’s Bagels is located at 505 W. Rosemary St. You can find the Brandwein’s Bagels menu here on their website.

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