Bagel debacle
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
Buckin Bagels, the Wood River Valleys only supplier of genuine
bagels, is dark and empty inside. Two signs"For Sale" and "Closed for
Slack"are attached to the white clapboard facade of the building at First
Avenue and Second Street.
Which is it?
Its both, though its closed now by default.
Molly Hunter, the local representative for the stores Seattle owner,
said Buckin Bagels baker walked off the job Friday without warning, forcing
closure of the 7-year-old Ketchum business.
"There is an ad in the paper [for a baker]. Its not closed by
choice, but our baker left last week, and we cant find anyone to work," Hunter
said.
"We want to have the doors open. We think the product is
greatthe business wants to continue."
Even so, the owners are still offering the business for sale after owning
the operation for four years.
Currently, there isnt a genuine bagel to be had in the valley.
So unless the bagel-deprived public wants to stoop to eating the frozen
variety from the grocery store, or the fake kinddinner rolls with a hole in them,
available at some stores and coffee shops in townlocal connoisseurs find themselves
in the throes of a major bagel dilemma.
Bagels are made in one way, and one way only. The dough is kneaded, rises
and then is made into round shapes (based originally in Austria, in the 1600s, on a horse
saddles stirrup), boiled and then baked.
This procedure is what gives bagels their unique texture and
characteristic crust. To gain that chewy consistency, bakers put in long, early-morning
hours.
In fact, a baker must come in approximately four hours earlier than the
first bagel is ever sold, said Keith Perry, owner of Perrys restaurant.
As Perry knows from dealing for 15 years with his own occasional worker
shortages, personnel of this type are scarce.
Among the spots now bagel-less are: Perrys, Starbucks, Tullys
and Terra Cotta Cafe.
Gregg Ferguson, manager of Tullys, called it a "bagel
vacuum."
Local bakery Lyndees has offered to bring by samples for him to try,
but they also are not realthat is, boiled and bakedbagels, Ferguson said.
He said he has considered suppliers in Seattle and San Francisco but,
"We dont want a bunch of dried-out, rock-hard bagels."
Cottonwood Cafe, in Ketchum, has a type of bagel that comes from Chicago,
also parbaked and then baked on site.
"A lot of my customers think my bagels are so much better," the
cafés owner, Lynn McCarthy, said.
Mike Root, owner of Haileys Cucina Caffe, makes his bagels from the
frozen variety supplied by Syscos, the regional produce distributor from Boise. They
are fresher that way, he said.
"Its like anything you do, its better when its
right out of the oven," he said.
If there are no authentic bagels in town, what are a bagel addicts
choices?
Theres Lenders, or there is Sysco. Though whether they are
authentic bagels is another matter.
Sysco carries two types of bagelsSysco Classic Label, and Block and
Barrel Classic, which are parbaked, frozen and then shipped, or are baked, frozen,
individually sleeved, shipped and then thawed.
In a bagel-less world, beggars may not be choosers. Or they may choose to
abstain until the crisis is remedied.