Barry Kluwgant grew up around bagels. His grandfather founded Melbourne institution Glick’s, a group of kosher bakeries beloved for their soft, delicious bagels.

“I was always at the bakery when I was little,” Kluwgant tells Broadsheet. “I would work Saturday nights with my grandfather, or at 5am with my grandmother. I got to see every aspect of the business. Making bagels was a family experience, and there wasn’t a day when I didn’t eat one.”

Three years ago, Kluwgant’s grandfather passed away and the family gave him their blessing to branch out from the Glick’s brand and start The Bagel Co in Sydney. The Rose Bay Glick’s – which opened seven years ago – was rebranded in 2018 and in July Kluwgant opened a second location in Surry Hills.

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“At the Rose Bay store, we do lots of things other than bagels: catering, cakes, there’s a full bakery,” he says. “At Surry Hills we let the bagels shine.”

The menu at the minimalist Reservoir Street store is focused, but it’s not small. Poppy, sesame seed, everything, garlic, onion, chocolate-chip and two types of blueberry bagels fill the shelves, along with toppings such as lox and six types of cream cheese (including classic, spring onion and sweet chilli), and are all made at The Bagel Co’s Tempe factory.

Plain bagels with cream cheese are a staple, but there are also more elaborate bagel sandwiches. The BLT-ish comes with vegan bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado, and the New York bagel perfectly balances salt and acid with pastrami-cured salmon, roasted garlic, cream cheese, mustard and pickles.

The bagels are soft with a lovely gloss, the result of a unique cooking process. The generations-old family recipe is so secret Kluwgant will hardly talk about it, except to explain that instead of being boiled and baked, his bagels are steamed before baking.

“I found if you boil a bagel, it becomes really crusty and only has a 12-hour lifespan,” he says. “Our procedure is to steam the bagel for 90 seconds and then bake it. It gives it a longer shelf life.”

Although the Surry Hills location is new, The Bagel Co is well established in Sydney. The Tempe factory makes between 50,000 and 70,000 bagels every week, servicing wholesale clients including Harris Farm and IGA, as well as the Rose Bay and Surry Hills shops.

Kluwgant imagines a world in which bagels are as ubiquitous as they were in his childhood. “My dream with The Bagel Co is to take it all over the place. Bagels are so simple, but they have real personality. They’re so charming.”

The Bagel Co
38 Reservoir Street, Surry Hills
(02) 9211 1653

Hours
Mon to Fri 8am–2pm

thebagelco.com.au