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An everything bagel with herb cream cheese and cucumber slices from Julio’s Bagels (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Julio's Bagels has partnered with Recluse Roasting Project for its coffee. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Julio’s Bagels is located at 114 W. Brookland Park Blvd. in North Side. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
Dough fans, the wait is over: Julio’s Bagels is now open at 114 W. Brookland Park Blvd., specializing in sourdough rounds.
Helmed by Pizza Bones owner and baker Ashley Patino, Julio’s is the daytime counterpart to her nighttime pizza party. For her second doughy venture, Patino is joined by friend and co-owner Noah Bowman, embracing the motto “bagels how bagels should be” and offering a tight menu of consistent classics.
Aligning with the baking methods adopted at Pizza Bones, bagels are made with naturally leavened dough and locally sourced grains and ingredients. The result is a boiled and baked bagel that’s crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, with a bit of chew and a bit of funk. Patino says of their unfussy menu, “It’s simple, and that’s what I think I’m excited about most.
“I did really love the idea of, like, [West Coast burger chain] In & Out — how their menu is so slimmed down,” she continues. “It’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially with bagels. I thought a lot about it and how to lay things out in a digestible way.”
Inside, a wall menu lists the varieties: plain, sesame, everything and salt. Customers can order a bagel with spread, an egg and cheese bagel sandwich with a choice of protein (bacon, sausage or a vegetarian), or a lox bagel with the works. In a nod to its sister space, Julio’s will also offer pizza bagels, a divisive yet beloved mashup of the two worlds. Additional toppings include red onion, capers, cucumber, radish and a seasonal ingredient, along with jam and butter.
For cream cheese, Julio’s is keeping it fun by rotating spreads across a flavor spectrum of plain, spicy, fruity and herby selections. Of the latter — an early customer, and personal, favorite — Patino says with a laugh, “Why would I want to choose between dill or scallion or chive [cream cheese]?” Instead, they’re all blended together in a verdant mix.
The fruity cream cheese is swirled with jam, and the spicy variety is currently spiked with fermented jalapenos. “I also kind of want to add salty to the mix,” Patino says, adding that longtime employee Annie Lynch makes “this really delicious olive salad, like an olive tapenade, that would just be so good on a bagel.” Patino is thinking of incorporating the salad in cream cheese to create a salty variety.
Noah Bowman and Ashley Patino (Photo by Farrah B. Fox)
A VCU graduate, Patino has spent years dabbling in dough; she worked at the beloved, James Beard Award-nominated Sub Rosa, San Francisco’s famed Tartine Bakery, as well as the Neapolitan-style pizzeria Del Popolo. When she couldn’t find the bagel she’d been yearning for, Patino started tinkering, tapping into her years of baking experience and personal takeaways from bagel shops, bakeries and pizzerias across the country.
The concept for Julio’s was unofficially born in 2022, when Patino began selling bagels on Saturday mornings outside her pizza shop. Since then, she and her team have been boiling and baking them once a week, attracting a crowd of devoted regulars. Aware of the community hub her carbs have created organically, Patino says the team will continue supplying bagels to the Union Hill neighborhood on Saturdays. At the North Side shop, however, they’re upping the ante. “At Pizza Bones, we do max 150 bagels, whereas here at Julio’s we’re expecting to do 800 a day,” Patino says.
Sourcing additional bakers, Patino and Bowman have hired a mixed crew who have worn flour-covered aprons at area bakeries including Sub Rosa, Idle Hands and Europa Crust, as well as early-morning converts from Pizza Bones. The shop is part of a recent business boom on Brookland Park Boulevard: I Love You So Much Books opened in February, Studio One Twenty debuted in April, Morty’s Market & Deli is preparing to open in June, and The Smoky Mug plans to relocate to a larger building down the road.
While Julio’s marks the second venture for Patino — a natural expansion of her repertoire — it is the first she’s operating with a co-owner. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Bowman entered the picture after moving to Richmond. A contractor and former touring musician, he painted the Pizza Bones building in 2021. When Patino put out a call for a potential partner for a bagel concept, he pinged her.
The duo have spent the past eight months converting the former Miss Bee’s Juice Bar space, installing walls, adding a hood and their own personal touches. The centerpiece of Julio’s, which is named after Patino’s father, is a glossy green-tiled counter where patrons will place their orders and peek into the production space.
The bagel shop will operate primarily as a takeout venture, though a few stools sit in the windows that face Brookland Park Boulevard and there is a welcoming a parklet out front. In addition, Julio’s will sell loose bagels in packs of four or eight and offer customizable catering packages complete with boxed coffee — Patino and Bowman have partnered with Richmond-based Recluse Roasting Project for their coffee program. “There will be the option to add lox to the packages, which I am proud of, because I feel like [the choice] adds a level of affordability,” Patino says.
As for this next phase, Patino says, “I’ve done this before, but this is also different; it will be a learning curve. I think it took a little while to get here. Bagels are finicky, and you make a lot of bad bagels until you’re happy with the result, but I’m excited and confident about the product.”
Julio’s Bagels is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Stay tuned for online ordering.
