Julie and Jesse Roberts, founders of Sunday Bagel
Bagels can be divisive. Dense New York-style versus Montreal’s honey-boiled and wood-fired creations. Savory purists or sweet devotees, toasted or untoasted, schmear or sandwich. People stand firmly by their personal bagel ideals.
When “Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon was caught ordering lox, capers and onions on a cinnamon raisin bagel while running for governor of New York, let’s just say the act may have cost her the race. More recently, a New York tourist posted a video online of him scooping out the doughy center of a bagel, causing everyone on the internet to lose their minds. And the world practically stopped when rapper and actor Ice-T admitted he’d never eaten a bagel.
That unwavering affection surely explains why, on a recent Sunday morning in Union Hill, a line of carb-seeking disciples spilled along the sidewalk, causing parents pushing strollers and passing cars to eye the crowd with curiosity. The gathering of 75-plus people outside of Spotty Dog Ice Cream Co. had one mission in mind: Score some fresh, fermented bagels.
Sunday Bagel held its first official event in September. The sourdough bagel pop-up is the brainchild of Jesse Roberts, a chef at Lost Letter, and his wife, Julie, a James Beard Award-winning designer and VCU grad. Last year, the 29-year-olds relocated to Richmond from New York.
A Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native, Jesse began working in the food and beverage industry aboard a taco truck in high school. After attending culinary school, he landed in Brooklyn, working in kitchens from Daniel Rose’s Le Coucou to a neighborhood pizza shop.
It was at Leo in Brooklyn, a restaurant specializing in wood-fired sourdough pizza, house-made soft serve and a weekend bagel program, that Jesse became enamored with the humble art of baking. “I think that’s when I realized, ‘Oh, I don’t need to work at this fine-dining Michelin-starred restaurant to be happy; I can feel the same way doing this,’” he says.
“Also,” he adds, “I just love bagels. If anything happened in my family that was a big event, it was like, ‘Let’s get bagels for brunch.’ When I found out how to make them, it just became a huge interest, and from there I ran with it.”
Sunday Bagel creations
The name for the pop-up was born when Jesse asked Julie, “Can we just do nothing on Sunday and get bagels?” While the duo have hosted only a few of pop-ups thus far, including appearances at Celladora Wines and Field flower shop, the events have attracted eager bagel enthusiasts and resulted in swift sellouts.
Jesse, a frequent flyer at the revered Tompkins Square Bagels during his time in New York, says he is staying true to the core elements of a New York-style bagel but adding personal twists, such as using spelt flour and boiling the bagels with malt syrup. The goal is to construct a bagel that doesn’t require toasting and that can maintain its bready integrity a few days after being baked.
Menus for Sunday Bagel pop-ups have been classic and concise — everything, sesame and plain (sprinkled with Maldon sea salt) selections, and the bagels sold individually as “loosies” or with cream cheese (plain, dill and salmon, pickled pepper, scallion) — although the vision board includes a sesame-fennel combo, poppy seed and more. The couple are fans of the rip-and-dip method, tearing into the bagel and swooshing into the schmear, and if you get bagels to go, don’t anticipate a knife, just a spoon.
“I did not expect Richmond to be like … ‘I’ll take two sandwiches, a bagel with cream cheese and six bagels to go,’” Jesse says of the response. “We would love to build this thing. … Our main priority now is to get our bagels to as many people as possible.” For the latest updates about upcoming pop-ups, follow @sundaybagelrva on Instagram.
