After nearly a year of speculation over when Beauty’s Bagel Shop would open — co-owner Blake Joffe must have told reporters “hopefully in about three or four weeks” about 100 times — the appetizing shop in Oakland finally is open for business.
Local food blogs had covered Beauty’s progress, beset by various permit, funding and construction issues, dutifully if not wearily, leading to much anticipation about when (and if) the shop would open. Along the way, the restaurant accumulated more than 1,000 Facebook and Twitter followers.
A good percentage of them showed up for the grand opening Aug. 26, creating waits of nearly 45 minutes just to get seated, and then 30 to 45 more minutes to get served.
“It was crazy,” Joffe acknowledged. “We ran out of bagels. We had to cut off [people from ordering] dozens pretty early to make sure that everyone got one.”
At about 10 a.m., two hours after the doors swung open, a tweet was posted from a noted Bay Area food writer: “Wow, @beauty’sbagel is sort of wiped out of bagels less than an hour after opening on day 1. Sandwiches only, crazy line.” Shortly thereafter, Beauty’s posted: “Oy vey, we sold out of bagels. Sorry everyone!”
Joffe and co-owner Amy Remsen ended up closing at noon, three hours earlier than anticipated. A few hours later, they posted this on Facebook: “I’m SO SO SO sorry for the long wait times and I promise we will figure things out. We learned a million lessons today and we thank you all for your patience and support.”
Beauty’s specialty is Montreal-style bagels, which Joffe and Remsen started making (in what was supposed to be a temporary operation) at the now shuttered Addie’s Pizza Pie in Berkeley. The bagels gained a following in the year they’ve been sold at Wise Sons Deli in San Francisco; they also were available for a while at Saul’s Deli in Berkeley.
Different than a New York–style bagel, Beauty’s bagels are hand-rolled and boiled in honey water before being baked in a wood-fired oven; generally, they are smaller, thinner, sweeter, denser and not quite as chewy as a New York bagel.
But Beauty’s Bagel Shop is more than just bagels. It is also what Joffe terms an appetizing shop, along the lines of the famous Russ & Daughters in New York, and the opening-day menu included chopped liver, vegetarian pâté, egg salad, smoked trout salad and deviled eggs.
Joffe said the shop sold 475 bagels at the opening, and went through 25 pounds of cream cheese and 12 pounds of lox. The staff of nine did its best, but some people complained about the experience on Yelp.com afterward.
“I made the mistake of reading the Yelp reviews,” Joffe posted on Facebook, “and got really bummed out at how quick people are to judge. Then I read everything you guys wrote [on Facebook] and it cheered me right back up.”
Beauty’s is located at 3838 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland, near 40th Street and the MacArthur BART station. The hours on the website are listed as 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
But after the hectic grand opening, Joffe and Remsen are scaling back. “We are going to be closing at 3 every day,” said Joffe, a former chef at Delfina in San Francisco. “It’s just too much for Amy and I to handle at first.”
Last week proved to be quite a week for local Jewish eateries. In addition to the Beauty’s opening, Wise Sons was cited by Bon Appetit magazine as one of the four “Best New Jewish Delis in America.” The others were Mile End Deli in New York City, Stopsky’s Delicatessen in Mercer Island, Wash. and Rye Delicatessen & Bar in Minneapolis.
Oh, and speaking of long lines, the San Francisco blog UptownAlmanac.com reported that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg waited in line for more than 30 minutes to get into Wise Sons for brunch on Aug. 25.