San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Boundary-breaking bagel maker opens permanent location
After years of pop-ups and deliveries, one of the Bay Area’s most popular bagel operations is finally welcoming customers at its new shop and bakery.
Hella Bagels opened in early March at 1019 San Pablo Ave., just a few blocks from the Albany-Berkeley border. It offers chewy, New York-inspired bagels with classic toppings from poppy to “everything” seasoning mix, and with a variety of schmears like horseradish-lemon-dill and jalapeño-cilantro.
Hella Bagels owner Blake Hunter, a Bay Area native, began the business as a bagel delivery operation just weeks before the first COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, making the dense but pillowy bagels in his home kitchen. Hunter later set up at Albany’s Flowerland Nursery and Oakland coffee shops Charlie May and Xochi the Dog. Most followers and Bay Area bagel aficionados became familiar with Hunter’s bagels during a residency at Berkeley’s Hidden Cafe, with regular sellouts and wait times of nearly an hour.
The new shop’s menu includes sandwiches (closed or open-faced) on your choice of bagel. The Lox Tycoon ($13 closed, $19 open) comes with the classic combination of lox, tomato, onion, capers, lemon and a dab of scallion schmear. There’s also a whitefish salad bagel and the Dr. Greenthumb bagel (named after the hit Cypress Hill song), which longtime fans will remember from pop-ups. It comes stacked with a variety of fresh greens with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon. “It’s really well-textured and comes together well with a warm bagel,” Hunter said.
A bagel with just cream cheese is $5. Retail bagels are available, with singles ($3), halfdozen ($15) and dozen packs ($30).
Hunter has plans to slowly expand the menu to include roughly 16 items, including hot sandwiches and breakfast sandwiches like a bacon, egg and cheese; lox, egg and onion; and a breakfast club sandwich with pork roll, a popular type of sausage in the New Jersey area, where his parents are originally from.
Hella Bagels’ special bagel toppings and schmears of the week are expected to be available once the shop is running at full speed. In the past, these have included conversationstarting combinations like “sushi bagels” with salmon, spicy mayo, fish roe and cucumber. Hunter plans to release last year’s hit Cadbury creme egg schmear (with bits of the popular Easter chocolate treat mixed into the cream cheese) for a brief time as well as a new sandwich addition every week or so.
“New menu items will be like
Photos by Don Feria/Special to The Chronicle sneaker drops,” he said.
Beverages will include hot and cold-brew coffee drinks using Oakland’s Soul Blends’ roasted beans.
The 1,750-square-foot shop has 30 seats at light-hued birch tables, plus more on an outdoor patio. The minimalist interior features neutral colors and a mural of floating bagels painted in off-white hues. Pops of color include orange stools and contrasting greenery from houseplants given to Hunter by friends.
Inspired by the captivating kitchen views at spots like Krispy Kreme and Din Tai Fung, Hella Bagels features big windows into the kitchen, giving customers a look at the process of bagel shaping, boiling and baking. The kitchen can produce 1,000 to 1,200 bagels per day, up from Hunter’s previous output of 400 bagels two times a week as a pop-up and delivery service.
Despite the increase, Hunter has no plans to go into wholesale. “I respect wholesale, but it alters the perception of the brand,” he said. “My intention is to have an experience here rather than find my bagels anywhere.”
Gearing up to open the new shop, Hunter held his last popup and made his final delivery rounds in December. “It was bittersweet,” he said, “but it’s awesome to have people come into my home now.”
Reach Mario Cortez: mario.cortez@sfchronicle.com