Dan’s Bagels

Bageltopia co-founder Dan Graf creates his unique bagels by allowing his dough a four-day cold proof and ferment time before boiling and baking. He lines his baking trays with custom linen for ideal crust, which results in greater flavor development and bagels with a crisp, glossy exterior and chewy interior.

The Classics, and ...

Along with many classic bagel-shop sandwiches, Bageltopia offers new ideas, including the SUSHINOVA -- a toasted bagel with wasabi-tamari cream cheese, house-smoked salmon, nori strips and wasabi tobiko. And for a sweet treat, the FRENCH TOAST BAGEL -- kettle-fried bagel dough rounds, topped with lemon zest ricotta cream, maple syrup and powdered sugar.

Vegan, too.

Bageltopia offers a vegan sandwich menu that mirrors our classic menu. We brine and cherrywood smoke fresh carrots to create our vegan carrot lox, and offer a “not tuna salad” made from jackfruit, vegan mayo and fresh veggies.

House-Smoked

The Bageltopia founders designed and built a custom cold-smoking box for producing nova lox in-house, and through many months of kitchen experimentation developed a technique for creating cherrywood-smoked vegan carrot “lox”

The Bageltopia Backstory

Dan Graf grew up in New Jersey and spent the happiest days of his youth riding around the state with his contractor dad, helping on jobs and learning alongside him. His dad was a bagel lover, and the two enjoyed visiting bagel shops all around New York and New Jersey, sampling and comparing their wares -- and searching for the perfect bagel.

When Dan landed in Berkeley for college some years later, he found himself working in the kitchen at Saul’s, and noted that the bagels served there were nowhere near the quality he remembered from his youth. He set out to apply his science and engineering skills to learn the process of making the ultimate bagel.

Several months later, after much experimentation and progress, Dan began supplying Saul’s with his bagels. Other cafés and restaurants followed, and Baron’s Baking was born. Word spread -- all the way to the East Coast-- where Dan and his bagels were featured in two New York Times features-- the headline of one reading, “In the Bay Area, bagels as good as Brooklyn’s”

Dan spent the next decade building and expanding Baron’s wholesale business throughout the Bay Area, supplying Peet’s, Philz, and many other notable accounts.

Along the way, Dan became friends with Berkeley’s Fellini Coffeebar founder Jeff Davis. When the space adjacent to Fellini Coffeebar became available, Jeff contacted Dan, who he knew had been dreaming of expanding the wholesale-only Baron’s Baking into a retail location. Jeff then introduced Dan to another restaurant biz friend, Mike Daillak, co-owner of Sam’s Log Cabin, who was also looking for a new project. The three hit it off and decided to launch Bageltopia, spending the next two and a half years developing the concept and building out the space.

We are excited to welcome you to our bagel spot at 1401 University Avenue in Berkeley, open for breakfast and brunch, Tuesday to Sunday from 7:30a to 2p.

Photo Credit: Kelly Sullivan for Nosh/Berkeleyside, Instagram @kelly0graphy