Beth George Has Taught Nearly 100 Shops Around the World to Make the Perfect Bagel
Queen of the Bagel Business
Beth George, a former child advocate attorney in Maine, started experimenting with gluten-free dough for her son and ended up as the world's most sought-after bagel consultant. At 63, she has trained nearly 100 shops from India to Korea, charging a five-figure fee plus 2% of proceeds if owners sell within ten years. Her 15-month program covers bootcamp, secret recipes, kitchen design, and round-the-clock SOS calls. She treats a bagel shop as a math problem: rent under 10% of revenue, goods and labor each under 35%.
The bagels are much like children. We're making them, we're shaping them, and then we're putting them overnight to sleep.
- halfmatthalfcat
> When I tell her she makes it sound easy, she responds smoothly. “It is,” she says, reminding me her own shop sells 1k bagels on the weekends.
> To start a bagel shop today, she says, costs ~$500k.
"To START" - key quote. Rent, machinery, staff, etc. And then you have to do volume (~1k/day) to even start to cover costs. Then you need ancillary products like coffee (huge margins), cream cheese, etc.
I've been making bagels for almost 4 years and looked into the economics, it's hard and you wont break even for at least a couple years. As someone in tech, trying to get to my current salary would take around 5 years, that doesn't include the time investment, especially with a family.
- syngrog66
It sounds like it could be more lucrative to be a restaurant/baking consultant/trainer than to run a restaurant directly. Devilish details in the execution, requiring just the right individuals and timing and probably luck. With lots of ways to fail.
- realo
I am sure she makes nice pastries, but those are not bagels.
Bagels are cooked in firewood ovens. And they are certainly not "fluffy"!
Best bagels are in Montreal.
Around here we have a nice bagel shop also. Look for "Bagel Maguire Cafe" in your search engine of choice ... you can also find pictures of their big firewood oven.