S1,E25: Baby's Bagels - Eric, Koby, and Cyrus

Ever wondered how the thrill of slicing through fresh powder can lead to kneading the perfect dough? This episode invites you into the story of Eric, Cyrus, and Koby—three friends whose shared love for skiing and fresh bagels birthed Baby’s Bagels, a warm and welcoming bagel bakery in the heart of Salt Lake City. They recount the transition from snowy slopes to rising dough, and how their vibrant pink sign became a beacon for the community in search of the perfect chew.

Join us as we unwrap the day-to-day of bagel entrepreneurship, from the meticulous art of recipe refinement to the balancing act of maintaining friendships amidst the flour and ovens. Our guests peel back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes ballet of starting a business together—think of it as a "Friends" episode, but with more yeast and fewer coffee cups. Their candid stories of growth, from pop-ups to a brick-and-mortar location, will have you savoring each bite of their journey.

But it's not just bagels and schmear on the menu. We knead into the local political scene, discussing how grassroots movements and recreational interests like skiing shape regional politics. Our guests emphasize the power of community engagement, not just in shaping a successful business, but also in influencing the world outside their bakery doors. So, if you're in the mood for tales of entrepreneurship sprinkled with a bit of civic duty (and perhaps craving a bagel), this episode is freshly baked and ready for you.

Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

https://smalllakecity.buzzsprout.com

Transcript

Erik: 0:10

What is up everybody and welcome back to the Small Lake City podcast. I'm your host, eric Nielsen, and we have a treat of an episode for you today. If you have driven down 5th South recently, especially past 2nd East, you've probably seen a pink sign that's gone up recently in the past six months that says babies on it, and if you've gone inside, you've probably had a delicious Bees bagel. So this week's guests are the three founders, eric, cyrus and Kobe, who all come from Massachusetts area and decided to follow their dreams of chasing snow and good skiing to come here and then decided that they wanted to start a restaurant and landed on bagels. So come here, listen about their story, about how they ended up here, working together and all of the fun times that they had Such a cool group of dudes excited to have their story out there and hear more about what they're up to and what they're looking forward to in the future. So check it out and let's hear from them. Do you?

Erik: 1:10

I can't remember, okay so here's one thing I've been juggling about since I first got introduced to you guys is what do you collectively call yourselves? My brain's been going wild. Are you guys like the babies? Are you guys the baby brothers?

Cyrus: 1:23

I can keep riffing, we can find something. We're babies, we're just babies. We are babies Collectively. The babies, some babies, yeah, just babies.

Erik: 1:33

How many babies do the babies have? Zero? Yeah, it makes sense, because then you guys are actually like right, we are the babies, can't have babies yeah true, I am actually having a baby.

Cyrus: 1:49

And not right now. Not right now Just welcome to the show.

Koby: 1:55

Surprise guest.

Erik: 1:56

Oh, that's so cool. I was telling you guys, when I drive to Edison House, which I at least go every day to go to the gym in the morning, I drive by baby's bag because I'm always going down Fis South. And the first time I was like because that kind of like collection of restaurants has had like there's like a couple things that have stayed, like taco, taco, but then everything else has kind of been like turned over, so like, and again you see bright pink staring at you, like it's going on over there. But I remember I can't remember who it was. It was either Kendall, like the Queen of SLC, or my Ohio Food Fairy, and they posted about it. I was like, all right, it's time to go. And I got the scallion cream cheese because before the hot menu was there and I was like, all right, like game on.

Erik: 2:35

Because like that's the thing that frustrates me is like I'm a big bagel person. So I traveled the country for six months in a van and like my thing was, like I want to find like breakfast sandwiches. I go Like there's a lot of good experiences to be had and like, while I would consider like a good bagel sandwich a subset of breakfast sandwiches, it's like when done right it's the greatest thing in the world, when done poorly it's the most average thing in the world. And so I'm so glad that we have another contender for a great bagel breakfast sandwich in the city. Not even that was just good bagels in general those are hard to come by. But so to have you guys. So the babies themselves this is the first time we've recorded with three people. I'm very excited, but maybe just go around the horn really quick and kind of give yourself a quick introduction so we can put some names with some voices.

Eric: 3:19

Sure, my name is Eric, baby number one. I've been living in Salt Lake since I was a pandemic move. Some moved here in 2020. Nice, and yeah, stoked to be here, Wait.

Erik: 3:33

so where are you from originally?

Eric: 3:35

I grew up in Massachusetts. We all grew up in Massachusetts, outside of Boston. I didn't know these two are brothers. I didn't know them. I met Cyrus in California when we were living out together.

Erik: 3:48

Yes, like what a like a rat race of a of a place to end. You're like we'll stay in the middle, ok, cool, so, yeah, ok, massachusetts is all coming together now. So, and then the brothers themselves.

Koby: 4:04

Yeah, I'm Kobe Lias. I'm also baby number one. Yeah, I grew up outside of Boston with Cyrus. Moved to Utah 10 years ago at this point for business school, actually at the University of Utah Great school. Yeah, go eats and yeah, had been here, you know. Found a job after school, bought a house, met a girl you know. Rest its history. Started to beg a bakery.

Erik: 4:35

I mean, that's the logical progression Right. Find some of the lights you like. Each other enough, procreate big.

Cyrus: 4:45

I am Cyrus, baby number one, and I'm baby Kobe's baby brother as you may have mentioned and yeah, I also kind of a pandemic move. Kobe kind of has like a pretty big gravitational pull. I'd say, and has kind of sucked people from all over the country into into Salt Lake City.

Koby: 5:16

So as bad as it sounds, it's more comforting than it sounds.

Cyrus: 5:21

I don't know there's ups and downs, but yeah, I've I loved coming to visit when he was out here at school and and the pandemic hit and it was like all right, it's all like, let's do it, and moved out here with my now wife and yeah, eric and I kind of like we were like daring each other, like no one thought the other one would do it and it just kind of ramped up until we both lived here. We now own a duplex together, live right next door. We got a whole like commune thing going on. That is a lot of time to spend with people Agreed yeah.

Erik: 6:00

But I mean, if it hasn't broken yet it's like it's like if you guys have heard, like the three month rule in dating we're like anybody, can fake being someone for three months and then the wheels come off. So like it's like that, love, bird, love. Like, oh my gosh, we love each other so much. It's never been better. Three months later, never mind, and I thought they were.

Eric: 6:17

I'm not who I said I was.

Cyrus: 6:19

And we're out of here.

Erik: 6:21

Yeah, our wheels came off a long time ago, yeah. No, that's awesome. So was there ever did you saw like you two grew up with like planning to start a bagel business, since you were like playing in the sandbox at five years old or like, where did this like initial idea incept from?

Koby: 6:38

I think actually Eric kicked it off. He was the one who actually I mean we had been kicking around kind of food business ideas, sort of partially joking, for you know, years and years, and Cyrus won't tell anyone this, cyrus but worked at Chapinis. He was a stodge at Chapinis restaurant in Berkeley Bay area kind of institution. So he's been involved with food. Me and Eric are, you know, enthusiastic fans of food but had never worked in it professionally.

Erik: 7:08

I can throw my my hand at it as well. Yeah, exactly.

Koby: 7:12

But you know, we had been sort of I don't know kind of kicking around. Should it be pizza? Should it be bagel? Should it be, you know, a bar? Should it be like what? What should we do?

Erik: 7:21

And I feel like all of those are like social foods. So I feel like he wanted to be able to create a place like hey, like, yeah, come hang out, come enjoy the time, because, like I guess, food in itself is sitting down and enjoying time together. So I like that.

Koby: 7:33

there's like in all those ideas there's some sort of community aspect to it, but I think it was. Eric, who was finally like all right, let's, you know, let's cut the bullshit and you guys won't shut up about it.

Eric: 7:45

Yeah, I think they talked about it more than I dreamed about it myself personally and I was kind of in between work for a couple months and had some extra time to work on a project.

Erik: 8:03

So you took, like the pandemic, like baking, just to the next level, to the next level.

Eric: 8:10

Yeah, and it was one day when Tyrus and I were skiing and I thought you know, can't be that hard to start a bakery.

Cyrus: 8:19

That was 16 years ago.

Koby: 8:23

We made it past the three month rule.

Eric: 8:25

We did make it past the three month rule.

Cyrus: 8:28

That's love so so yeah, so it's like your resting idea you have this hobby.

Erik: 8:33

And so I guess, when did you? I guess okay, so I'm trying to put this together of so you guys are friends for a long time. He moves out, you join him, and then this idea starts. And so did you bring the idea to them is like hey, I think I finally figured out the food idea, I know what it's going to be. Or was it still just kind of calamity of getting kind of this all started?

Eric: 8:53

We so I think the like two ideas that we're debating between was pizza and bagels, and ultimately decided to go the bagel route, thinking that it was a little bit easier to start. You don't need to like, serve it immediately Bagels can kind of be picked up from a kitchen.

Erik: 9:09

So who is team bagel and who is team pizza at the beginning? Or does it just depend on the day?

Koby: 9:14

Yeah, I think ultimately, you know, hopefully we, we don't have to choose in the long term.

Eric: 9:23

Yeah, I think bagels are still a step towards pizza, one main ingredient.

Cyrus: 9:30

Shots fired.

Erik: 9:31

But at least you got something off the ground Like most people will sit there and hum and ha about it and next thing I know it's like yeah, not going to happen.

Cyrus: 9:38

Yeah, it's hard to. It's hard to serve pizzas out of a commissary kitchen can be done, but bagels were kind of the you know we didn't need a restaurant to start baking bagels and so that was. That was kind of how the decision was made. We didn't have like a ton of capital, we didn't have a ton of time. Honestly, we were all working full time jobs and so, yeah, we could kind of dip our toe in with bagels. It felt like yeah.

Erik: 10:10

So before this, not a ton of experience like it's not like you have the side hobby, I guess, unless you have your pandemic hobby, to just like start cranking out bagels. It's something like learned. Like the only reason I ask is I so someone I've had on the podcast, um yin nans, who founded like chubby baker and like she's like had no idea, and then all of a sudden she like dupes me saying that she got these donuts from the Chinese market and I eat them. Like these are amazing, where do I get them? She's like got you opening in two months, the old bait and switch. So I was curious if it was one of those words learning so much. But I mean, it sounds like there's enough food experience and food passion that you could get through it.

Cyrus: 10:51

Yeah, I think food has been like a really big part of our lives and it's something we've like focused on quite a bit. I had baked bagels specifically like at home, kind of learned how to do it, and I think we kind of just like took that passion and like figured it out. Like over many iterations, many different recipes, like kind of we knew sort of what we were heading towards. We didn't quite know how to get there, but as we kind of baked them more and more, we learned a lot about.

Erik: 11:27

I mean I'm surprised you guys can even like eat a bagel today, like if I had eaten that, like gone through the whole, like research side, development side, and then again like cooking them every day and being like well what's another one Like I would be so sick of bagels and I would probably would have bred again for the rest of my life.

Cyrus: 11:44

Yeah, I mean, I probably eat like 15 bagels a week.

Koby: 11:49

I mean, like most of the bagels I eat now are sort of like you know I've been up since four in the morning baking. I've like had six cups of coffee and no food and I'm like sweating bullets and panicking mid. You know service shift out like getting crushed on a Saturday and I'm like stuffing my face with a bagel and that is not the best way to eat a bagel. Actually it turns out. So I also like try to like you know, have a bagel at home. You know like sit down toasted or eat it fresh enough and like they're better that way. But you know I don't know.

Erik: 12:29

You can't always choose your circle Right. So, if you're ever like in a fox hole in a war and you need to eat a bagel that's similar to how they usually most of their bagels, some sort of like zombie deliriousness between exhaustion and just needing to get bagels out of the oven.

Erik: 12:45

Yeah, so cool. So you guys have this idea. You're like, all right, cool Bagels. Number one will come back to pizza. Who knows? I mean, what were the first steps from there? I mean because, like, how did you think about that location? I mean menu development, I mean what were kind of your first steps and how'd you go about tackling those?

Eric: 13:34

So we tried to figure out how to make bagels. So Cyrus mentioned that he kind of had a recipe that he had been working through. So we started there and then just tried to kind of scale up.

Cyrus: 13:45

And just a quick note this is like two years ago, like we've been doing this for a long time, like that space that we're in now was not even a twinkle in Eric's eye, you know that was our.

Eric: 13:57

That's our third kitchen that we've been in.

Erik: 13:59

Okay.

Eric: 14:00

Or I guess fourth, if you consider home kitchens.

Erik: 14:03

Well then that yeah, it's going to say that when there's the duplex. So it's all coming together now.

Eric: 14:09

But I think one of the biggest surprises for me was just like going from that you know baking a dozen bagels at home to trying to scale up and how finicky bagels are. I mean, I feel like we're still. You know bagels come out different every day depending on the temperature and humidity, and you know all these different factors.

Erik: 14:29

Like, even like. On that note, there's a YouTube video I want. I mean this is probably years ago now, but they were interviewing one of like the biggest producers of bagels in New York and he's like, oh well, like, my recipe changes whatever month of the year. It is because in the summer everything's going to cook a lot different than it does in the winter, Exactly, and I'd like never. And then obviously like that Like principal, like scales with how many bagels you're cooking. So fucking nightmare.

Eric: 14:57

Yeah, there's some trauma, I know someone that can we all come out on top? Yeah, so it took us a long time. I mean, we, you know, had been baking bagels and then we started, kind of January 2022, when we decided to kind of give this a shot, and we didn't sell our first bagel until May of that year. Oh, wow, um. So it took us a long time of baking, you know, multiple times a week, um, to try and figure out, like, how we can get a product that we are satisfied with Um, and then it, you know, was another year plus before we developed a menu and had a store and um, we're just doing bagels at the beginning for for a long time.

Koby: 15:42

Yeah, it was fun to do it out of the commentary kitchen. I think like it it was. It'll let us like. Yeah, with low capital investment like and and anyone who's interested in like starting food businesses. I think the like, the commentary kitchens in the valley are like a huge resource. You can go in low capital, kind of rent the space by the hour, test your stuff, you know, get a website set up, sell it, like you know, to the early adopter Instagram folks who are out there like looking at the new stuff and sell a little bit of it. They'll help you, they'll provide feedback, they'll help you workshop it and like. You know, that whole process of like starting small in the commissary space and like growing was, I think, really critical to like being able to now. Had we just jumped into like what we're doing currently, it would have been an absolute disaster.

Erik: 16:30

Especially like going back to like we needed time to perfect the menu of what we wanted to do. Like I mean, you start having all of that overhead and that runway gets very tight very quickly and like last thing you want to do is go to market with, like a sub product and it's funny because, like Corinne Benoit, she's the uh ambassador for Yelp in the area, and so she said the same thing Like it's so nice that we have, I mean it's kind of like similar to e-commerce with, I mean, goods. Like the thought of in the like trying to open up a physical store and trying to sell goods right away, that sounds terrifying. And similarly, to be like I'm going to go buy a whole store for I'm going to install a hood, I'm going to install a grease trap, I'm going to do all of this Shit To try to make that work Like no like commissary kitchen, test it out, get the right audience to get it and then then do that If you feel comfortable.

Erik: 17:19

That's like such a huge leap that used to happen so much, but now, thankfully, it doesn't.

Cyrus: 17:22

Yeah, and I think it's not just the like testing those things, like kind of seeding the market, getting your name out there, like I think that was sort of invaluable for us, like the number of people who we saw every week at the farmers market who then started showing up at the shop and uh, or like folks who we had given bagels to, kind of influencer people who then like are now kind of feels like lifelong fans and like they've done so much to help us kind of get the word out.

Erik: 17:52

Yeah, it's always like, and that's like one thing that comes through so much in the podcast is like the I mean it sounds so cheesy, but like the like desert itself of like this beehive that works together, like really does want to help and support each other, like it's. It's found everywhere, like in everybody I've talked to you through like I mean art, through business, through food. It's like always this kind of group of people willing to help each other. And I mean I've experienced that countless times like doing this, and it's so fun to see like, however different backgrounds we are and like different stages of it. There's usually someone's like yeah, like what can I do to help? How can we do this together?

Erik: 18:27

And so it's fun that you had and I mean especially like going through that growth phase. We're like, hey, we're at the farmer's market. We're like, please, like take a bagel to them. Now it's I mean the first time I saw a line that was like my like last draw, I was like all right, yeah, just the most like millennial thing to say like I won't get something until I have to wait for it.

Eric: 18:45

And then I'll go wait for it, and then I'll complain about waiting. What is my life?

Erik: 18:50

But no, that's such a cool way to see and especially see like to your point, like the repeat people come through the relationship, start to form Cause. I mean, that's what I've imagined. I've never opened up a food and beverage business, but to see those people come through those relationships that smile over your time, especially like such a good food and like something that you validated through your own process of what you think you're like the best bagel, is to see that, like other people, like you're right, this is the best bagel Like. Thank you.

Koby: 19:14

Yeah, that community part that you mentioned I think was absolutely critical. I mean, like Arlo, uh rest, or Milo guy who runs Arlo um was so generous to us, he, he let us come in for three weekends in. Well, what was it? March 23. Was that last year? Yeah, um feels like a while ago, um, but he let us like come in sort of workshop, the first like prepared food right, like the first kind of egg sandwich, like locks sandwich that you'd get from babies. Um, and sort of just take over his kitchen, like it's a beautiful kitchen, it's beautiful space. We were, you know, pretty rookie and he like essentially handed us the keys. I mean I feel glad we didn't break anything.

Erik: 20:03

I know I would have. Yeah, hey, we probably did, he probably he's so nice.

Cyrus: 20:08

He probably just didn't tell us. You know that industrial mixture I'm pretty sure that was snapped before.

Erik: 20:13

Uh, and that dough in there is not from bagels, it's gotta go by.

Koby: 20:17

Uh yeah, so he and that I think, helped us kind of, like you mentioned, like menu, menu prep and and workshopping like that helped us sort of like get a sense of like what, what type of work this would be to actually like have a full service bagel shop and like what we would want on the menu and, um yeah, and it really gave me a great sense of community and like having you know other folks who are successful like food business entrepreneurs in the city who can like we can go do for you know help and resources. Um yeah, it's, it feels I don't know I haven't started a food business in another city, but it feels like particularly, you know, unique to Salt Lake maybe.

Cyrus: 21:02

Definitely I haven't started a food business in another city either, but I've been around folks who have and yeah, the, the, the community aspect of of what we've seen is like seems, feel so unique. It's just not how it would go in another place, like, yeah, yeah, everyone we talk to is just like hell. Yeah, this is awesome. Like you know, give us, they give us advice, they give us their time. It's like it's amazing.

Erik: 21:29

I'm always envious of like low, like really short feedback cycles, like if someone like, for example, someone could literally look in the eyes or a sandwich you could turn around, had it to him. They could take a bag like that's the best breakfast sandwich I've had in my life and be like oh, I think so too.

Eric: 21:45

Like and they can walk away.

Erik: 21:47

Whereas, like so many other things people do, it's like, oh well, I'll never know what they say or how they feel, and then you see them keep coming back and that's that's so funny and I'm jealous of that. Like that's one thing I've always wanted to do about like starting my own like food and bed business, being like, oh, I can see how this makes you happy today, because I know every time like I have the worst poker face for good and for bad. But if someone like gives me something to like, like if I were to give myself a plate of food, I would see my own smile.

Eric: 22:14

I just was always excited to eat.

Erik: 22:16

So I'm glad that you guys get to have that experience and so, ok, so you go from. You have this idea, you create this, at least like this V1. You go workshop at Arlo. You're starting to go on, I mean, apps and talk to people and give feedback, and so at what point was that next step? Because you mentioned that the fifth south location isn't, wasn't the, I guess, third or fourth? But so you went from Arlo to, I mean, where was the next stop after that?

Cyrus: 22:42

We weren't even counting Arlo.

Erik: 22:45

I didn't think so. But, yeah, so there's a quick detour.

Cyrus: 22:49

Yeah, we were. We had like two commissary kitchens down South Salt Lake and we were we ran the Arlo pop ups out of one of those commissaries, so we baked down in South Salt Lake and then we'd come up in the morning bring the bagels and we'd do the the prepared stuff up at Arlo Nice. And it was probably it was a couple months. When did we? We moved into the Canela spot in like in May of last year.

Cyrus: 23:17

OK, a couple months after those Arlo pop ups, but we weren't, we didn't have a cafe, we weren't running full menu, we were basically just running the kitchen and doing like retail bags of bagels out of the front, similar to what we were doing at the farmers market. Nice. And yeah, in the in the last like what was it Probably around September, october was when we sort of started talking about like hey, we could be here for a little longer and and figure out how to turn this into like more of a proper bagel shop.

Eric: 23:53

Yeah, yeah, it was very opportunistic. We moved into the Canela spot, as we call it, because that's what it was.

Erik: 24:00

Makes sense to me.

Eric: 24:02

We moved there kind of just as a commissary kitchen so we could expand the number of hours we're renting it kind of by the day instead of by the hour, which is what is typical at a commissary kitchen. So we thought it was a good way to kind of expand and add more days to our offerings. But yeah, it came up in kind of September, october. The landlord had been trying to rent out the space to another restaurant and we got the opportunity, said you know, do you want to take over part of it? And we, you know, thought, why not, we can give it a shot. So that was probably late September that that happened.

Erik: 24:42

OK.

Eric: 24:44

And that gave us like five weeks to build out a bagel shop.

Erik: 24:49

It was chaos, it was a disaster. It sounds like chaos. It sounds like a reality TV show. You found your perfect space. You have five weeks to open. Yeah, it was pretty it was crazy.

Cyrus: 25:03

I was a wild five weeks and then the next five weeks were any better.

Koby: 25:06

Yeah, then we had to run a bagel. Yeah, we were like, yeah, so we like shut down, we stopped baking for about a month and, like you know, renovated the space to like what you see in there now. And at the end we were, like you know, had sort of finished this, like it felt like a sprint, you know it was finally looking good and done and we were like now we have to run a bagel shop.

Cyrus: 25:30

We're like digging your own brains. How do we do that? We also like we hired like an electrician, I think yeah, and like we did everything ourselves. We have no fucking idea how to do any of it, but we like figured it out.

Erik: 25:45

Guys, come watch this YouTube video again. Exactly, I'm doing this right now, yeah.

Cyrus: 25:50

Yeah, kobe crushed the tile on the point of sale counter, but not literally.

Erik: 25:56

No.

Koby: 25:58

There were some crush times.

Cyrus: 26:00

But it was fun. We learned a lot, for sure. A lot of hours in that space, oh I bet.

Erik: 26:07

But like such a fun way to like A like bring you guys together and like like continue this project. I mean, unless it just like ends in a fist fight every night and some sort of ER or insta-care visit. But, like also just makes it so much more meaningful because like, yeah, if you got, I mean invest your money and then you invest it into it, and then you just come by every week to make sure things aren't like like stagnant, Like that's such a different experience.

Koby: 26:29

Yeah, I don't know how that's possible. I mean, yeah, like I'm sure people do it and maybe do it well, but it just like I don't know how. Do you like give a shit about the business then you?

Erik: 26:40

know, I don't know, maybe it's different.

Koby: 26:42

It's like a, it's a franchise or something and you just like producing someone else's food, but that's I don't know. Yeah, that wasn't what we wanted to do and yeah, I don't think we could do a good job of that. You know, like we, I think it's like being invested and excited about it makes it like really easy to spend a ton of time working on it, you know yeah, and I think you see that you see that in the customers too.

Cyrus: 27:07

Like you see, the people are showing up there excited. They can tell that like your heart's in it. And yeah, I don't know, I think there's there's a lot of restaurants out there that that that don't have that relationship with the owners and with the employees, and I think people could tell.

Erik: 27:27

For sure. Like I always love that I mean, at the end of the day, like boils down to authenticity, and anybody can be inauthentic. But I feel, like people in general, but even more so like recently, like people want an authentic experience. Like I don't want to go to like an Italian restaurant that tastes like someone's, just like dishing out ragu and then the back, you know. Like I want I mean I mean Matteo talked about it a ton.

Erik: 27:50

It's like there's like to be able to have like that extra angle, but like also that care and like really being a steward over the food and the experience you provide, instead of just saying like, yeah, here's your. Like just chain thing, ordered off the menu, heated up in a microwave, ready to go, and I hate my job and I hate my life. Like like not saying that no one can be happy doing a job like that, but I couldn't and I'd rather have an authentic place where people feel welcome and want to come back, instead of like this, almost like hospital experience. I don't want to go back to you. So then it's probably backtrack a little bit. But where did the name babies come from?

Cyrus: 28:30

Well, we feel, we felt like babies just never got enough bagels. You know, babies are getting baby food. They're getting cream, spinach or whatever. I don't know. I don't have a baby, but I know one thing, and it's babies are not eating enough bagels. And so that is our yeah, that's kind of that was our raison d'etre, I guess is the word Wow, no, don't, don't, don't. Don't, don't don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

Koby: 29:03

Don't, don't.

Erik: 29:03

Don't, don't, yeah.

Cyrus: 29:06

Um, yeah, I don't, we are babies, we are, I think what we're certainly on is we don't have a great word for the name babies.

Erik: 29:18

We can workshop it. It was pink.

Koby: 29:19

It looks good. It's a literative, you know it's stuck early on.

Erik: 29:23

I remember when I first saw it I was like this has got to be like two girls and like in my canva. But then I'm like oh no, no, this is way better.

Cyrus: 29:35

Yeah, we started with the logo and then we were like, all right, all right, what fits.

Erik: 29:40

Well now I just figured you, starting with the logo, back in like listen, I drew this logo on the flight here.

Eric: 29:46

It's got something.

Cyrus: 29:48

I just think in bagels or pizza and then we'll land around bagels, but that's closer to how the name came.

Erik: 29:57

Everybody loves a good story, but I mean what kind of like surprises have come along the way, because I'm sure it wasn't all just like smooth sailing and coasting the entire way. I mean, what were some of the biggest things that came up during the whole process?

Cyrus: 30:12

Honestly, I don't have, like I can't think of like an event that I mean. There's all sorts of hurdles and challenges, but when I think back, it's just like the feeling of like raw grinding, like working as hard as you possibly can, for as long as you possibly can, and like just not stopping. You know, like that, yeah, things crop up. There's three of us. Usually, one of us has an idea of how to handle it.

Eric: 30:48

Just take it to him and we'll take it a problem.

Cyrus: 30:50

Yeah, it's just like alright, let's go, like you know, not looking back, not trying to like hem and haw, but just like keeping each other moving, and keeping it going has kind of been I don't know.

Eric: 31:05

Yeah, I retract what I said at the beginning of opening a bagel shop wouldn't be hard. It was. It is hard. I do feel like the beginning, especially, was really hard. I think honestly, the hardest part is just like being accountable to each other, like it wasn't an established workplace, like we're all 30 friends, like how do you keep each other accountable and you know figure out division of responsibilities and decision making. I feel like that took a long time for us to kind of get the hang of.

Koby: 31:43

We often start our meetings with a feelings-based conversation.

Erik: 31:47

So just want to feel this out before I walk in.

Koby: 31:50

How's everyone feeling today?

Erik: 31:51

That's why I'd be like, okay, I'll table this one for tomorrow, alright. I also think it's important because I mean you hear so many stories of things going south with friends because of some business thing and they never like make that bridge back, and so it's nice that you guys have like, I mean, it's been hard, like I don't think either, and you guys are like wait, you guys, that was hard for you guys.

Eric: 32:13

I was sleeping in the back.

Erik: 32:15

But at the same time and you guys are obviously all still, unless you guys are the best actors in the world- and you guys seem to still enjoy each other. I mean still neighbors too on top of it. I mean I mean baby it was. I mean it's silly as we joke about it, but maybe it is like being that cognizant and be like where are we all at right now and who can do what and when.

Koby: 32:34

I do think, yeah, we definitely do that right. There's, like you know, folks have a little bit more time. We, you know, in this few months you know someone's going on the Grand Canyon, someone you know we could like pick up the slack. Someone's having a baby, someone's having a baby. I'm, yeah, trying to build some credibility.

Erik: 32:55

I've been working a lot as a baby. Chef Gov is just doing every year, but I think like I don't know being able to kind of, you know, having a forum.

Koby: 33:11

I mean, we sort of joke about the feelings based conversation, but I do think it is like a serious forum where we bring up like stuff that is challenging and difficult and, like you know, like work through it. So, yeah, I don't know if there's like a secret to it, but like, yeah, being able to like communicate and like, if something's bugging you, addressing it rather than just letting it, you know, kind of faster, I think, is, yeah, the only way.

Erik: 33:43

Smart.

Cyrus: 33:44

Yeah, yeah.

Koby: 33:49

That's a cousin of a shirin' though I'm feeling good today.

Cyrus: 33:55

No, I think another kind of tricky transition piece, that that like going from a business where the three of us do absolutely everything to a business where we have employees and we are training people and like, yeah, having other folks do some of the work has been really interesting. We've got like an incredible crew that just they do an amazing job. But figuring out how to like like dealing with each other is one thing, but then dealing with other people too, yeah, it's. I'm definitely still learning how all that works and shakes out, but it's been fun Like like getting other people on board and getting people like excited about it and, you know, in on the vision, sort of.

Erik: 34:52

Yeah, especially like because, yeah, I mean it goes from again making bagels in your own kitchen to also like, oh shoot, we got like people were responsible for these people. We have to give them work and have things to do. And then I mean again like, but it's all when done right. Like I mean more, more heads in the family and more people to join in on the vision, actually a question. So there's like that one brick, the clear brick, that has all the babies in it.

Eric: 35:16

How did what happened there?

Erik: 35:19

I'm just every time I see it, I just like want to be like, well, like I don't know some sort of background story, but there's got to be something.

Cyrus: 35:29

So we had a friend of ours, dana, who's helped out in the kitchen as well. But he came in as we were like doing the build out and you know we were basically like we need all help. We can get anyone who wants to come in and help Like we can. You can paint, you can drywall, you can like do whatever. And Dana comes in and he's like there's a broken brick and he pulls it out and he's like can I have like?

Eric: 35:57

I don't know what it was.

Cyrus: 35:58

It's like like $150 budget to make something fucking awesome here.

Erik: 36:03

And we were like hell yeah.

Cyrus: 36:07

It might even been like 25 bucks, I don't know. But and he just like we like kind of got ideas of what he was working on because he had these tiny little baby things and like glitter. He's going, yeah, glitter, epoxy. We're like, okay, this is going to be rad.

Erik: 36:24

Just going so deep in his bag. It just ready to go, yeah.

Cyrus: 36:29

It took him probably, like I don't know, three or four days.

Erik: 36:34

I just imagine everybody running by the drywall going up. He's just like don't type on my book.

Cyrus: 36:41

Yeah, the artist, the artist network, but it came out awesome and that has got to be like the most Instagram.

Erik: 36:50

I just imagine the first. Like you know, you open, people start coming in and then someone looks down.

Koby: 36:54

Yeah, take a picture of that brick there are babies in there? Oh, babies, I get it.

Erik: 37:04

And next.

Koby: 37:04

Thing you know they're hooked for like that. That's the moment we're looking for, yeah.

Erik: 37:09

Love that. So now I mean so you guys had your opening and then obviously like full menu. Now I mean, what else is there to look forward to? Or is it just daily bagels and good times?

Koby: 37:19

Daily bagels and good times. Well, we're going to do more stuff. I think yeah.

Cyrus: 37:24

There's a lot to look forward to, I think. Yeah, I mean for right now we're kind of working on getting the like operations ironed out, making sure people know what they're supposed to be doing, when they're supposed to do it, making sure we know what we're supposed to be doing. And you know we've been kind of adding days slowly. I think we'll probably continue to do that, expanding the hours We've been. You know, one of our, one of our main focuses is like keeping that menu tight, keep it like rather have quality over quantity.

Cyrus: 38:02

Yeah, we don't need another cheesecake factory, yeah, but there's probably like a one or two key, key items that I think people would like. So I think that's kind of in the short term where we're thinking.

Koby: 38:16

Yeah, we've been thinking about like kicking around like a lunch sandwich that's kind of a little bit more, like you know, maybe a pastrami in Swiss, maybe a I don't know tuna salad, kind of classic, like deli lunch offering, and then I don't know. I think we've also been like kicking around events and stuff like doing maybe like a pizza night or something like sort of dabbling back in some of that stuff.

Erik: 38:40

So then this is how you work Pizza.

Eric: 38:45

I see how it's.

Erik: 38:45

Yeah.

Cyrus: 38:50

We'll have to paint over the right side of the sign.

Eric: 38:52

If we start doing pizza at night.

Erik: 38:54

Just like the obvious wrong color.

Cyrus: 38:56

What happened? Nothing. But yeah, I think like what's exciting to me, and I think these guys also is like is learning and doing new things, and I think that's what's exciting to the community too. Like you know, at a certain point people they know what's there, I don't you know. I think bringing people in for new stuff is really what gets people going.

Erik: 39:22

So I like that idea of bringing people in for different things. I think that's always a, I mean especially when people are. I mean it's a I don't want to say obsessed, but obsessed like with, I mean the brand, the experience, the community, everything like bring them back in for something else. Yeah, A little bit better Might as well. Is there any advice you could? If you could go back and talk to yourselves as you're like, agreeing on baby's bagels and taking that first step, what advice would you give yourself?

Koby: 39:47

Get the story around the name.

Cyrus: 39:52

Make something up, anything. I don't know. I think I don't know, just get ready for a lot of hard things yeah.

Eric: 40:10

I think one thing that we did that I would say to encourage us to continue to do, is just like, take it a step at a time, like we didn't go from, just like, hey, we want to open a restaurant, let's open one and see how it goes, just flip the switch. It was like very much a step by step, like let's see what works, let's see what doesn't work, what feels good for us, try and like build the community alongside of us instead of just trying to turn it on and, like you were saying, have them try and come. So I think that's been really successful. It's made it fun. It's, you know, risk has been, you know, within the realm of what I'm comfortable with, at least there you go, stay in that area, but just like flur yeah.

Eric: 40:52

And just like persistence, Like that's really what it takes, Like it's no day is ever like that acutely hard, Like you know, waking up at four sucks. But like you know it's just the persistence of you know you had a tough day the day before. Like you have to get back on it and, you know, try and figure out a way forward.

Erik: 41:11

Yeah, no, I was going to do it for you.

Koby: 41:12

Yeah, and sort of building on that Like it looks. I think also, like you know, like I think a lot of people particularly come into babies. They like sort of consume food stuff on Instagram and it's like you know, it's sort of it's highlight reel a little bit. And, like I don't know, I really oscillate in babies between, like you know, existential dread when we have a slow day, that like, oh my God, this is going to fail, like what have we done and like elation. There is a narrow band where we're feeling good, like, and then we get too busy and then it sort of tips into chaos again. It's like thin little middle zone where it's like coming along at a good place.

Koby: 41:52

But yeah, I don't know Like it is. It's really it is sort of hard to like check your you know your like emotions, like. But I do think like sort of staying the course and like you know, if you, if, if you know you trust yourself, you trust like that the products are good, like even in a slow moment, you know like whatever you have like it'll come back around and like over the longer term, like even out. I think that has, like it hasn't been all like rosy and super successful at babies, like there are moments where like if you, if you look at like sort of at the macro, it does like look like that, but like you know the day to day, there are days that feel like you know you've gotten like kicked, you know, and just like sort of being able to sort of weather that and like keep going has been useful. I think.

Erik: 42:47

Yeah, because it's. Yeah, I mean, I feel very similar emotions, like podcast some days and like what am I doing?

Eric: 42:52

Yeah, and then they say like I am on top of it. Yeah, no one can take me down.

Koby: 42:57

Yeah, right.

Erik: 42:58

It's like such an I mean humbling cycle at the end, cause like then you have enough of those as you're like. Okay, like I know there's going to be good days and bad days, but like trajectory, where are we looking here? And that can be. I mean, we're leaving with a lot. I know there's one. Actually I'm curious about this one too. So I know that like there's one name that always is like tagged along to babies a lot, and it's Lady Flower. And how did that partnership come to be?

Koby: 43:21

Where did we first get her back, Becca?

Cyrus: 43:24

it was a fundraiser that she put. She Becca put together a fundraiser in what was it? 2023, probably Pest rail.

Koby: 43:35

Yeah, dobbs after Dobbs for the Utah abortion fund.

Cyrus: 43:39

Yeah, and we it was. Where was it at? It was at HelloBall, HelloBall, yeah. And so she organized this. She invited a bunch of local bakers to kind of do like a bake sale sort of thing and we were a part of it and I don't know. We kind of just hit it off Like she invited us over for Lakers and Vakas, and it was history. Yeah, yeah. What else do you need to know?

Erik: 44:10

No, who's this person with the cakes?

Eric: 44:14

over here in the corner. Oh, you don't remember last night Kobe?

Erik: 44:17

No, I don't, yeah, she's with us, yeah.

Cyrus: 44:21

And I think it's been really great having Becca around, like having her perspective. She's an incredible baker and she's like definitely got a little bit of a different, different perspective on things than we do, and it's good to get that Checked sometimes.

Koby: 44:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she made my wedding cake actually yeah, sounds appropriate.

Erik: 44:44

Mm-hmm, I can't help but hope and wonder if this is some sort of like off-brand. It's always sunny and fill.

Koby: 44:58

Just come into the bakery, we'll give it a shot.

Erik: 45:02

You just even the corner, just take notes.

Eric: 45:06

It does feel like that. Becca usually stirs up a lot of controversy around the kitchen.

Erik: 45:12

Sounds like something D would do. You just need your dad to show up, and it's just Danny DeVito.

Cyrus: 45:28

Honestly, our dad has worked a couple shifts. Yeah and by the end of it, sometimes he does look a little bit like Danny DeVito.

Koby: 45:35

Like a little Frank energy.

Cyrus: 45:45

You guys get one chance to talk on a podcast.

Koby: 45:50

He's a hard worker.

Eric: 45:56

I feel like, why are these bagels not cooking?

Cyrus: 45:57

right, it's almost like it's too humid in here, I don't know guys.

Koby: 46:01

Crazy.

Erik: 46:05

I mean when you guys aren't at babies at the canella spot cranking out dough and bagels. We were also you guys like to do in your spare time where it keeps you here in Utah.

Koby: 46:14

Skiing brought me to Utah originally. Well, skiing in business school, the combo, but you came here you go to business school a lot of places you know you can't ski to wasatch. Yeah, in a lot of places. So, um, yeah, that's a hobby for sure.

Erik: 46:29

Yeah, Uh baking baking yeah, winter time, I definitely spend a lot of time skiing To throw up a sign and, like November, be like hey, I know you guys like our bagels, but we got other things to do and then I think I'm gonna have a baby, so it might be a while.

Cyrus: 46:45

I don't want you to breath.

Eric: 46:48

Yeah, I think for me it was the outdoors that brought me or that was like initially attractive, um, I think, like what keeps me here, uh, like I feel the most grounded here out of any place that I've been, I think because of the community that we've been able to build through the, especially the other Small food businesses.

Cyrus: 47:08

Oh my god, this dude got the questions ahead of time.

Eric: 47:12

You also got the questions ahead of time. Um, so that feels really good to me and also just like quality of life here does feel pretty high. Um, living in California before not to be a California basher, there's lots of great things about California, um, food, people etc. Um, but just like the proximity of like getting to people biking around super easy here, um, it just feels like, you know, a nice quality of life.

Cyrus: 47:51

Yeah, I agreed, good answer.

Erik: 47:59

No thanks, I mean so excited. I'm going to babies tomorrow. I was going to go today but then Sunday night was a little too hard of a Monday morning.

Cyrus: 48:06

But we're close tomorrow, but I'll be there.

Erik: 48:13

I'll just come make bagels with you guys. Um, so I guess, two questions that I always end with on every podcast, first being, if you could have someone on the podcast To hear about their story, who would you want to hear from? Well um Anyone who has a cool story anybody who's doing something cool. You admire Billy communities.

Koby: 48:38

I would be interested in hearing, like viet fam. Um, he, he ran forage which was, like, I think, kind of premier fine dining restaurant in Salt Lake City for a long time. Now he's doing pretty bird, he's been on, like you know, but food channel, uh, stuff I'd be. I'd be interested to kind of hear, I'm curious like why, why, like why he got out of forage? Um, it was a really, it was a great restaurant to be curious to come in to hear that story, um, I don't know who else. Uh, I hope you haven't had her yet but shari and corbani.

Eric: 49:11

I haven't no big fan. Uh just seems like, you know, obviously very involved in kind of local politics and Um you know, uh issues that are important Um. But also just seems like very grounded, like been a big supporter of babies, Um really great, like seeing her big smiling face coming in Um. So I don't know much about her background, but I think that would be a good.

Erik: 49:37

Oh yeah, no, I keep seeing, hearing, seeing and hearing more about her and stuff she's doing, so I'll give her some perspective about.

Koby: 49:46

You got to wait while we I know I got the question before.

Cyrus: 49:53

I know I, um, I think I would. I would like to hear from, uh, our, our new candidate for senate, caroline gleek. Is that how?

Erik: 50:07

you pronounce that gleek like something.

Cyrus: 50:09

Yeah, we don't even talking about yeah, I want to hear from her cool. See what she's all about. She seems pretty cool and uh, yeah, like the yeah, she's got a good voice.

Erik: 50:18

I'm excited, yeah, I'm excited. I Think, and she and I heard she's like a great person. So, yeah, and like Democrats got to run.

Cyrus: 50:24

You can't, yeah, you can't be.

Erik: 50:27

Just you can't just not run anyone because you're not gonna win. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it's always good to get fresh perspective, fresh, fresh blood, especially someone who Enjoys the things that we all enjoy, wants to protect the things that we enjoy like.

Erik: 50:42

I mean, it's like you said I mean you brought here because of skiing, which is the first domino to follow this all, and then to not have someone's like, hey, like we need to like protect this and like, or else bad things are gonna happen and yeah, there's no gonna be more people who move here because they can't. Uh, so you know, I think that's good. Good job you. You came through.

Eric: 50:58

Thank you.

Erik: 51:00

Got it. And then, lastly, the second question is if people want to find out about babies or find baby bagels itself, where, where can they go?

Koby: 51:09

Probably our instagram is the best spot. Uh, at babies bagels Um also our website, babiesbagels Baby stop bagels. Yeah, baby stop bagels. There's a lot of scammy instagram accounts out there, so be careful folks.

Eric: 51:22

Our our shop our shop is our shop.

Erik: 51:27

Go there before yeah just come down right 204 south 500.

Koby: 51:31

No 204 east 500 south. They just go to the whole canella spot.

Cyrus: 51:36

You know, they said it was here.

Erik: 51:39

Juniors, yeah go through the whole history. Yeah, generational name.

Cyrus: 51:45

Um, it's a cool spot, though. We've got great neighbors um taco. Taco found records. Um, it's like it's turning into a sweet little block there.

Erik: 51:57

Go grab a bagel, go look at some records go get some tacos on the way out. Take them home.

Cyrus: 52:01

Yeah.

Erik: 52:01

I don't hate it at all.

Cyrus: 52:02

Yeah.

Erik: 52:03

Well, awesome, well, thanks, guys. So fun to hear about more of the babies bagels. Get to know you guys and the face behind it. If you ever need a delicious bagel sandwich, you know where to go. Babies are the place to go. So thanks, guys. So excited to see what else is coming up with it. But, yeah, more breakfast sandwiches to come.

Koby: 52:19

Thanks for having us.

Eric: 52:20

Yeah thank you.

Erik: 52:22

Oh yeah now.