Durham is getting a new bagel shop born from the pandemic. Here’s where to find it
What began as a side hustle is now the newest soon-to-be bagel shop in Durham.
Isaac’s Bagels, a pandemic startup that began in a home kitchen and blossomed into a thousand bagels a week, will move into Queeny’s in downtown Durham as a bagel residency.
Owned by Isaac Henrion, Isaac’s Bagels will open this month, selling bagels Saturdays and Sundays, along with sandwiches, coffee and dozens to take home and fuel the week.
Isaac’s Bagels started on Henrion’s neighborhood listserv, but then spread like wildfire. The first runs were baked in Henrion’s home kitchen, which maxed out at 150 bagels. Since moving bakes to a commissary kitchen in Durham, Isaac’s Bagels tops out at around 1,000 weekly bagels.
He’s also done mid-week pop-ups at the new Durham sandwich shop Ideal’s, adding a lox and cream cheese sandwich to the sparse menu. Look for more at Queeny’s.
“We’ve really been guided by people’s encouragement,” Henrion said. “It would be a dream to have a bakery, but I’m super excited to have this collaboration.”
Pandemic pivot
At the beginning of the pandemic, Henrion, a former computer scientist, had been laid off from his cafe job as restaurants and bars abruptly shut down. In the first few months of COVID, he became involved with Covering the Triangle, an effort to make masks more accessible, working with Duke doctors Larry Greenblatt and Eric Westman.
Henrion said he learned the logistics of bagel deliveries and pickups from his days dropping off masks at nursing homes and clinics.
“In many ways, it was kind of foreshadowing our community garden pickups,” Henrion said. “But bagels are obviously lower stakes.”
Once masks were widely available, the project wound down. That’s when he started toying with bagels more seriously.
Bagel simplicity
A circle of bread, boiled and baked — few things are as deceptively simple as a bagel.
Over the course of a few months, well before Henrion first imagined selling bagels, he made dozens of test batches. The first few were dreadful, he said, but by batch 50 or so Henrion felt he might be on to something.
The bagels he’s serving these days go through a two-day ferment in the refrigerator before they’re boiled in a sweetened water and then baked until crisp on the outside and chewy throughout.
Isaac’s has enjoyed a meteoric rise from a garden pop-up with an Instagram storefront to its first vestiges of a shop. Henrion said it’s been gratifying and surprising and that the love is still there.
“I just love bagels,” Henrion said. “A fresh bagel that’s just been out of the oven half an hour ago, most people don’t get to experience that. I don’t get tired of it.”
Coffee shop window
Queeny’s was built with a walk-up window looking out on Chapel Hill Street. When the Durham diner opened late last year, owners Michelle Vanderwalker and Sean Umstead said the small space was destined for a limited coffee service from the window, but ideally a space for a partner.
“We left that space intentionally open ended,” Umstead said. “We wanted to run a little coffee shop out of that space, but it’s not something we’re hyper passionate about. I mean, we like coffee, but not necessarily at 6 a.m.”
Vanderwalker described the new Isaac’s as a “stable food truck,” a twice-a-week window that’s likely to grow into something larger. On cold days the Queeny’s dining room will offer tables for bagel-eaters, and Umstead said enough demand could tip mimosas into existence.
“We’re happy to have Isaac’s bagels at Queeny’s,” Umstead said. “I love that he is narrowly focused on making the best kind of classic bagel he can; he’s a purist in that realm.”
Queeny’s is a loving nod to the all-day diner, while Isaac’s aims to explore the depths of the beloved bagel. Henrion said it’s an ideal pair.
“We’re both doing simple things, but simple things well,” Henrion said. “That’s something that really appeals to me.”
The menu at Isaac’s
The bagels themselves hit on the classics: a richly brown plain and blanketed versions of poppyseed, everything, salt and pepper, sesame and onion. The cream cheeses are a bit less traditional, whipped and made from scratch flavors like plain, burnt jalapeno, Szechuan chili oil, dill and scallion and fig and honey.
“The bagels are meant to be simple things, so we’ve intentionally had a limited roster,” Henrion said. “So there are no chocolate and no sprinkles.”
To Henrion, a marshmallow represents America. At 6 years old, he made his first visit from his native England to the United States, where he had his first taste of marshmallow fluff straight from the jar. He said the intense sweetness and soft blue fluorescence glowing from the jar was like finding a bit of magic.
“The experience is seared into my brain and remains one of the most amazing food experiences of my life,” Henrion said. “I really associated marshmallows with the U.S.”
With Isaac’s, he started making his own, nodding to the Jet-Puffed classics, but made from scratch and cut into large cubes. Flavors have included plain vanilla, brown butter, lemon meringue and hot chocolate.
“(The marshmallows) didn’t really have a perfect culinary reason,” Henrion said. “But I see a lot of families pick up bagels from us and get a bag for their kids.”
The Queeny’s residency is open-ended for Isaac’s Bagels.
If the residency goes well enough and Isaac’s continues to grow, Henrion said a future bake shop lingers as a possibility. For now, Durham bagel lovers can find Isaac’s downtown.
“There’s not really a plan,” Henrion said. “It’s still a dream.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Durham is getting a new bagel shop born from the pandemic. Here’s where to find it."
