WILMINGTON — It’s the question often heard across town from northern transplants who make their way to the Port City: “Where can I get an authentic New York bagel?”
In five months or so, a franchise founded in The Empire State 50 years ago will add to the local lineup. Bagel Boss is opening at 28 Harnett St., in a 2,600-square-foot commercial space below Pier 33 Apartments along downtown’s Wilmington Riverwalk. Construction on the upfit of the vacant commercial space broke ground Wednesday morning.
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The original Bagel Boss on Long Island started in 1975 from baker Mel Rosner, whose skills were sharpened with old-world Polish recipes. Rosner made chewy yeast rolls from Bialystok, Poland, known as bialy, which had depressions instead of holes and were filled with onion, garlic or poppy seeds.
“My grandpa was even in the Bialy Union,” Chief Operating Officer Alex Rosner, who oversees franchises, told Port City Daily. “And he progressed into the bagel space.”
Mel Rosner expanded his technique from making bialy — which only requires the Jewish roll to be baked, resulting in an almost English muffin texture — into boiling bagels in water before cooking them off in brick ovens. This would create a firm, chewy crust, with the doughy rounds growing in popularity in the 1980s as Rosner’s sons began franchising the establishment.
To date, many Bagel Boss restaurants in New York remain family-managed and owned by Mel’s son and Alex’s father, Adam Rosner, or other family members. Establishments in other states are franchised, with around 20 Bagel Bosses from New York to North Carolina to Florida and even California.
“In the next three or four months, we will have four more,” Alex Rosner said.
Bagel Boss first opened in North Carolina, in a town near Winston-Salem, last fall, and Rosner said they’re in discussions about going into RDU Airport. Bagel Boss operates in JFK Airport in New York as well.
Samantha Balzano Wesdock, who already owns the South Front Street boutique Hues of Violet and co-owns a short-term rental business called WB Properties ILM, will be the operator of Wilmington’s Riverwalk establishment with her husband, Chris. They’re in business with Sam’s father, Rocco — the latter of whom is familiar with the franchise space, due to being president of Crunch gyms.
The Balzanos are originally from the Long Island area, so they’re familiar with Bagel Boss and have an extended love for bagels. Wesdock, who has restaurant experience mostly from her time in college, said it was her father’s idea to bring the eatery to Wilmington due to the influx of residents moving in from the northern region.
“Growing up on Long Island, bagels have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember,” Wesdock said. “They are a staple of every Christmas morning as long as I can remember and I will always travel back from NY with a dozen in tow to throw in my freezer to enjoy.”
Wilmington’s Bagel Boss will be a deli outpost, one of two franchise styles. There is the kosher bagel establishment, which is what the original stores started out as, and now the deli, which aren’t kosher, in that they combine meats and cheese into sandwiches.
“When we started to expand, we saw cities and towns kind of change over the years,” Alex Rosner said. “And some of these places don’t call for being kosher.”
Wesdock added that having more variety at the Riverwalk location was appealing as it allows the restaurant to be a “one-stop shop for all breakfast and lunch needs.”
Aside from serving more than a dozen flavors of bagels and cream cheese, as well as lox, there are also breakfast and lunch sandwiches. Topped with pastrami, hot cappy-style ham, pepperoni, turkey or even chicken cutlets, options abound. Though, Bagel Boss is also known for its many housemade smoked fish salads — whitefish, tuna, salmon — and its side items like macaroni salad, potato salad, California broccoli salad and more.
Omelets appear on the menu along with breakfast platters.
Also, the downtown store will serve one of Bagel Boss’ most popular items, the “flagel” — a flattened bagel, thin and crunchy, stuffed with choice of cream cheese (lox, tofu, blueberry, veggie, jalapeno, etc.).
Franchises receive the bagel dough freshly made from Bagel Boss’ factory in New York. Alex Rosner said 10 to 15 pallets, consisting of 300 to 400 dozen bagels each, are shipped to franchises weekly.
“So our bagels aren’t just New York-‘style,’” he said, noting the water is often softer with a pH balance that creates the “sweet spot” for the perfect crumb. “The dough is literally coming from Long Island and then it’s kettle boiled and baked everyday on site.”
The restaurant serves sweets, too, like black-and-white cookies, muffins, danishes and more. But Wesdock’s favorite is a tried-and-true classic: the Everything Bagel.
“We season both sides which helps us to stand out from other shops by making sure every bite is properly loaded with seasoning,” she explained.
Locals may already be familiar with some of Bagel Boss items due to the brand’s shipping partnership with Goldbelly — a marketplace of curated goods created from artisanal companies and establishments worldwide. The platform allows customers access to Maine lobster rolls or authentic Chicago pizzas, for example, shipped right to their door from popular restaurants. In 2024, the platform recognized Bagel Boss’ “Hampton Brunch” as one of its “Hot 100 Summer Foods.”
Alex Rosner said the company already had an e-commerce business before collaborating with Goldbelly. But they made the decision to partner once the restaurants began franchising, as to help alleviate the workload but also to increase sales.
“It took our baseline number and kept it constant, with also us getting spikes during holidays and specific events, like the Super Bowl, Christmas, and New Year’s,” he said.
However, it also helped with understanding demographics the company was reaching and allowed officials to pinpoint areas that were popular with customers, North Carolina being one. Though he didn’t share specific numbers of clients who have ordered from Bagel Boss in the state, Alex Rosner called the region “very hot.”
“Over the years — going back maybe like six, seven years — you always hear that people are doing the ‘half transplant,’ where they’re not going all the way to Florida but they’re going to North Carolina … with that being a trend and us looking at where our orders are coming from, we see that adds up.”
Franchisees have the option of opening one or multiple locations when they sign a deal with Bagel Boss. Alex Rosner said the Wesdocks and Balzano may choose to do three, depending on how the first deli takes off downtown.
“Sometimes when you’re going out of state into markets that you haven’t been into, it’s hard to commit before you can get a feel for the area and see if it’s going to be received down there,” he said.
Secondary locations are normally within a 4-mile radius of the first Bagel Boss restaurant, as is the model in Long Island.
The original restaurant in Hicksville has become known for operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But the rest of the stores have opening and closing hours, with the local operation likely being 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. However, they, too, may be fluid depending on demand, such as surges during summer tourism and concert season — Live Oak Bank Pavilion is just across the way.
The restaurant will have around 30 seats, with counter service operations.
“We are going to be looking to hire around 15 people,” Wesdock said, “and we are hoping for an opening date this summer in mid-July.”
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