Since the space was already set up as a bakery, she said it was much easier to convert it into a bagel shop. Some of the equipment used by Jean-Jacques Bakery was left, so she will be able to use it as part of her operations.
“Making bagels is very labor-intensive and very equipment-intensive,” she said. “So if this space wasn’t available in the way that it was and with some of the equipment, I probably couldn’t have been able to do it.”
In addition to selling bagels, the shop will sell coffee and sandwiches. Cricchio said she’s working out a menu.
Chewy’s Bagels are traditionally made, she said. They are hand-rolled and boiled in a kettle.
“It’s the same thing as the New York-style bagel, but our bagels are the only sourdough bagels around in town,” she said.
Cricchio moved to the Richmond area in 2014 to finish her degree at Virginia Commonwealth University while her husband also finished his graduate program there. She worked at a French-style bakery in Shockoe Bottom and started working with bread on the side as a way to expand her skills.
Making bagels “just kind of started as a passion project for me,” she said.
“I have a friend who owns a gym and was putting on an event and I made bagels for it,” she said. “People said they were really good and asked if I had ever thought about selling them. I had. So I started doing direct to customer and then it just grew from there. It just kept growing and growing.”
Credit: Source link
