Philadelphia couple thrives during the pandemic with new bagel business

PHILADELPHIA – From a bagel craving at the start of the pandemic to a thriving business on its anniversary, Philadelphia couple Jacob and Alexandra Cohen have established Kismet Bagels as a new favorite in the region.

The Cohens began selling bagels from their home, and later shifted to pop-ups after securing a commercial kitchen. They did all that while they worked their "day jobs'' – Jacob as real estate agent and Alexandra as an advertising salesperson and painter. Jacob is also a professional musician who has worked on Broadway.

With unique bagel and spread flavors – turmeric bagels, golden milk schmears and coffee schmears – the two have built a following in Philadelphia neighborhoods with pop-ups and in South Jersey through farmers markets and local grocers.

Bagelivery is also available via goPuff and Culinary Harvest in some zip codes.

A portion of the proceeds from Kismet sales are donated to local charities and organizations like Project Home, Black Lives Matter Philly and The West Philly Bunny Hop.  

The Bucks County Courier Times, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, spoke to the couple about their accidental business boom, success during a pandemic and what’s next for Kismet Bagels. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Question: Walk me through a timeline of when you guys started and how you guys started this bagel business.

Alexandra: Yeah, so we started initially baking in general. We were baking bread and cooking a lot during quarantine.One Saturday morning, we decided to try and make bagels because you know we weren't really eating out or doing any takeout or anything at that time. So, we just woke up, like, I want to make bagels. So, we made our first bagel – it was like April 3. And we started picking bagels and dropping them off at our family and friends' houses literally in the mailbox because we weren't seeing or talking to anybody then.  Everyone kept reaching out being like, "These are like best bagels we've ever had." It was shocking, like maybe everyone's just crazy because they're stuck inside not eating anything.

So yes, we just started doing that and then I wanted to do something for charity. And we made a post on a Facebook page in our neighborhood. Does anyone know where I can donate bagels to health care workers, and somebody actually reached out in the post and said, "Can I actually buy the bagels and then you can donate the money instead?" And from that post that one week we got over 30 orders, probably two or three weeks later, from the day we made bagels. And that week we started cooking in our house and our kitchen baking bagels. We had people lined out of our door waiting to pick up the bagels from us.

Then a couple of days later we get a message from someone at our North Liberties Business Association, asking if we wanted to work in a real kitchen for a day and host a pop-up. Our first official pop-up it was May, probably May 20. We baked in a restaurant, a pizza spot in our neighborhood and did a pop-up, and we donated all the proceeds to a local organization here. After that, ever since basically that day, we've had a pop-up pretty much every weekend, and we went from our house to a commissary kitchen, and then in November we built out our own space, and now have our own commercial kitchen.

Q: Tell me about the bagels and schmears. What’s your process in making them? What makes them unique?

Jacob: We make old-school, kettle-boiled bagels. We use whole wheat flour from Castle Valley Mill in Doylestown, (Pennsylvania) so you have some locally milled flour in every single bagel. We boil our bagels in a kettle, which is, you know the old-fashioned way. We use incredible seeds from all over the world and smother the bagels and seeds to the point that unless you're eating a plain bagel, you can't really actually see the bagel until you bite into it. And as far as flavors, we're always trying to think outside the box and push the boundaries. We have your standard everything, sesame, plain, etc. But we've been experimenting a lot of different kinds of stuff.

We just worked on a turmeric bagel that we're really excited to launch. We are working on some different fruit bagels. We're always playing around with that – and then the cream cheese is actually where we've been the most adventurous. First of all, like our classic scallion and veggie, they're just chock-full of veggies, just like smothering the bagels with seeds. We just want you to have a burst of flavor.

As far as some of our more adventurous stuff, I'm a huge fan of golden milk, the turmeric drink. And early on when we started this, I was just thinking what can we do with some different cream cheese flavors. So what if you took the milk out of golden milk and replaced it with cream cheese and voila, we have golden milk schmear. It's become one of our bestsellers. It's beautiful bright yellow. It's a mix of earthy and sweetness. We sweeten it up with some candied ginger and honey and what have you. We just recently partnered with a local coffee roaster and we did a coffee cream cheese, which people freaked out about. We do a pickle schmear, so we really like to have fun with our flavors.

Q: Clearly this wasn’t something you anticipated to bloom into a full-on business. How did you manage to get off the ground and continue successfully through the pandemic?

Jacob: I would say the biggest thing has just been that we've truly just been ourselves. Like we are such big foodies, and we bake bagels just because we were hungry. I still think to this very day despite the fact that it's become a full-fledged business, we carry that mindset with us. We are not people that went to culinary school. We didn't go to business school. We just love community; we love collaborating with other food purveyors. We love, frankly, just the fact that we get to meet people that make food that we would consistently go buy all the time before the pandemic broke out. That's such a thrill.

Alexandra: How we grew it was the pop-ups and then did a different kind of model where it's like we do pickups at specific locations. So on Saturdays and Sundays we're at specific places every week. So instead of us opening a shop, we created these kinds of pickup spots every week, and people can preorder and also walk up and get bagels. Then also adding in tons of different wholesale partners and retail shops as well, which I think also helped.

Q: So, you're called Kismet Bagels, I feel like there's a story behind that name.

Jacob: There's kind of two parts to it. So first of all, Alexandra and I met when we were little kids. There's a picture that everybody's seen, but I was like 9 and she was 6, and then even further back, our grandmothers met in their late 20s or something in Strawberry Mansion in like the '60s or '50s. They've been friends ever since – they've been friends for like 50, 60 years. I had the biggest crush on Alex as a kid.

Alexandra: I did, too.

Jacob: Right, she always says that. So we lost touch for like 20 years, and I moved home to Philadelphia, which I never thought I would years ago, and I went to a real estate event and I got a tap on the shoulder and it was her grandmother. She asked me to lunch and she's a very business savvy, go-getter kind of woman, even at her age. She's a workhorse; she works harder than anybody I know. She sat me down for lunch, and I thought it was like a business meeting or something, and after a minute or two, she said, "OK, we got to talk about Alex." Well, what about her? I haven't seen her in 20 years. She's like, "Well, she's dating this guy, and it's not gonna work out." I'm like, OK, where did she live and she said LA, and I said, "Oh, I'm flying there in like four days!"

So, I reached out to her, and we immediately started texting nonstop for like four days, and it felt so natural. We're very open with each other, and it was very strange. And I went out there, and we hung out for a night. And I kid you not, we sat up till like 5 in the morning fully clothed on her bed just talking. I left, and a couple of weeks later after talking every day, she's like, "I'm going to move home, and I'm going to move in with you," and I just went "OK." So that's that and it just felt so right and so kismet. She actually put that word on some glassware for either our wedding or bridal event or something. And so that was that.

Then when it came time for this business, the way it all kind of unfolded, we were just taking bagels to nurses and frontline workers and things like that ...

Alexandra: Little things just started happening and I'm like, this is just so weird – it felt so meant to be. Then all of a sudden, it just popped in my head and I was like, "Kismet!" Oh, yeah, that totally makes sense and we made an Instagram and that was it.

Q: You started selling from your home, then at pop-ups and now you have your own commercial kitchen, what’s next?

Jacob: We are not planning on opening a brick and mortar so everyone that is hoping for that, we can confirm right now that is not our current plans. I think one day, absolutely, but it's not in our current plans. We have so many other things going on, and, frankly, it's so nice to be able to hit so many places every week as opposed to brick and mortar where you're stuck in one location.

So, like in terms of other plans I think a big plan is to just continue to be available in more locations and partner with these coffee shops to create nice destination and brings more business to the cafe. The staff members get more tips every week (and) that works out for everybody because in these crazy times, you need to find ways to get creative.

Online: Visit Kismet Bagels at kismetbagels.com or find them on Instagram or Facebook. 

Hira Qureshi covers food and drink for the greater Delaware Valley and Jersey Shore. She can be reached at HQureshi@gannettnj.com or 856-287-8106.