In October, before the snow started falling, Jeff and Justin Kaplan were serving bagel sandwiches at the finish line of the 2022 Lake Tahoe Marathon.
I had heard of Tahoe Bagel Co. a few months before that, while I was eating Asian noodles at Lotus Pho 2. The guy sitting next to me told me about this bagel shop that was so popular when they opened during the pandemic that the brothers had to open a second location on the Nevada side, up Kingsbury Grade.
The Kaplans were born and raised in New Jersey, 40 minutes away from Philadelphia. Their great-grandparents owned bakeries in New Jersey and New York for more than 50 years.
Despite many businesses shutting down due to COVID-19, they continued to build out that first shop and opened in October 2020. They sold out of bagels by 12:30 p.m.
Justin moved to South Lake Tahoe 10 years ago, with Jeff following in 2016. But when Jeff blew out his knee snowboarding on an employee ski day and was laid up on the couch for 2½ months, he realized he wanted to start something of his own. He asked his brother: “What’s the first thing we always eat when we go to New Jersey?”
Justin replied: “Bagels. Then pizza.”
Soon after that, Justin started baking and learning with how to make bagels for eight months that were like the bagels they ate in Jersey. He went back to the East Coast to work at various delis to learn the logistics of running a bagel shop. In December 2019, they broke ground on their first Tahoe Bagel Co. location in South Lake Tahoe.
And then, COVID happened.
“We thought, did we just throw everything we worked on out the window?” Jeff says.
Despite many businesses shutting down due to COVID-19, they continued to build out that first shop and opened in October 2020. They sold out of bagels by 12:30 p.m.
“We made 400 to 500 bagels for that first day, but we just got busier and busier,” Jeff says.
They have a menu that you wouldn’t find at a typical bagel shop, including the famous Philly cheesesteak.
Tahoe Bagel Co. was so consistently busy that the Kaplans realized they needed a bigger space and soon opened a second location Kingsbury Grade in May 2022.
At the Kingsbury Grade location, families, teenagers and couples continuously filter in. I ordered a Back 2 Life bagel sandwich, complete with two breakfast meats, cheese, hash browns, egg and hot sauce. I ordered it with the pork roll, savory, tender and a little salty. The whole shebang was at least an inch thick on a fresh-tasting jalapeño cheddar bagel. Even though it was toward the end of the day the bagel tasted as if it had just come out of the oven.
The brothers reintroduced the breakfast bagel to provide something quick and easy with which to fuel up, before enjoying the outdoors.
“We’ve been lucky that the community loves our product,” Jeff says. | tahoebagelco.com
