Business

The Work We Do: Chris Conlan, Goldberg’s Famous Bagels

My name is Chris Conlan. I’m with Goldberg’s Bagels, owner of Jamesport, Greenport and Mattituck.

On a daily basis we make anywhere from 30 to 350 dozen bagels a day. We also have a variety of fun things, like bagel bombs, french toast bagels and flagels. We have fresh salads, fresh-squeezed orange juice, fresh-squeezed lemonade, all made on premises.

I actually got into this job on a whim about 10 years ago. I was actually in culinary school and started working for the family on the weekends, just to pay the college bills, and I kind of really liked what I was doing and went from there. Ten years later, here we are. I originally went to school for cake decorating and I wanted to do pastries and cakes. When I first walked into this place, I was like what am I doing here, I don’t belong here. This is too early hours for me. Before this, I was a logger upstate for many years, so it’s really a change of pace.

We can be here from midnight on, but mostly we come in here about 2:30 in the morning.

Bagels are made. We hand-roll them, and they proof up over night. They go into a kettle, which is a big boiling pot of water essentially. They come out of the kettle. We double dip them in seeds, both sides. And they go in the oven for about 18 minutes. Our oven cooks about 30 dozen bagels in 18 minutes.

I love dealing with customers. I’m a people person. I love talking to everyone every day. I love watching kids grow, coming into my store. I see kids come from middle school and now they’re in college.

They come back on the breaks and they’re so excited to be here. They say how much they missed our bagels and that they missed us. And that really is so joyful.

“The Work We Do” is a Riverhead News-Review multimedia project profiling workers on the North Fork. It is made possible by Peconic Landing in Greenport. See photos on Instagram @riverheadnewsreview.