Ever wonder what makes your Big Bang Bagels taste so good?
“It’s the love,” manager Carolyn Doyle joked.
Doyle started baking and selling bagels at the Fernie Farmers Market over six years ago.
“It was something I kind of thought, ‘Oh this might do well in Fernie,’” Doyle said.
Doyle quickly discovered that there was a high demand for bagels in Fernie. After baking around 200 bagels every Sunday, and selling them out within a couple of hours, Doyle said she started looking to expand the business.
“People were really keen on buying them,” she noted.
In 2008 and 2009 Doyle started selling bagels out of the Just Pizza storefront in the mornings and making sandwiches to sell to local businesses in the afternoons, she said.
“That was really great because people really got to know us that way because we we’re very hands on.”
On Canada Day in 2009 Doyle moved to their current location on Second Ave.
“Right away we were so much more busy,” she said.
“We’ve just been growing and expanding since then.”
Now Big Bang Bagels is open daily from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. and they cook, on average, between 300 and 800 bagels a day.
Doyle said that in order to keep up with the demand for bagels she has between 12 and 16 employees working full time.
“People aren’t just working, they’re coming here to be with people they care about,” she said.
“I’m really lucky that my employees are really good. They really care about the team and what happens here.
Doyle said that her employees put a lot of time and care into making the bagels, with bakers started their shift at 5 a.m.
It’s an hour and half process from start to finish to make a batch of Big Bang Bagels, Doyle said.
And unlike the thinner, tougher bagels that Doyle is accustomed to growing up in Ottawa, Big Bang Bagels use a recipe that makes the bagels softer and fresher. They also boil their bagels in honey, leaving them with a fresh glaze.
“A lot of people really love our bagels and we get all that time that they’re the best bagels that people have had and we really appreciate that,” she said.
And the Big Bang bagels are only sold in the Second Ave. store.
“Because we put a lot of time and effort into making each one, it’s not worth it for me to sell them to other place,” Doyle said.
“We want to sort of make it exclusive, you have to come here.”
Because the bagels are only sold in store, Doyle said she has built strong relationships with her customers.
“We have really good rapport with our customers,” she admitted.
“Fernie is such a great town and I feel lucky that I found a nice little niche to work in. I love this town, I love all the different season, and the community is so strong here.”