By B.C. Manion
We all have turning points in our lives.
For Linda Carr, one of hers came when she was in her young 20s and her mother asked her to fill in for her at the concession stand for Carr’s brother’s football team.
Carr worked the French fry station and had a blast.
“I absolutely loved it,” she said.
She decided that was the kind of work she wanted to do.
Carr went on to carve out a career in the fast-food industry, working for chains including Burger King, Checker’s, Wendy’s and Subway for a combined total of more than two decades.
About six years ago, Carr had another turning point. She decided to go into business for herself.
She decided she wanted to have a bagel restaurant, but she didn’t know a darn thing about making bagels.
So, she made a deal with some bagel shop owners: She’d work in their shops for free, if they would teach her the tricks of the trade.
“People thought I was crazy,” she said.
But she observed: “There is no bagel school.”
She spent time working at bagel shops in various locales, including Manhattan, New Port Richey, Ocala and Ft. Lauderdale.
The bagel shop operators were generous with their knowledge, she said.
Bagels are not all created equal, Carr said, adding there is no denying that New York bagels taste different than those made elsewhere.
“The difference between New York bagels and here is the water,” Carr said, conceding she can’t replicate that distinctive taste.
However, she said, she strives to satisfy her customers by providing fresh bagels in a variety of flavors.
“I have a lot of New Yorkers come in who say the bagels are good.”
She guarantees that the bagels sold in her Bagelicious & More shops are made that day. Whatever isn’t sold that day is made into bagel chips or donated to the Helping Hands Pantry at Atonement Lutheran Church, 29617 SR 54.
Carla Haberland of the church’s food pantry said Bagelicious provides hundreds of pounds of bagels each week in donations.
“We bag them up, six in a bag,” Haberland said. People picking up food at the pantry enjoy getting the bagels, she added. “They love them.”
Bagelicious & More has two locations now and is planning to add a third soon. The quick-service café at 30032 SR 54 in Wesley Chapel opened about two years ago and another location opened about six months ago in Zephyrhills at 6215 Abbot Station Drive.
A third location will be set up at Moffitt Cancer Center at International Plaza, a new Moffitt location that is slated to open next summer.
Bagelicious & More will be providing the food service at that Moffitt location, Carr said, noting she was invited to bid on the work and was selected through a competitive process. “I was recommended by some of my customers,” Carr said.
The café in Wesley Chapel has a simple décor with chairs and tables, a flat-screen television and free Wi-Fi. The bagels and cream cheese spreads come in a wide assortment of flavors, but the menu also has a broad array of other items for breakfast, lunch or snacks.
The restaurant serves Seattle’s Best Coffee and offers all of the same specialty drinks as are available at Starbucks, Carr said, mentioning she has a contract with them.
Popular lunch items include a chicken salad melt, Cuban sandwiches, soups and salads. Burgers can be ordered on a bun or a bagel, and there also are salads, soups and wraps.
Bagelicious does catering, handles orders for sack lunches and prepares breakfast for Learning Gate Academy in Lutz.
Kim Burns, who lives in Wesley Chapel, drops by the restaurant about three times a week.
“It’s close to my home and it’s quality food,” she said. The turkey club is one of her favorite sandwiches, she said.
She thinks the prices are fair and she likes the staff.
“They’re very friendly,” Burns said.
Carr also thinks highly of the staff. “I enjoy my staff. I enjoy teaching them.”
One of her employees is her daughter, 28-year-old Gayla Ramon, who works with her at the Wesley Chapel location.
In one sense, this mother-daughter pair is carrying on a family tradition.
“I lost my mother seven years ago,” Carr said. But, she noted, “When she (Carr’s mother) was 16 or 17 she worked in a restaurant with her mother (Carr’s grandmother).”
After years of working for employers and helping them make reach their sales goals, Carr finds it deeply gratifying to be building a business of her own.
The restaurant industry requires hard work and smart management, Carr said. Besides serving tasty food, it requires keeping tight control on costs for labor and supplies.
“You have to fight for your food costs,” said the seasoned restaurateur, who has developed a thorough knowledge of the ins and outs of business through her decades of experience.
Besides the innate challenges of the restaurant business, Carr said she’s had an added challenge with SR 54 being torn up for road construction.
When the project is finished, it will be fantastic, she said. Meanwhile, fewer customers are willing to pull into her business because it is harder to get out.
Even so, Carr has a really good feeling about her future path in the bagel business.
“I felt very guided as I did this project,” she said. “Everything fell into place.”
She is optimistic her business will continue to grow and thrive.
“Bagelicious will be well-known,” she predicted.
