Popular bagel place becomes two

WASILLA — Bucking an economic headwind, an expanded Bagels Alaska is serving up more community-mined meals between sliced authentic New York-style bagels.

After five years of running their shop off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, Hope and Dave Salmon have opened a second location offering bagels, wraps, salads and desserts

“We started to think about ways we could make our business more attractive to customers,” Dave said. “We heard our customers say ‘It’s be great if you were in Wasilla.’”

With this in mind, the Salmons opened the new Bagels Alaska Cafe on the corner of the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways on Nov. 27.

This expansion comes not long after the Salmon’s foray into bagels faced an existential threat.

The Salmon’s moved to the Valley in 1999. With Hope’s background in commercial and institutional kitchens, they started looking for an opportunity to get into the restaurant scene.

“My mom has a lot of talent. She likes a challenge and likes being creative,” said daughter Johanna, who also works as the restaurant’s manager. “We were all enthusiastic and dedicated, and we have all been pretty busy since.”

After taking over Bagels Alaska in 2005, the family kept the menu pretty much the same. With the loyal customer base and adding a larger dining room to the original location, Dave said business was booming.

“Our sales grew by about 20 percent per year until 2008,” Salmon said. “But when the recession hit, our sales declined a bit. We were down about two percent last year, we’re not sure how 2009 stacks up yet.”

The dip, combined with the stress of being responsible for it all, had the Salmons thinking about selling.

“When the oven breaks down at five in the morning, it’s your responsibility,” Dave said. “We actually had the business for sale for about a year and a half.”

Dave said they had sit-downs with some serious buyers, and considered some serious offers. But in the end, none were good enough to rip them away.

So, instead of closing up shop, they decided to expand.

“If you can’t go home, go big,” Salmon said.

The new cafe has 1,100 square feet and comes with a much higher rent than the existing location. With this in mind, the Salmon’s designed the layout to maximize the dining area and employed the help of another local partnership.

Mae Pauling owns Interiors By Mae in concert with Matt Ess and his company, Interior Expressions By Matt. The companies sell everything needed for the interior of a home or business and typically offer the design work for free.

The Salmons came to Pauling, shared their vision, and let her go to work.

“It’s kind of hip, a little swanky,” Pauling said. “We have these great birch tables and some couches around them. … It’s definitely a little more swanky than the typical coffee shop.”

As for the colors, Pauling said she had the pallet all picked out when the ACS store opened next door to the cafe. Pauling said she almost had a heart attack when she realized she had picked out almost the exact same colors.

Now, she said, with the cascade green and gray walls, the artwork really pops.

Local art is something the Salmons have always been committed to. They had a long agreement with the Valley Fine Arts Association to display rotating artists at their original location. Now, they are contacting artists who live in the area for longer, individual showcases.

Because of the smaller location, the new cafe has a more condensed kitchen. With no oven on-site, the cafe does not offer the pizzas and calzones of the original location. However, with daily deliveries, customers will still enjoy fresh, authentic New York bagels.

“If a bagel tastes like a loaf of bread, that’s a masquerading bagel prepared the wrong way,” Dave said. “We use boiled dough and cook the bagels on a stone. That is what gives them the authentic flavor and texture.”

Cooking food the right way and offering something nutritious and unique is what keeps the people coming regardless of location, Dave said. But now, with signage facing two of the busiest roads in the Mat-Su and free wireless Internet, the Salmons hope more people will get a chance to taste what they think a bagel should taste like.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.