Why Bagels, Why Now
A successful bagel shop is one of the most profitable food businesses you can have today. Cost of ingredients is low compared to the average food business, labor costs are relatively low, and not to mention, bagels have a cult following across the country. Right now, bagels are king. A single location, properly equipped and properly staffed, can do $800,000 to $2.5 million in annual revenue. The economics are real. Seems too good to be true right? The only catch is that opening and running a successful bagel shop needs the right equipment and general knowledge of how bagel shops should operate.
That is why we designed this guide. We wanted to take our 50 years of bagel expertise and help educate bagel entrepreneurs. This guide is for the person who has decided — or is about to decide — that opening a bagel shop is the next move. Whatever path brought you here, the next 12 to 18 months of your life will be engulfed in major decisions like location, layout of your shop, equipment selection, staffing and so much more. This guide will mainly focus on equipment, since we are the experts in bagel equipment. However, it will also be a guiding light to those ready to take the plunge into one of the fastest growing food businesses.
Empire has been a major player in the bagel industry since the first Bagel Boom of the early 90's started in the New York metro area and spread outward. So when it comes to bagel shops and running a successful one, Empire is a name that carries some weight. Everything in this guide is drawn from that experience. Today, we are experiencing yet another bagel boom. Shops are popping up everywhere across the country and bagels are becoming a trend on social media. We are here to guide you on the road to success.
Empire was the leading name in bagel equipment during the bagel boom of the 90's and since then have continued to be an expert in the bagel industry. When you call Empire about a bagel shop, you are not talking to a typical salesman; you are talking to an experienced bagel professional who has installed your exact configuration hundreds of times and can tell you what worked, what didn't, and what to expect at month six.
The Bagel Production Process
Before you can spec equipment, you need to have a full comprehension of what the equipment is and how it can help you build a successful bagel shop. A high-quality bagel that customers will love goes through seven distinct production steps. Not executing these steps or using the wrong equipment will hinder your shop from producing a great bagel that will keep customers coming back for more.
From Flour to Bagel in Seven Steps
Mixing
Bagel dough is a stiffer and firmer dough. Typically, bagel dough is a 55% hydration dough and requires a strong spiral mixer to handle the optimal ingredient blending and dough development.
Bulk Rest
After being mixed, the bagel dough needs to rest in order to relax and be easily divided and rounded into its bagel shape.
Dividing & Forming
The bulk dough is divided into individual portions and formed into the classic ring shape. Done by hand, this is the slowest step in the entire operation. Despite some bagel pros being able to divide and round dough with impressive speed, a bagel divider former saves bagel shops time and money.
Retarding
The proofing and retarding process is a crucial step in bagel making. This long, slow ferment is where the flavor develops. Not executing this step effectively can ruin a bagel program.
Boiling
In order to get that textbook bagel, they need to be boiled. Bagel kettles are used to boil batches of bagels. The boiling process gelatinizes the starches on the surface and creates the shine and chew that define a quality bagel.
Topping
Wet bagels from the kettle are immediately topped — sesame, poppy, everything, salt, garlic — by hand or with a topping station.
Baking
Now its time to bake! Revolving ovens or rack ovens are the preferred oven for bagels, although more and more we see bagel shops using deck ovens. Set at a temperature of 450° to 500°F, these ovens bake bagels perfectly and produce their shiny crust and chewy crumb that customers know and love.
The Essential Equipment List
This is a list of the essential equipment needed to make a quality bagel. For a bagel shop that us producing 500 to 3,000 bagels a day, this equipment will allow them to keep up with demand and production. The following machines are must-haves in your bagel shop.
Spiral Mixer
You can't have a good bagel it is not properly mixed. A good mixer will properly blend ingredients and develop the gluten in the dough efficiently so you can have a quality bagel.
Bagel Divider/Former
This machine is a gamechanger for busy or growing bagel shops. Produce up to 3,000 bagels an hour with ease, saving you precious time and money on labor.
Bagel Kettle & Hood
A bagel is only as good as its boil. In order to get that trademark shine and chew, you will need a good bagel kettle.
Revolving or Rack Oven
Revolving and Rack Ovens are the best and most common bagel ovens. Each oven rotates the bagels around an oven chamber for a even and consistent bake.
Roll-In Retarder
Roll-in refrigerated cabinet for overnight retarding of bagels. Single and double rack capacities depending on production needs.
Bread Slicer
Bagel-specific slicer for fast, consistent slicing during the morning rush. Essential at any volume — manual slicing does not scale.
Choosing a Bagel Mixer
Bagel dough is a firmer and tougher dough than most. Bagel dough hydration usually ranges between 55 to 58 percent — compared to 65 to 75 percent for typical bread dough. Choosing a mixer that can not properly handle a firm bagel dough is not an ideal situation for your business. Choosing a mixer that cannot properly mix bagel dough will end up causing mixer break downs which leads to costly service visits and repairs, and downtime.
Why Spiral, Not Planetary
Planetary mixers — the classic Hobart-style mixer most bakeries own — are versatile, but they are wrong for bagels. The vertical agitator often overheats and overworks dough, ruining the gluten development and the overall product. Spiral mixers have a rotating bowl and spiral hook that develops bagel dough properly without overheating it or stressing the dough. Every serious bagel shop runs spiral mixers. There is no debate on this.
Sizing the Mixer to Your Production
| Daily Production | Recommended Mixer | Batch Size |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 500 bagels | 80 qt spiral mixer | 100lbs dough |
| 500–1,200 bagels | 130–170 qt spiral | 160-215lbs dough |
| 1,200–2,500 bagels | 220 qt spiral | 264lbs dough |
| 2,500+ bagels | 250 qt or removable bowl | 330lbs dough |
What to Look For in Spec Sheets
Three things matter more than anything else when evaluating a spiral mixer for bagel use: motor horsepower, drive train construction, and bowl rotation independence. Look for at least 5 to 7 HP for a 140-quart unit, gear-driven (not belt-driven) construction, and a bowl that rotates independently of the spiral hook. A belt-driven bagel mixer will fail prematurely. Period.
Before we recommend a mixer for a bagel shop, we run a real bagel batch through it in our test bakery in Hicksville. We watch the dough temperature rise, listen to the drive train, and check for bowl wobble at full load. Most general-purpose mixers fail this test. The ones we sell to bagel shops do not. If a distributor cannot tell you they have tested their mixer with real bagel dough, find a different distributor.
The Divider/Former
This is the single piece of equipment that will take your bagel shop from 300 bagels an hour to 3,000 bagels an hour. Despite how skilled you hand rolling is, this machine will do more in the shorter time and maximize the bagels consistency while saving you time and money on labor.
How a Bagel Divider/Former Works
The machine has two integrated functions in one workflow. The machine evenly divides dough into same weight portions. The divided dough pieces are funneled through a mandrel and forming tube via conveyor belt where the dough is shaped into bagels. The shaped bagels exit the machine onto a conveyor and placed onto a turntable for easy access.
The Hand-Rolling Argument
Some shops use hand-rolled bagels for marketing and as a selling point. Those shops that do this argue that hand-rolled bagels have a slightly different texture and a more rustic look. This is not necessarily true. What is true, is that hand-rolling caps your throughput and increases labor costs. In all of our years helping set up bagel shops, we have seen most of them switch from hand-rolling to automated forming to help increase sales and to grow.
The Kettle Question
A kettle is what makes a bagel a bagel. The boil — typically 30 to 90 seconds per side in water that often contains malt syrup, honey, or baking soda — gelatinizes the surface starches and creates the dense, chewy crust and the characteristic shine that defines the product. Skipping the kettle will lead to more of a roll than a bagel. Some bagel shops bypass the kettle by steaming bagels inside a rack or deck oven, but a traditional bagel requires a kettle. The kettle is one of the most underestimated pieces of equipment in a bagel shop.
Can You Skip the Kettle?
As we mentioned above, some bagel shops will use oven steam instead of a kettle. Steam injection produces some level of gelatinization on the bagel surface but it will never be the thick shine a traditional bagel has. This process is more of a logistical shortcut than a traditional bagel solution.
Gas vs. Electric Kettles
Gas kettles recover heat faster after each batch is dropped in, which is a gamechanger at peak production when time is money. Electric kettles are cleaner, easier to install (no flue), and also becoming the only legal option in some states. With a ban on gas equipment in some states, the electric option still allows you to use a kettle in your bagel shop. Both produce equivalent product when sized correctly. Match your kettle to whatever fuel your oven uses to keep your infrastructure simple.
The configuration we recommend for most new bagel shops is a gas-fired 25 or 45 gallon stainless kettle directly next to the oven. Placing it next to your oven minimizes the walk from kettle to oven and speeds up your overall production, making you a more efficient bagel shop.
The Bagel Oven
If the mixer is the backbone of a bagel operation, the oven is the heart. Customer are not looking at your fancy mixer or kettle and appreciating the work it puts in. They see your bagel, and the oven determines whether that bagel has the color, look and feel of the bagel they know and love. We have installed so many bagel ovens over the last 40 years, whether revolving ovens, rack ovens or even deck ovens. Each oven choice is a viable solution for baking bagels, but with different pros and cons. Lets discuss each oven option in more depth.
Revolving Tray Ovens
The classic bagel shop oven. Trays of bagels load onto a revolving tray system and are cycled through an oven chamber. As the trays rotate through the heat zone, every bagel gets identical exposure to top heat, bottom heat, and the result is an even and uniform bake on each bagel. For shops doing 1,000+ bagels a day, this is the oven we recommend nine times out of ten. Different capacities are available and are offered in a gas or electric version.
Single-Rack Rotating Ovens
A full rack of bagels on trays go into the oven and rotate in place in an oven chamber that uses forced air convection heat. Less capacity than a revolving tray oven but much faster to load and unload, which matters during peak production. Using a rack oven can also provide you with the option of skipping the boiling process by using the rack ovens steam injection.
Deck Ovens
The artisan choice. Most bagel shops using a deck oven will load the trays of bagels onto the stone hearth surface. These ovens produce an excellent crust but is operator-intensive as it requires manual rotation of bagels mid-bake for even color, which is fine in a small operation. Some shops will also make their bagels directly on the stone for a darker and crunchier artisan-style bagel that has grown in popularity over the years.
| Oven Type | Best For | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Revolving Tray | Medium-large bagel shops, multi-product operations | 200–500 bagels/cycle |
| Single-Rack Rotating | Small-medium shops with fast peak rush | 100–200 bagels/cycle |
| Deck with Steam | Artisan shops, low-volume operations | 60–120 bagels/cycle |
Proofing & Retarding
Proofing and retarding allows the dough to rise and take its final shape before boiling and baking. This stage is where the bagel develops its flavor. This is not a step you can just skip as it is a crucial step in the development of a good bagel. So having a proofer/retarder in your bagel shop is highly recommended. Floor proofing is an option also, but becomes a logistical nightmare due to space issues and inconsistency of room temperatures.
Roll-In vs. Reach-In
Any meaningful bagel operation needs roll-in or walk-in proofing/retarding. The reason is workflow: shaped bagels come off the divider/former onto bagel boards. Those boards stack onto a rolling rack. The rack rolls directly into the proofer/retarder. The problem with reach in units, is it forces you to transfer boards individually, which is slow, labor-intensive, and may cause damage to the shaped bagels. A 2-rack roll-in proofer/retarder handles a 500-to-1,500-bagel-per-day operation comfortably.
Humidity Matters
The right temperature and humidity is crucial for properly proofing bagels. Proofer/retarders provide an environments with a precise heat and humidity, providing your bagel shop with maximum control over the proofing process. A good bagel requires 75% to 85% humidity which can only be accurately met and sustained by a proofer.
Bagel Shop Startup Cost
Equipping your bagel shop with the right equipment is what can make or break your bagel business. Below is a realistic budget for a medium-sized bagel shop with a steady flow of customers. Costs scale up with the size of the shop and the increases of demands and output capacity.
Equipment is one of the easiest line items to finance. Empire offers multiple financing options that allow you to purchase the equipment you need for your bagel shop. Financing the equipment frees up your cash reserves for the build-out and working capital, where you really need flexibility. Ask about our financing program when you request a quote.
Shop Layout & Space Planning
Layout and space is everything in a bagel shop. Having enough space to accommodate your new equipment and a layout that improves the flow and efficiency of your shop is crucial. Bagel production needs a specific layout — kettle next to oven, proofer near the former, ventilation in the right place, three-phase power where it counts. Our bagel shop experts have helped build hundred of bagel shops throughout the years and know exactly what it takes to build an efficient and successful shop.
Minimum Space Requirements
A 1,000-bagel-per-day shop needs roughly 1,200 to 1,800 square feet total, broken down approximately as:
- Production area: 500–700 sq ft for mixer, former, kettle, oven, and dough rest area.
- Retarder/cold storage: 80–150 sq ft for the retarder plus 80–100 sq ft for the walk-in cooler.
- Prep and sandwich line: 150–250 sq ft for slicing, topping, and assembling sandwiches.
- Customer service and seating: 300–500 sq ft depending on whether you want grab-and-go only or limited seating.
- Restrooms, dry storage, office: 150–200 sq ft combined.
Workflow: The Path of the Dough
Lay out your kitchen so dough moves in one direction from mixer to customer, without backtracking. The order is: mixer → divider/former → rack to proofer → kettle → oven → cooling rack → display. Having steps that overlap each other or doubles back is just wasting labor and causing congestion within your shop.
Infrastructure to Confirm
Before you commit to a space, your equipment specialist needs to confirm: three-phase electrical service (essential for the mixer and oven), gas line capacity (if running gas equipment), water supply and drainage near the kettle, structural floor capacity for the oven, ceiling height for the hood, and ventilation routing. Skipping this infrastructure review is how shops end up paying $80,000 or more in unexpected build-out costs.
Costly Bagel Shop Mistakes
After 40+ years of outfitting bagel shops, we see the same handful of mistakes made by bagel shops that cost them money and hinder production.
- Buying a general-purpose mixer instead of one capable of handling bagel dough. The most common mistake we see. Buying a mixer not strong enough to handle the stiffer bagel doughs will end up costing you more money than its worth in repairs and replacement.
- Skipping the kettle to save money. Steam-injected ovens do a decent job creating that shine and crust bagels are known for. However, for a true bagel that customers are looking for, the kettle is a crucial piece of equipment.
- Underestimating cold storage. Bagel shops live on cream cheese, lox, and sandwich ingredients. Plan for more walk-in space than you think you need. You will use it.
- Ignoring three-phase electrical when scouting the space. Single-phase service cannot run commercial bagel equipment. Upgrading the panel from single to three-phase mid-build can be extremely costly and take a long time, hindering your shop from opening and costing you money.
- Hand-rolling at volume because of romance. We know telling customer that you are selling hand-rolled is a selling point for why they should choose your shop. However, when demand increases hand-rolling is becoming counterproductive, automating the dividing and forming process becomes a must.
- Choosing the cheapest oven option to save money. The oven defines bagel quality. Choosing a cheaper oven can often provide a poor or uneven bake, leaving customers unimpressed or dissatisfied with your products.
