Among the new apartments on South University Avenue, BO’s Bagels is set to open in Ann Arbor by mid-March, below Vic Village South. The shop offers NYC-style bagels, emphasizing traditional, “old school” bagel-making techniques with classic bagels and their signature sandwiches.
BO’s was founded by Andrew Martinez, a native New Yorker, and Ashley Dikos, a born-and-raised Michigander and University of Michigan alum. The Harlem-based couple started making bagels in their kitchen, opening their first shop in Harlem in March 2017, followed by Washington Heights in December 2023 and finally expanding to Ann Arbor this year.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Martinez said he started BO’s because he was stuck at home recovering from a surgery and craved a bagel but realized he lived in the only neighborhood in Manhattan without a bagel shop nearby.
“I was recovering for another month and still just wanted a bagel,” Martinez said. “So I said, ‘You know what? I know how to cook. I’m not a baker, but I can figure this out’.”
Martinez said he researched the history of bagels and went down a rabbit hole of baking, leading to an overflow of bagels in their apartment kitchen. His partner, Dikos, started bringing the bagels to work, supplying bagels to a local coffee shop and selling them at the local farmers market.
“One of the people that happened to be at the farmers market one day was the head of the local (Parent Teacher Association) and she posted to this message board like, ‘I had the most incredible bagel and I got it at a farmer’s market on a corner in Harlem,’” Martinez said. “And so the next week, we showed up and there were like 100 people there waiting for us.”
Eventually, Martinez said business grew to a point where Dikos quit her job, and they opened their first location in Harlem.
“It just sort of snowballed to the point where we would pull up to the farmer’s market and people would be like, ‘Don’t even set up your stand — I’ll just buy bags right out of the trunk,’” Martinez said. “It got really crazy, so then we decided it’s time to open a shop.”
After a few years of selling items ranging from sushi bagels to traditional black russian bagels at their Harlem location, Dikos said they looked at spaces in Ann Arbor and had a lease ready on Main Street before their Washington Heights location, but backed out in 2020 because of the pandemic. She said it worked out in their favor, as their new South University Avenue location harbors greater foot traffic.
“It is a totally different set of foot traffic out there, and the foot traffic here is far, far higher,” Dikos said. “But I think through online ordering, through catering and through other ways, we’re going to try to get our feelers out into the non-campus community as much as we can because I really do want to foster the local Ann Arborite community.”
As a previous student at the University and current New Yorker, Dikos said she wanted to start an Ann Arbor location because she remembered the large East Coast student population from her undergraduate days and thought the Midwest needed exposure to true NYC bagels.
“We were like, well, we can really tap into people that are from the East Coast that want a taste of home,” Dikos said. “Then really expose New York City bagels to a population that probably doesn’t really know what a good bagel tastes like.”
Business freshman Chris Paul Horvers, a New York native, told The Daily a NYC-style bagel shop would complete the New York representation in Ann Arbor’s food scene, noting the importance of pizza and bagels to NYC food culture.
“We already have Joe’s Pizza … so I think that niche has already been filled,” Horvers said. “But the bagel is something that Ann Arbor hasn’t been able to sort of remaster — that New York style — so this is a unique idea and opportunity for this company.”
Horvers said he hopes the shop stays true to the traditional bagel experience, noting the importance of the right amount of bagel toppings.
“I would hope it gives me that hometown, traditional New York-style, New York-famous bagel kind of feel,” Horvers said. “And something I would hope they get right is the amount of cream cheese or butter or salmon, or whatever else you want to put on it. I think some places really over or underdo it.”
According to Martinez, as food costs have increased over time, some bagel shops have used additives and lengtheners to prolong the use of costly ingredients and crank out large quantities of bagels. Martinez said BO’s commitment to authenticity in the food through not using preservatives is also reflected in the core values of the company, which focus on fostering employee growth within their business.
“We want the business to be something that everyone can benefit from,” Martinez said. “We do things in a certain way that are not as profitable as other places and yet thrive because we put out a good product, and we’re trying to do things the right way.”
Daily News Editor Barrett Dolata can be reached at bdolata@umich.edu and Daily Staff Reporter Nick Denenberg can be reached at nicoden@umich.edu.
