{"id":373,"date":"2025-03-20T11:33:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T11:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/bos-bagels-brings-nyc-style-bagels-to-ann-arbor\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T11:33:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T11:33:36","slug":"bos-bagels-brings-nyc-style-bagels-to-ann-arbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/bos-bagels-brings-nyc-style-bagels-to-ann-arbor\/","title":{"rendered":"BO\u2019s Bagels brings NYC-style bagels to Ann Arbor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Among the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/ann-arbor\/new-south-u-developments-provide-more-off-campus-housing-but-umich-students-remain-concerned-about-affordability\/\">new apartments<\/a> on South University Avenue, <a href=\"https:\/\/bosbagels.com\/about.html\">BO\u2019s Bagels<\/a> is set to open in Ann Arbor by mid-March, below Vic Village South. The shop offers NYC-style bagels, emphasizing traditional, \u201cold school\u201d bagel-making techniques with classic bagels and their signature sandwiches.<\/p>\n<p>BO\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Martinez said he started BO\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was recovering for another month and still just wanted a bagel,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cSo I said, \u2018You know what? I know how to cook. I\u2019m not a baker, but I can figure this out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Martinez said he researched the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nycbageltours.com\/bagel-history\"> history of bagels<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne 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, \u2018I had the most incredible bagel and I got it at a farmer\u2019s market on a corner in Harlem,\u2019\u201d Martinez said. \u201cAnd so the next week, we showed up and there were like 100 people there waiting for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, Martinez said business grew to a point where Dikos quit her job, and they opened their first location in Harlem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just sort of snowballed to the point where we would pull up to the farmer\u2019s market and people would be like, \u2018Don\u2019t even set up your stand \u2014 I\u2019ll just buy bags right out of the trunk,\u2019\u201d Martinez said. \u201cIt got really crazy, so then we decided it\u2019s time to open a shop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After a few years of selling items ranging from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/share\/BAGtX9DbQj\"> sushi bagels<\/a> to traditional<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/share\/BAOTLRVSj3\"> black russian bagels<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt is a totally different set of foot traffic out there, and the foot traffic here is far, far higher,\u201d Dikos said. \u201cBut I think through online ordering, through catering and through other ways, we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were like, well, we can really tap into people that are from the East Coast that want a taste of home,\u201d Dikos said. \u201cThen really expose New York City bagels to a population that probably doesn\u2019t really know what a good bagel tastes like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s food scene, noting the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcny.org\/story\/new-york-slice\"> importance of pizza<\/a> and bagels to NYC food culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe already have Joe\u2019s Pizza \u2026 so I think that niche has already been filled,\u201d Horvers said. \u201cBut the bagel is something that Ann Arbor hasn\u2019t been able to sort of remaster \u2014 that New York style \u2014 so this is a unique idea and opportunity for this company.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Horvers said he hopes the shop stays true to the traditional bagel experience, noting the importance of the right amount of bagel toppings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would hope it gives me that hometown, traditional New York-style, New York-famous bagel kind of feel,\u201d Horvers said. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Martinez, as food costs have<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/data-products\/food-price-outlook\/summary-findings\"> increased over time<\/a>, some bagel shops have<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/topics\/food-science\/bagel#:~:text=Shelf%2Dstable%20bagels%20frequently%20contain,like%20gums%20or%20modified%20starches.\"> used additives and lengtheners<\/a> to prolong the use of costly ingredients and crank out large quantities of bagels. Martinez said BO\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want the business to be something that everyone can benefit from,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWe 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\u2019re trying to do things the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>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.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among the new apartments on South University Avenue, BO\u2019s Bagels is set to open in Ann Arbor by mid-March, below Vic Village South. The shop offers NYC-style bagels, emphasizing traditional, \u201cold school\u201d bagel-making techniques with classic bagels and their signature sandwiches. BO\u2019s was founded by Andrew Martinez, a native New Yorker, and Ashley Dikos, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[242,243,317,316,318,319],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ann","tag-arbor","tag-bagels","tag-bos","tag-brings","tag-nycstyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}