From the folks who brought us BKeDSHop doughnuts comes a new concept — Wakey Bakey Bagels. Now open at 1116 Metropolitan Ave. in Summerville’s Nexton development, Wakey Bakey specializes in breakfast and lunch bagels and hopes to appeal to the diners in one of Charleston’s fastest growing areas.
One of BKeDSHop’s three locations is in Summerville, so owners Christopher Garate and Keila Viera knew the area well enough to feel confident in opening a bagel shop there, too.
“It’s our most successful and busiest store,” Viera said of BKeDSHop’s Summerville location. “We felt confident that we could do another breakfast concept and do bagels really, really well.”
Not only is the populous Summerville area great for customer traffic — the area is home to some pretty loyal customers, to boot. “I’ve done an analysis on our sales and sales trends and Nexton has the highest repeat customer trend,” Viera said. “Whereas most restaurants average about 9% percent of repeat customers, we’re up in the 30s.”
Viera and Garate first started baking and selling their bagels out of BKeDSHop, during the pandemic years, and customers were fast fans. “We were making them on Sundays and they were wildly popular … everybody loved them,” Viera said.
They couldn’t commit to a full-time bagel set-up in the doughnut shops, where, according to Viera, “making doughnuts is a huge footprint and a long, long process,” so when the time came to expand, they knew a dedicated bagel concept would work out.
Big on bagels
“We’re super big on bagel culture,” Viera said. She and Garate lived in New York for years and she noted how critical bagels are to the breakfast food lineup in the northern United States. The pair met at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park where they graduated with pastry and culinary arts degrees while working in New York City bakeries.
Wakey Bakey bagels are made fresh daily using high quality ingredients — something Viera is passionate about.
“The difference in the quality of bagels is the flour,” she said. Viera uses King Arthur Flour, which is unbleached and not bromated. “I can try a bread or bagel and I can tell the difference between someone who is using cheaper flour.”
At Wakey Bakey, bakers don’t hand roll their bagels but rather “ball them out” the day before and barely touch them before boiling them. The result is a texture that is “super light and fluffy.” Viera said that she thinks Wakey Bakey will have “the most closely resembled bagels to a Northern bagel in town.”
Breakfast sandwiches include items like The Wakey, made with scallion cream cheese, hashbrown, American cheese, egg and bacon and The Eggie, which keeps things simple with egg and American cheese.
Lunch sandwiches include a BLT and the Buffalo Ranch Chicken Cutlet.
Viera said she wants there to be something for everyone on the menu, including folks who eat vegan and gluten free diets. Diners can choose from vegan spreads and Wakey Bakey is making its own gluten-free bagels in-house. “I don’t think anybody would be able to tell the difference,” Viera said.
The spot has a solid coffee program, too, with cold brew, drip coffee and espresso drinks.
Viera envisions Wakey Bakey as more than a grab-and-go bagel joint. She said that she’s seen that Summerville residents love to have dining venues where they can hang out for a little while.
“We have tables that I think would be appropriate for people who are coming to [remote] work,” she said. “There’s plenty of seating. We want to create an environment where people will feel comfortable to hang out and moms can bring their kids or where people come to work… we encourage you to come and hang out, not just get your stuff and leave.”
Viera has seen a lot of life pass through the doors of the three BKeDSHop locations, and she’s looking forward to welcoming even more frequent fliers at Wakey Bakey.
“I really feel touched when a customer says, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been coming here for years with my kid and this is where they’ve grown up having doughnuts,’ ” she said. “I think having that experience through your childhood, that nostalgia, is super important.”
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