Man turns love of baking into business
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RIGBY, Idaho (East Idaho News) — A Rigby man is sharing his love of bagels with the community and he’s hoping to open a brick-and-mortar business in Rexburg soon.
Ryan Bestor started making bagels out of his home about three months ago and delivering them to customers.
“We have a registered business at the house (called Teton Bagel),” Bestor tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I’m making about 100 bagels a day and if I don’t have anybody to buy them, then I just go out … and give them away to people so they can try them out.”
Dozens of customers have tried his bagels and he’s received some positive feedback.
“Holy mackerel those are good!” one customer texted Bestor. “Absolutely wonderful!”
The everything bagel is the most popular flavor, Bestor says, which includes sesame and poppyseeds, garlic, onion, salt and sunflower oil. Garlic and cheese are other popular flavors.
Bestor is currently working towards opening a physical location in Rexburg. He’s currently raising capital to make his dream a reality. In the last week, he’s raised $3,000 on Mainvest.com, a crowd-funding investment firm that caters to Main Street brick-and-mortar stores.
In order to open a store, Bestor needs to raise a minimum of $30,000 by April 28.
“Once I’ve hit 10% of my funding, which I’ve done … Mainvest sees it as an investment that will work out. Now they’re going to devote more of their resources. I’ve done my part to raise 10% and now they’re going to help me raise the other 90%,” says Bestor.
Bestor says Teton Bagel will be a bakery restaurant serving a variety of bagel dishes for breakfast and lunch. The menu on his website includes items such as sandwiches, burgers and even hot dogs.
The concept is geared towards college students and Bestor envisions it being a place where people come to enjoy a bagel while they study or hang out with friends and family.
The idea for Teton Bagel stems, in part, from his mom.
“My mom was a culinary arts teacher and had made a cookbook,” says Bestor. “I took her bread recipe and some bagel recipes I found and put them together. I ended up making some really good bagels.”
Bestor and his wife, Dalton, moved to Rigby a couple of years ago after Ryan’s business in Phoenix, Arizona shut down.
“I made a risky investment with the company and it ended up not working out. We lost everything we had. We had to sell a couple cars and ended up moving to Idaho to live with my brother,” he says.
His wife was pursuing a master’s degree and working full-time and he decided to start baking while he looked for a job.
He eventually got a job with a local farmer and they moved into an old farmhouse.
“I decided to continue baking and cooking,” Bestor says. “We’d go to a Thanksgiving or Christmas party and I brought bread. People loved it and said I should sell it. I handed out bagels to a bunch of friends and figured out that Rexburg didn’t have a bagel restaurant. Now here we are.”
An exact location for his restaurant is yet to be determined. Meanwhile, Bestor has been busy launching a website and perfecting his bagel recipes and he’s excited to deliver to more customers and move forward with this project.
“This is something my mom grew up doing. Her life was baking and cooking. Now I’ve finally been able to tap into that and find the joy in it as well,” he says. “It’s something I never would have expected myself doing but I am really happy to share it with others.”
To place an order or learn more, visit his website. You can also call him directly at (706) 531-8331.
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