On select days in 2020 and 2021, Adam Dealan-de would drive his plain blue van to a select location. In Tacoma, it was the W.W. Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park. In Olympia, it was Lion’s Park.

In true “if you know, you know” fashion, bagel fiends from around the South Sound had ordered a dozen, plus schmears, online, agreeing to show up at this designated time and place to retrieve their brown paper bag, in exchange for cash.

It was the honor system of living your best bagel life, and the pandemic-born tradition will continue in 2022 and, evident of Dealan-de’s loyal following, well into the future.

Adam’s Bagels marries two distinct styles: the crispy, comparably thin, traditionally wood-fired bagels of Montreal and the needs-no-introduction New York bagel. They are hand-rolled from Montana flour, yeast and salt, boiled in a mixture of coconut oil and honey for a whisper of sweetness that, the owner believes, make them a distinctly Pacific Northwest creation.

After boiling, they bake in a conventional oven — similar to most New York bagels — at high heat, which “gives you the crispy, more finished on the outside and chewy on the inside,” Dealan-de described to The News Tribune in December.

His signature flavor — and one of TNT Diner’s favorite restaurant dishes of 2021 — is nettle, a nutritious Northwest weed that has cozied up to everything from pesto to pancakes. The standard lineup otherwise includes plain, salt, sesame, onion, garlic, poppyseed and all-dressed, the Montreal verbiage for “everything” popularized by the famous St-Viateur boulangerie.

Unlike fellow South Sound bagel maker Brittany Erwin, who will soon open her Gig Harbor shop, B’s Bagels & Butters, Dealan-de did not grow up eating these golden holed rounds. Raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, he first encountered the Montreal style at Siegel’s Bagels at age 19 while living in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“They were just doing a bagel the right way,” he said. “I just fell in love with it. You move away, you come home and you’re like, ‘There’s nothing like that.’”

After selling his carpet cleaning and restoration business, the self-described entrepreneur stayed at home with his kids for several years. As they aged and he had more time on his hands, he began tinkering with this storied food, sharing the results with friends and family. Word of his creations “exploded” on Next Door, the block-by-block conversation platform, then on Facebook and Reddit.

“It’s just word of mouth,” he said of his success since quietly launching the more formal pre-order system in 2020. “It just exploded.”

He jumped to baking 1,000 some bagels a week, selling to 1,500 customers. Various stops and starts thus ensued.

Under Washington state’s cottage baking laws, approved home kitchens can sell up to a certain amount of baked goods, but he explained, “If you make over X amount, you have to move into a commercial space. That’s kind of where we hit.”

Late last year, he secured an anchor space at My Commercial Kitchen, a new commissary from the owners of Giorgio’s Catering and Firehouse Pub in Buckley. Currently undergoing permitting approval, from there Adam’s Bagels will bake on a consistent schedule: Order online, retrieve on select days or choose delivery if within city limits. (For now, he is baking at a shared kitchen in Thurston County.)

Dealan-de hopes to wholesale to small groceries and cafes, and later this year to open sandwich shops in Tacoma and Olympia, fed from the commissary headquarters. Long-term, he envisions having a half dozen stores across the Northwest.

“My dream is to eventually have wood-fired ovens just in your neighborhood,” he mused.

They are, of course, best that way, but if you pre-slice and then freeze extras, Adam’s Bagels toast up quite nicely.

Bagels, this new but talented baker has learned, are a food with so much history and personal connections.

“They hold that kind of space culturally,” said Dealan-de, referencing special requests he has fulfilled for bar mitzvahs, weddings, funerals. “There’s something visceral or tactile about a bagel that people just love. It’s a very nourishing food. It’s kind of neat to tap into that.”

Reporter’s Note, July 2022: Adam’s Bagels continues to serve the Tacoma and Olympia area, but is once again based in Olympia. Check the website for current ordering options.

HOW TO ORDER ADAM’S BAGELS

Go to calendly.com/adamsbagels
Choose Tacoma or Olympia
Select date
Detail number and flavors of bagels and schmears
Choose your pickup location and time
Re-ordering? Request an auto-order for weekly or bi-weekly bagels
Look for confirmation email or text message
Get cash (exact change or with tip), retrieve bagels and enjoy!

ADAM’S BAGELS

▪ pre-order only for pickup or delivery, olymadebagels.com

▪ Details: order any combination by the half or full dozen; winter special includes 6 bagels and 1 schmear for $10 or 12 bagels and 2 schmears for $20 (extra schmears $3 each)

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