This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeff Perera, 48, the cofounder of Jeff’s Bagel Run. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I met my wife while working at Target, marking the beginning of what became a decadeslong career in retail. Over the years, I moved into leadership roles at several major brands before eventually joining a senior living company in a senior role.
Then, in August 2019, I got a call that changed everything: I was being let go. At the time, my wife, Danielle — who’d also built a successful career — was home full-time with our four kids.
At first, settling into the role of stay-at-home dad wasn’t natural — not because of the dad part, but because I was often the only dad at the park or play group.
Still, it gave me a rare chance to slow down. Danielle, who had decided to return to corporate work around that time, helped me realize I’d never really taken a step back to ask what I wanted next.
My identity had been closely tied to my job for years. I had no idea that space would make room for a question that would change everything: “Jeff, can you make me a bagel?”
When you can’t find the best bagel
Some people go on coffee runs. Others go on Target runs or beer runs. For Danielle and me, it was always a weekly bagel run. But living in Central Florida — a true bagel desert — meant driving 45 minutes to find a decent New York-style bagel.
So when my wife popped the question, given my newfound free time, I decided to try making her the perfect bagel.
Danielle has vivid childhood memories of bagels, riding in her mom’s station wagon on Long Island, eating one fresh from the bag. The best foods, of course, can transport us back to moments we just want to taste one more time.
The problem was, I’d never baked anything in my life. I had zero culinary training. I just looked up the first recipe I could find and got to work. Those first bagels were terrible — dense, misshapen, and far from New York standards. But that only inspired me to try again.
Every day, Danielle would come home from work to a new batch waiting for her to critique.
Then the pandemic hit, and my family was locked down with a mad bagel scientist. I’d make up to six dozen bagels a day. Bowls of dough covered the counters, each marked with recipe notes. My kids helped knead and mix, turning the kitchen into a full-on test lab.
Danielle would taste and review each one — the chewiness, the salt, the crust. Eventually, she joked that her work clothes might stop fitting if I didn’t stop baking. So, we started giving them away.
Getting it right
The look on my wife’s face when I finally nailed the perfect bagel was unforgettable. We looked at each other and asked: Could we actually sell these?
I made a simple flyer, posted on Instagram, and sold a few dozen. One of our early customers was a local journalist who wrote about us, and suddenly we had more orders than we could handle.
Our kitchen exploded into a full-scale operation. We had five refrigerators stretching into the garage, extension cords running everywhere, and breakers popping constantly. We upgraded our confection ovens.
In the third week of the pandemic, we started posting our bagel menu. Our bagels were selling out in seconds. During one stretch, we baked for 27 days straight. I delivered bagels across town, spreading a little joy during lockdown.
Scaling up
In 2020, we did our first in-person market. People lined up for a block to buy bagels. The next year, a downpour hit mid-market, and every other vendor packed up. But our line stayed. We threw tarps over the bagels, and people showed up soaked to buy half a dozen. That’s when we knew we had something real.
We sold our house and launched a Kickstarter campaign with a $10,000 goal. We raised over $22,000 from 276 backers, enough to buy equipment and take the next step. Danielle quit her job, and together we opened our first store in Ocoee, Florida, in 2021.
Today, Jeff’s Bagel Run — named after our weekly drives to find the best bagels — is a growing franchise with more than 100 stores in six states, and counting.
Peace, love, and bagels
Starting a business with your spouse can be tough. We make it work by having short memories; what happens at work stays at work.
Our corporate leadership training kicks in when we need to manage challenges or each other, but at the end of the day, we always choose “us” over the business.
Building something from scratch taught me a lot about trust, not just in my partner but in myself. In my corporate days, I always had a mentor or a boss to call for advice. Now, it’s just us.
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