A new bagel shop in Carnegie is set to welcome its first customers in a couple weeks, putting to rest speculation online that the business might not open at all.
Following months of excitement online for Sobo Bagels and Deli, located at 221 Second Ave., the shop’s June 1 scheduled opening had to be delayed for several reasons.
Owner James Padula said those delays pertained to preparing the food equipment, getting the building ready and trying to execute the perfect product for the community.
“It’s been a heck of a lot of work, but you learn a lot in the process of how to do some of this stuff, especially because it’s such a niche thing,” Padula said. “Nobody knows, locally, the plumbing requirements and the hood requirements because it’s just different equipment. It’s not the standard bakery stuff. There’s some specialty stuff, but nobody knows.”
Padula, of Green Tree, is originally from New York, has years of corporate experience and comes from a family that has run multiple restaurants, but it was his first time doing something like this in Pittsburgh.
One of the things he missed from his home was the classic New York-style bagel and the sandwiches along with fresh ingredients that came with them. He said there are not many things he would regret in life, but not opening a bagel shop would be one of his regrets if he didn’t do it.
So, he wanted to have his own bagel shop, and Padula said his Second Avenue shop was the perfect location to do it. After acquiring the building about a year ago, Padula and his team transformed it from its prevous life as a pizza shop and obtained financial help from his wife and a silent partner owner.
Padula realized quickly he needed more space, and he put on an addition in the last six months — ripping out the structure of an outside patio to make the front of the store.
Severe winter weather issues and several other factors added to the delay in opening, including completing some electrical work, obtaining specific bagel equipment, passing a health inspection and waiting on equipment to arrive, according to Padula. Sobo also has been getting the signage into the building.
“It’s part restaurant business, and trying to do things right,” Padula said. “Building an addition in Allegheny County, there’s a lot that goes into it from an engineering standpoint. Little things like that slowed us down. We probably should have been open two months ago.”
After a couple weeks of getting everything set up, training the staff and having a soft opening, Sobo will open officially at the end of the month with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, he added.
Padula took the time to go to New York to learn how to make the bagels and perfect the techniques as he was trying to bring the business to fruition — and to build it from the ground up. Taking time and doing it right has been Padula’s goal all along.
The name of the business comes from Padula’s favorite sandwich growing up, which was the sobo or the sausage on a bagel omelet. There are also bobos, bacon on a bagel omelet, and hobos, which features ham.
All will be on the menu at the restaurant, which will have about 10 breakfast sandwiches, 10 lunch sandwiches, soups, salads, made to order for breakfast and lunch. Sobo will operate from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends.
Sobo will have all types of bagels made fresh — including the classic plain, poppy, everything, jalapeno cheddar, asiago, blueberry, cinnamon sugar and more. There will also be Boars Head meats with a merchandising case, lox, homemade cream cheeses, homemade home fries, local Pittsburgh vendors like La Prima Espresso Company for coffee and more.
“We’re bringing what I would say is our take on the original (bagel),” Padula said. “I wanted it to have the standard basics done the right way here. Selfishly again, I just missed that food. The (24-hour) proofing process really matters. If you shorten that, it’s not the same.”
Large batch doughs will start to be made in the kitchen’s 200-pound spiral mixer — made in 1995 — and will move on to the former/divider acquired in Erie to get a consistent roll every time, and so more bagels can be made every day.
The bagels then get boiled and proofed for 24 hours. Once proofed, they will go into a stone oven saved from the former pizza shop, which is different from the standard baking of a bagel, according to general manager Meghan White, who has a background in baking and one of around eight to 10 employees at the shop.
“If you don’t do it right, it just doesn’t work, and that’s all there is to it,” White said. “There’s a reason that nobody does that here. It’s a real process.”
Padula said his goal is to bring something unique to the area since there is a lot of demand for bagels like this, and eventually expand his business. Sobo has gotten a lot of support from the borough.
He also wants to integrate into the community and execute the store’s bagels with consistency, bringing in good products and providing good service. Padula said that communities cannot have enough places like Sobo, and he hopes the community is proud of the operation.
“I thought this was a great area to do this,” Padula added. “The hype, the demand, the feedback we’ve gotten has been motivating. It is as important as ever to be able to give back to the community that you live in, and that you work to build relationships in. If you want your town to be a certain way, you have to be a part of it.
“You can’t ingrain yourself further than buying a location and feeding people.”
More in the coming weeks can be found at https://sobobagels.com/, and those looking to apply to work there can email sobobagelsanddeli@gmail.com.
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