Started 30 years ago on a dare, the Bagel Bar Café remains a fixture on Kutztown’s West Main Street, attracting university students, townspeople and visitors for whom it’s a destination.
The popular bagel sandwiches and seasonal coffee drinks aren’t the café’s only attractions, however.
From the beginning of the business, founder Christine Kreisher was determined it would be a bright spot in the Kutztown community, offering a welcoming place for everyone to come.
“We’ve had the same customers coming here for 30 years and I love that,” Kreisher said during a recent interview at the café. “I started the business on a dare, but the people and the customers drew me in, and they’ve kept coming. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
The Bagel Bar opened in 1994, after local businessman Bob Beise dared Kreisher to sell bagels out of his shop, the Bicycle Den. With the promise of free rent for three months, she decided to accept the challenge.
Kreisher’s husband, Jim, and his father upcycled some found materials to create a little bar in the front window of the shop, and the Bagel Bar in the Bicycle Den opened.
Soon, business had taken off to the point where it had outgrown the bike shop.
“After about four months in, Bob told me I had to go,” Kreisher recalled. “My customers were taking over his store.”
She moved across West Main Street to a tiny shop and continued doing business, often with customers lined up down the block.
“This was when bagels were just taking off around here, and we were the only place in town selling them,” she said. “People loved our bagels.”
The business soon outgrew that space and in 1997 moved back across the street to its current location at 214 West Main Street. At that point, Jim joined his wife in the business and they changed the name to the Bagel Bar Café. They significantly expanded the menu, which has been evolving ever since, sometimes at the suggestions of customers.
The Pink Flamingo sandwich, for instance, was created by a regular who happened to like eggs, sausage, ham, turkey and cheese on a bagel, all enhanced with a schmear of strawberry cream cheese.
That sandwich was later topped by the Full Flamingo, which, in addition to all the ingredients of the earlier version, includes pork roll and bacon.
“We’ve always had a lot of fun with our customers,” said Kreisher, a local credentialed minister at GT Church who served as executive director of ministries there until 2021. “I always say this café was my first ministry.”
The couple’s three sons: Jason Malone, 35, Jordan Kreisher, 27, and Jimmy Kreisher, 25, all grew up in the shop, working as they got older. Jimmy now manages the café, sharing his parents’ affection for its customers and close-knit group of employees.
“I really enjoy managing the staff,” he shared. “I started working here at the same age most of them are when they start, and I remember how important it was to know somebody was watching out for you.”
The Kreishers worked together to keep the business open through the pandemic, allowing customers to order on an app and pick up their food at a takeout window in the back of the shop.
They worked with community members, students and faculty of Kutztown University and others to create a large mural on a wall behind the café.
“We were determined to be a light during that dark time,” Christine Kreisher said.
When asked about his plans for the café’s next 30 years, Jimmy Kreisher said he hopes it will continue to grow, while continuing to provide a place where customers feel at home and cared for.
“I always want to have a space for people to feel comfortable, more than anything,” he said. “I think we really need that.”
