Orlando Sentinel
In late 2019, stay-at-home dad Jeff Perera started selling fresh bagels out of his Winter Garden home, turning his interest in baking the New York-style bagels he and his wife loved — but couldn’t find in Central Florida — into a small business.
Back then, he baked a maximum of about 13 dozen a day, but the business soon expanded, with the first Jeff’s Bagel Run store opening in Ocoee in 2021 and other locations following, the most recent in Clermont earlier this month. That Lake County store baked 142 dozen bagels on its opening day.
Jeff’s Bagel Run now has seven locations, eight others in development — including stores in North Carolina and Texas — and recently inked a deal to add 30 more locations across South Florida. The first of of those shops will debut in Boca Raton, Coconut Creek, and Pembroke Pines later this year.
Despite the growth, the company is still committed to selling top-notch bagels with flavors ranging from garlic bread and cinnamon sugar to salted caramel and white pizza, said Catriona Harris, the store’s vice president of marketing.
“The biggest thing is continuing our same commitment to quality,” she said. “Jeff and his wife Danielle are still in the stores every day rolling bagels, teaching people how to make bagels, doing the cream cheese and more so that we continue that same quality as we continue to grow, which is the number one most important thing.”
