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Bagel Miller

@bagelmiller

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𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗩𝗜𝗕𝗘𝗦, 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝗕𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗟𝗦
hand rolled • kettle boiled • fresh baked
🥯 &☕️ 7 days a week.
🅕🅘🅝🅓 🅤🅢->
lincoln square

POSTS STORIES REELS

✨ BIG BAGEL ENERGY✨

We’ve noticed a couple shifts lately:
🥯 Some folks are eating lighter (GLP-1 crew, hi 👋)
🥯 Some folks are feeling extra price-conscious in the mornings.

We always strive to be accessible to everyone and have been strategizing.

At first, we thought about shrinking our sandwiches but let’s be real, our breakfast sandwiches are already perfect the way they are. Loaded, indulgent, and worth it. 💅

Instead, we’re rolling out TWO sizes of our meat/egg/cheese sandwiches:
👉 Regular = the OG you know and love, stacked and glorious ($13)
👉 Small = same bagel, but one egg + half the cheese and meat (under $10)

This way, everyone wins. More accessible for weekday vibes, perfect for lighter eaters, and still all the Bagel Miller flavor you crave.

Like everything we do, this is a test. If you love it, it stays. If not, we’ll pivot. That’s the beauty of being small, scrappy, and nimble. 💥

So… what do you think? Would you go Regular or Small? 👀 by @bagelmiller

a few recent favs🤭🥯
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#bagels #bagelsandwich #chicagobagels #bagelandbean #tillybagel #dorothysbakery #bagelmiller #tasteofny #chicagofood #chicagofoodie by @bagelmiller

BREAKFAST:
She’s not just a bagel. She’s the moment.
House-whipped schmear, luxe lox, and major Sunday energy ——> 7 days a week.
#GoodVibesGreatBagels #BagelMiller #ChicagoEats by @bagelmiller

Chicago Bagel 🥯 Guide pt.2

User Guide: Thanks to those who have highlighted these businesses in our app and on our socials

🚨 Skip the slop and support local! 🚨

What’d we miss?❓
Comment below 👇

#enshittification #slopscore #privateequity #chooselocal #supportlocal by @bagelmiller

Did you wait in line this weekend?
We’re grateful.
We hope you loved whatever you got. Lots of love went into it. by @bagelmiller

Come join us at Apple Fest!!
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#applefest #chicagofall #chicago #fallvibes by @bagelmiller

Something special is brewing 🇲🇽
Any guesses? by @bagelmiller

My coffee journey started in 2006, when I fell completely in love with roasting (and smelling) coffee. I spent hours at the original Metropolis cafe, reading, writing and watching them roast. Eventually, with their guidance and others’, I learned how to do it myself. I started roasting at home for friends and family, then renting time on other cafes’ roasters whenever I could. I basically launched a pre-e-commerce subscription business.

Then, in 2008, I got laid off. Around that same time, I met a guy on a similar path and somehow we stumbled onto Ipsento Cafe, a little coffee shop drowning in debt and about to close. We figured out a way to take it over, installed a little red roaster and basically built the whole thing ourselves. I wrote my first cafe breakfast menu. Friends scavenged furniture and equipment from alleys. Baristas traded roasting lessons for shifts. We were broke, scrappy and figuring it out as we went. Somehow, it worked.

Fast forward almost twenty years. Last year, I stumbled across a little red Diedrich roaster on Facebook marketplace that looked strangely familiar. The markings were in exactly the places I remembered. I was pretty sure it was our first coffee roaster. So I tracked down the woman who had it in storage and started tracing its history. Sure enough, it was the same roaster.

So I took out a small loan and bought it. Coffee roasting wasn’t originally in the plan, but it felt like destiny and I had to grasp it.

For about a year now, we’ve quietly shifted to roasting our own coffee for Bagel Miller. As of this week we are 100% switched. Today, I roasted 100 pounds while writing this story.

And that’s the origin of @moonbowcoffee .

A moonbow is a rainbow that happens at night. You don’t always see it. You have to be looking.
Our slogan is “capturing the rare & radiant.” It applies to sourcing and roasting coffee, but we also kind of think it applies to living a happy life.

Keep your eyes peeled as @moonbowcoffee becomes something magical. 🌙🌈 by @bagelmiller

WE’RE BACK, BETCHES.

We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, and somehow both of our kids are finally in school. At the SAME school. On the SAME schedule. 🙌

Ten years ago when we decided to start a family, we had no idea how much it would change our careers and our business. Like so many parents, we had to figure out the impossible math of work, childcare and how much of our kids’ lives we were willing to miss to keep pushing our careers forward. We chose the kids (and being a bit poorer than we’d like.)

We took turns being at the restaurant, worked more ON the business than IN it, and said no to a lot along the way. A book. TV opportunities. Partnerships with national brands. A partnership in a pizza business that went on to become pretty famous. Lots of media opportunities. Starbucks wanted to sell our stuff? And approximately one billion opportunities to open another Bagel Miller. 😂 Some of those things probably would have been amazing, but they didn’t fit our life.

Nine years later, we are very happy and confident we made the right choice. Maybe we lost some career momentum and a little relevance, but we got to be there for our kids and raise good humans together. We wouldn’t trade that. We watched as others passed us by, but we believed we’d make up for lost time when the moment was right. And if you’re on the fence, wondering if it’s worth making a choice like this yes, it absolutely is.

And now, we get to be a team at work again too. You’re going to see a lot more of both of us at Bagel Miller, working with our team, dialing in what we already do and figuring out what comes next.

We have LOTS of ideas. More events? New offerings? A dinner concept? A festival?Collaborations? Another Bagel Miller? But we’ve always considered this a community business too, so we want to hear from you. What do you want to see from us next?

And if you have an opportunity, collaboration, media idea or something weird you think we’d be perfect for, send it our way. We spent a lot of years saying no because it wasn’t the right season.

We’re ready to start saying yes again. Not to everything. The kids still win. 💕 by @bagelmiller

Bagels are pretty much the whole point around here.

Big sandwiches. Good coffee. A patio when Chicago decides to cooperate.

No VC money. No big bank behind us. Just a family from your neighborhood, serving you.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with us. 🥯 by @bagelmiller

@bagelmiller’s West Loop Wrap was a Lollapalooza favorite for a reason.

🌯 Packed with fresh veggies, TAPATIO Hot Sauce, parmesan, and KRAFT Ranch.

💡 Pro tip: Get a side of KRAFT Ranch for dipping.

Would you try it? by @bagelmiller

It has been a while since I've been able to post about an acquisition, but I'm beyond thrilled to have this book be my first official project at @medialabbooks.

A huge thanks to Brielyn, Megan, and Lindsey for letting me work on this book with you!

🥐 images by irasutoya via Canva by @bagelmiller