How do you like your bagel? With a schmear of cream cheese? Toasted with butter? Or maybe as a sandwich? However you like your bagel, the owners and crew at Bagel Dock are proud to offer New York-quality bagels in all sorts of flavors. They aim to keep their customers satisfied, and they plan to expand to meet the needs of the County’s growth.
Bagel Dock owners are planning a location by the Publix planned for the Carolina Shores area, at the intersection of Calabash Road and U.S. 17. Future plans could also include a South Carolina location. The current and original location is in Calabash, 1162 River Road. Calabash is famous for its seafood restaurants, but Bagel Dock has been a staple in the restaurant scene there for years.
Manager Byron Booth has been working at the restaurant for about a year, working his way up through the ranks. Daily operations start early at Bagel Dock, with bakers starting at about 3 am, or maybe even a bit earlier on the weekend. The dough is made, and set to proof, with plans to bake it the next day unless it’s so busy they need it earlier.
“The dough does a little better when it gets to slowly grow,” Booth explained. Making new dough, proofing it, and pulling it out to bake is a constant cycle, he said.
What makes these bagels different from those at the grocery store?
“It’s the freshness,” Booth said. “It always tastes best when it’s fresh.” The restaurant also uses an advanced water system that pulls out all the minerals and heavy chemicals through reverse osmosis, and then minerals are added to it. It’s all about providing a real New York bagel in Brunswick County.
Brian Bonsignore and Christine Cheffo own the shop, with Brian concentrating on the day-to-day operations and Christine handling the marketing and merchandise.
For Bonsignore, getting it right is what matters. They use an oven from Italy, which Bonsignore described as the “Cadillac” of ovens, and anytime he travels, he looks for new ingredients they can use at the restaurant. They use real honey and real Vermont maple syrup, for example, though the full list of ingredients is a closely-guarded secret.
“We’ll all taste test if we bring something new in,” Bonsignore said. “We do blind taste testing. You always want to improve. You don’t want to stay stagnant. You don’t want to fall into a rut. We always try to get better and better. That’s what we try to do every day.”
Booth explained that while there is a recipe to follow, there’s a lot more that goes into making the dough come out just right. The humidity, for example, can really affect the proofing process. “There’s a dramatic difference from winter to summer with how long they proof,” he said. He also said they use different amounts of water depending on the season or even the daily weather. Once that dough hits the table, he said the quicker they run through it, the more uniform the bagels look. Booth and Bonsignore stressed that quality control is important, and Booth said that they really pay attention to what the dough looks like and how it feels through every step.
“You wouldn’t want a pound cake to be like an angel food cake,” he said.
Lots of flavored bagels, and much more than just bagels
The restaurant caries all the popular flavors, such as Asiago, blueberry, cinnamon raisin and the everything bagel. But they also have a French toast bagel, a ghost pepper bagel, a horseradish bagel, a gouda cheese bagel, and more. They generally carry approximately 30 kinds of bagels, with other flavors added in as limited-time specials. Cream cheese options include fruit flavors, scallion, olive and pimento, and raisin walnut, to name a few.
There are also breakfast sandwiches, deli sandwiches and hot sandwiches, such as chicken parmigiana.
Certain flavors of bagels will sell out during the day, but if there are any leftover at the end of the day, they are donated to a local church.
Rolling on with selling bagels
The current owners bought Bagel dock just two years ago. Bonsignore was a career firefighter in New York, and knows a good bagel.
“I was in the FDNY my whole life. We started each shift with coffee and bagels. Working in these places, you know what a good bagel looks like. It’s getting back to basics,” he said. And he also knows good pastries. When he and Cheffo were planning to buy Bagel Dock, Bonsignore knew just who to talk to about pastries.
“Billy the baker worked in New York for 35 years” Bonsignore said. “He worked in the bakery right around the corner from me. I said we’re buying this place Billy, are you coming with me. Where else are you going to get a freshly made pastry?”
Billy starts his day at about 5 am.
“Billy the baker worked in NY for 35 years. He worked in the baker right around the corner from me. I said we’re buying this place Billy – are you coming with me. Where else are you going to get a freshly made pastry.”
The cooks and front end staff come in at 6 am, Booth explained. “All these moving parts — it’s a lot. But it’s rewarding,” he said. 
