Not all dinosaurs are extinct. In Boston, the Bagelsaurus is alive and well.
Housed on Massachusetts Avenue near the Harvard University campus, the former bagel pop-up shop opened its first brick and mortar on Oct. 23 in Porter Square.
At first glance, the shop may go unnoticed due to the lack of signage on the front of the building. But upon a closer look, one will see the Bagelsaurus itself — a dinosaur with a bagel for a body — on the small glass door.
“That’s a good question,” said Mary Ting Hyatt, owner of Bagelsaurus, when asked why exactly she chose such a prehistoric name. “I wish I had a better answer, but I just wanted something that would make a great logo.”
The shop’s interior is plain and simple with wooden chairs, wood floors and blank white walls. The only two decorations on the walls are a mirror and a menu, which holds both a list of products and a declaration: “Our bagels are super fresh, toasting available upon request!”
Hyatt’s bagels were first sold to the public in August 2013. She originally sold them out of Cutty’s, a sandwich shop in Brookline.
As the baked goods quickly gained in popularity, Hyatt said, a concrete shop soon became necessary. Hyatt employed the help of Kickstarter, a crowdfunding website, for the initial capital, with a goal of $15,000. By the end of the fundraising period, Hyatt had accrued $24,521 to use toward opening the Bagelsaurus brick and mortar.
An expansion had always been the plan, and Cambridge was a great spot in which to build, she said. Not only does she live in and love Cambridge, she also looks forward to getting business from the large student population in the area.
All of the bagels at Bagelsaurus are handmade, Hyatt said. In the beginning, she personally made each and every bagel with only the help of one assistant. But with the new store comes a new baking crew. The baking process will now be “more of a group effort,” Hyatt said.
Now, Hyatt and her team manage to turn out about 300 bagels a day in nine varying flavors. This is an increase in supply from the original “dozen-a-day” at Cutty’s, which included only two flavors of bagels.
In the store currently, the nine flavors of bagels are plain, sea salt, poppy seed, sesame seed, everything, seeded wheat, cinnamon raisin, pretzel and black olive. But Hyatt said the shop will “definitely experiment with a few more.”
Beyond the selection of bagels, the Bagelsaurus menu also lists seven different spreads (plain, vegetable, scallion or honey rosemary cream cheese as well as salted, mustard or almond butter) and eight possible add-ons (cucumbers, capers, red onion, roasted tomatoes, avocado, bacon, ham and fish) that give customers the chance to go from a classic plain bagel with cream cheese to everything bagel with scallion cream cheese, capers and fish.
The menu also lists three specialty sandwiches that guests can order, which includes the appropriately named “T-Rex,” a sandwich with house-made almond butter, banana and bacon. Bagelsaurus also sells La Colombe coffee products as well as a weekly special, such as bagel pizza.
Out of all the choices on the menu, Hyatt points to two Bagelsaurus originals that all new customers have to try: a pretzel bagel with mustard butter or a sea salt bagel with honey-rosemary cream cheese.
Although Bagelsaurus has many items to offer its customers, Hyatt is certain that the café will remain focused on bagels.
“Our bread and butter will be the bagel.”
Bagelsaurus is located at 1796 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. They are open Tuesday to Friday from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. and from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. To view the whole menu, check out the Bagelsaurus website.
