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Outside view into The Lox Bagel Shop at 722 N. High St. Credit: Cassandra D\u2019Angelo | Sports Photo Editor.<\/p>\n
In New York and New Jersey, bagel shops are as common as coffee shops. Kevin Crowley said he wants Columbus to be part of that culture.<\/p>\n
Crowley, the owner of The Lox Bagel Shop, opened the restaurant in 2018 at 772 N. High St. after seeing an opportunity to bring the bagel culture he knew from the East Coast to central Ohio. As The Lox prepares to open its second location at Polaris later this fall, Crowley said he hopes the expansion will contribute to Columbus\u2019 bagel scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t look at other bagel shops as competition,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cWhat I\u2019m striving for is a community that acts the same as the New York-New Jersey crowd, where there\u2019s a shop in every neighborhood, on every corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rather than trying to recreate a New York-style bagel, Crowley said The Lox developed its own style by combining elements of New York and Montreal bagels.<\/p>\n
\u201cMontreal cooks them in a live wood fire, so it gives it a bit more texture on the crunch [and] a punchier flavor than your traditional New York bagel, which is kind of the same ingredients we use, but we mix in the live fire element to our baking as well as a malt syrup in the boil kettle,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cWe get the exterior texture of the Montreal bagel but we\u2019re keeping the softness [of the] inside of the New York bagel.\u201d<\/p>\n
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An herb and sea salt bagel and mint lemonade from The Lox Bagel Shop. Credit: Cassandra D\u2019Angelo | Sports Photo Editor.<\/p>\n
Crowley said the combination of both styles creates what he considers the perfect base for a sandwich.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the heart of what we do, we are almost more of a sandwich shop than a bagel shop,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cThat\u2019s how we look at ourselves. We are a sandwich shop that makes the bread in house every single day \u2014 the bread being the bagel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowley\u2019s background in higher-end restaurants also shaped his decision to open The Lox. After getting married and having children, he said he wanted to move away from the demanding hours of fine-dining and be more present at home.<\/p>\n
He and his wife traveled to various parts of the country while developing the concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and I traveled a bunch to New York and New Jersey [and] out west, eating a lot of bagels, and saw a gap in the market in Columbus, so we started working on the concept as well as the product in early 2017,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cIn 2018, we took the leap and I left my job and started grinding it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowley said his background in hospitality has helped distinguish The Lox from other shops.<\/p>\n
\u201cA combination of hospitality, great sourcing of ingredients, high-end technique, doing it for eight years and being proud and good at getting food out as fast as we can and high volume is our differentiator,\u201d Crowley said.<\/p>\n
The Lox\u2019s approach to bagels has made it a popular spot among Ohio State students, including students from the Northeast who come to Columbus accustomed to a different bagel culture, Crowley said.<\/p>\n
Crowley said students who are from New York, New Jersey and Maryland are particularly noticeable, making their expectations clear when they walk through the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can always tell an east-coaster by the way their order is or how they approach a bagel,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cThere is always some skepticism, they\u2019ll let it be known and say \u2018Hey, I grew up in New York\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m from Jersey.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Gigi Ramsey, a third-year MBA student and Ohio State graduate who has worked at The Lox since it opened in 2018, said she has seen similar reactions from East Coast students.<\/p>\n
\u201c[They] are like \u2018I\u2019m from New York, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to like this,\u2019\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cBut then they have them and on their way out they are like \u2018That was amazing,\u2019 so it\u2019s fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramsey said The Lox\u2019s consistency and focus on making its food in-house are a big part of what keeps customers coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we are a smaller business, it has a different feel,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cEverything is homemade, from all of our sauces to all of our bagels, baked fresh every day throughout the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
To avoid long lines on the weekend, Ramsey recommends ordering for pick-up through the shop\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
The Lox offers four bagel styles and focuses on sandwiches, allowing its staff to execute orders quickly, Crowley said. Its bacon, egg and cheese combination is its most popular order, while its salt and herb bagel is its most popular bagel.<\/p>\n
Ramsey said the relationships between the restaurant\u2019s employees and customers have also contributed to The Lox\u2019s longevity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who come in every day, it\u2019s awesome to see people wanting to come back, building those relationships,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cOn the weekend, it can be busy, so people might not know that we have a lot of regulars that come in and hang out during weekdays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowley said seeing returning customers is one of the most rewarding parts of running The Lox.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing that we can do is see you come back the next day or the next month or whenever you are next in town,\u201d Crowley said.<\/p>\n
He said that is especially meaningful when students return throughout their college careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun to see the seniors bringing freshmen here and continuing that legacy, and now we\u2019ve seen groups of classes come through Ohio State and gotten to know a lot of the kids,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cWe\u2019ll keep providing bagels and you just keep showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an Ohio State graduate, Crowley said he values The Lox\u2019s connection to the university community and will continue to support students during their time at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have my graduate degree from Ohio State, been a longtime fan, grew up in Cincinnati, but came to Columbus often as a kid because my dad went here, my sister went here, we are a proud member of the community,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cWe love supporting Ohio State wherever we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lox has also become part of Columbus\u2019 growing bagel community, where Ramsey said different shops offer different things.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery shop is so different in how they do things, it seems each one has their own niche or their own flair, so it is fun being in the bagel community,\u201d Ramsey said. \u201cThe more the merrier for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
As The Lox prepares to open its new location, Crowley said he hopes to see more bagel shops opening in Columbus and views it as a sign that the city is developing the culture he envisioned when he opened The Lox.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can collectively push the bagel culture in Columbus, there could be a hundred shops and it be totally fine because that means we are infiltrating Columbus and beyond to teach them that bagels are awesome,\u201d Crowley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outside view into The Lox Bagel Shop at 722 N. High St. Credit: Cassandra D\u2019Angelo | Sports Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[56810,134393,134401,134381,134374,134380,134375,134388,134376,134373,134390,134408,134391,134392,134389,134377,134405,134403,134378,134397,134387,134383,134395,134404,134396,134371,134372,134407,134385,134386,134400,9,89678,24,55,54,134384,56,134406,134379,134402,134382,134399,134398,134394],"class_list":["post-361810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bacon-egg-and-cheese","tag-bagel-sandwiches","tag-bagel-shop-near-osu","tag-bagel-shops-near-ohio-state","tag-bagels-in-columbus","tag-bagels-near-ohio-state","tag-best-bagels-in-columbus","tag-columbus-bagel-culture","tag-columbus-bagel-shops","tag-columbus-bagels","tag-columbus-breakfast","tag-columbus-breakfast-spots","tag-columbus-brunch","tag-columbus-dining","tag-columbus-food","tag-columbus-food-scene","tag-columbus-food-trends","tag-columbus-restaurant-scene","tag-columbus-restaurants","tag-columbus-small-businesses","tag-east-coast-bagel-culture","tag-east-coast-bagels","tag-fresh-bagels-columbus","tag-growing-bagel-scene","tag-local-columbus-restaurants","tag-lox-bagel-shop","tag-lox-bagel-shop-columbus","tag-lox-bagel-shop-polaris","tag-montreal-bagels","tag-montreal-style-bagels","tag-new-polaris-restaurants","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-bagels","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-style-bagels","tag-ny","tag-ohio-bagel-shops","tag-ohio-state-bagels","tag-ohio-state-dining","tag-ohio-state-students","tag-polaris-bagels","tag-polaris-restaurants","tag-salt-and-herb-bagel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}