Eumundi Voice - Issue 87, 22 February 2024

A TASTE OF THE HINTERLAND

Bezel’s Bagels

There’s a little shop near the Cooroy BP service station that has been quietly selling handcrafted bagels for the past year. It’s owned by Nikki Bezel and is called Bezel’s Bagels.

Nikki has built a loyal following at Eumundi Markets where he sells his bagels every Wednesday and Saturday. After starting three years ago at the Pomona Markets selling 150 bagels a week, he now sells around 1,800 a week!

The Bezel Bagel family includes the cinnamon crunch bagel (with cinnamon, lemon and orange zest), a jalapeño bagel to get your taste buds firing and bagels with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, rye, plain or the lot.

Nikki is a Canadian chef with substantial baking experience who worked in North and South America before settling in Cooran and then Cooroy. With time on his hands during Covid he became obsessed with bagels, recalling his childhood where bagels featured prominently. He allows three days for fermenting the mix and then shapes, boils and bakes the bagels. It’s a labour-intensive process that he loves, especially when people express their surprise at how chewy the bagels are on the outside but soft on the inside.

“The Original Eumundi Markets has been very supportive and a great testing ground for our products,” said Nikki. Keep an eye on his FB page for future plans. Bezel’s Bagels is at 24 Cedar St, Cooroy and open from 10am-3.30pm on Tuesday and Friday.

Rhonda Piggott