One of Portland’s Best Bagel Carts Will Reopen With the Help of a Larger Bakery

When Bundy’s Bagels outgrew its cart, a fellow bagel-maker offered to share his production bakery.

(Sam Gehrke)
By Elise Herron

Bundy Bagels has been resurrected.

Last month, Joel Bundy announced his departure from the bagel-making business after four years of owning Bundy's Bagels. Today, he announced, he's back, and will be merging production space with Bowery Bagels' North Portland bakery.

Bundy's Bagels—the Hawthorne St. bagel cart that scored WW's best boiled bagels award last year—closed on Oct. 7, after demand began to outpace production capability.

"I kinda hit a point where it was expand or close down," Bundy told WW.

News of the cart's closure upset Michael Madigan, owner of downtown Portland's Bowery Bagels.

"Portland needs more good bagels, not fewer," said Madigan in a statement announcing the partnership today. "It seemed a shame to see a well regarded fellow bagel maker disappear due to his success. Joel and I met, and agreed that we could collaborate and keep Bundy's in the community."

Bundy—who started making bagels over a decade ago, after a "what should you do when you're bored" Google search revealed a bagel recipe—says the partnership is ideal.

"Working in Bowery's bakery will relieve the stress on our cart, and enable us to continue to grow," he says. "And, the door is open to future joint projects with Bowery."

Though they will share the same bakery, Bowery's and Bundy's will remain separate in all other aspects. Bundy's Bagels will reopen at its original 1421 SE 33rd Ave. location on Oct. 28.

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