ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL
When Hal and Joanne Stern opened Five-Boro Bagels at Southwest Plaza in 1994, there were no other bagel-only shops in the Roanoke Valley.
The biscuit-eating Valley cottoned quickly to the boiled-and-baked dough, and lines of bagel-hungry customers soon stretched out the door. The Sterns could hardly keep up with demand for their fresh New York-style bagels.
Today, more than two years later, the Roanoke-area bagel business is brisk, if not exactly booming. What once was a novelty has become the norm, Hal Stern said, and the lines of bagel converts no longer snake out to the sidewalk.
"We're actually having to work for our business," he said. "People have gotten used to seeing us around."
Five-Boro now faces competition from Chesapeake Bagel Bakery, which recently closed one of its two Roanoke Valley locations, and from a growing number of bread bakeries. But Five-Boro is still bringing in the bagel enthusiasts.
The Sterns in 1996 opened a second shop, on the Roanoke City Market. Between the two stores, they sell 3,000 to 3,500 bagels a week, including shipments to 15 wholesale customers.
They don't plan to open any more Five-Boro bakeries - they spend too many hours at work already, Hal Stern said - but they think they may be able to work out an agreement to supply bagels to other shops.
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: color photo by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVISby CNB