To Build a Bakery
is a Craft to Crumb series, sponsored by King Arthur Baking Co., featuring stories of growth for bakeries of all scales. From establishing a first brick-and-mortar location to multiple shops and beyond, the series connects with bakers from across the country about how they’re scaling up their businesses. If you would like your bakery’s story to be considered, please email Annie Hollon at annie@avantfoodmedia.com.
KANSAS CITY, MO — Nostalgia is a sticky thing, clinging to memories and taste buds alike. One bite of a familiar flavor can send a person back to a different time. Down in Atlanta, mother-daughter duo Deanna and Jackie Halcrow offer Southerners a taste of what they grew up on through Emerald City Bagels.
Named in honor of The Wizard of Oz, a favorite of Deanna’s, the bagel shop has blossomed from a pop-up to a two-storefront business, earning regional and national acclaim.
The start of the road
This was not something the Halcrows imagined when Deanna made her first batch of bagels in the early 2010s. At first, it was a way to recreate a nostalgic favorite, a tribute to both her and Jackie’s New York upbringings. In seeking a taste of home, the door opened for the duo to try their hand at something new. Thus, the brick road for Emerald City was paved.
“We were both looking for something else to do, and we were both ready to jump into the bagel game very slowly,” Deanna said.
Backed by Deanna’s experience as the owner of a local catering business and Jackie’s pastry school education, the pair had the technical know-how necessary to tackle a new opportunity like bagel making.
At the start, it was just the two women hand-rolling bagels in Deanna’s home and selling them at various farmers markets and in street-corner pop-up stands.
“The fact that we had something at markets that no one else had helped us stand out,” Jackie said, noting that the duo also found success with a pop-up outside of Deanna’s Cabbagetown apartment. “It’s a very proud neighborhood, so they were all excited to have their local bagel pop-up. We were just on the side of the road selling bagels for a few years.”
Emerald City’s traditional 4-ounce bagel, made with classic ingredients, such as King Arthur Baking Co.’s Sir Lancelot Hi-Gluten Flour, and a 24-hour cold fermentation, stood out among customers who didn’t have traditional, New York-style bagels available nearby.
The Halcrows leaned into personal connections as well as cold calls to local coffee shops to find new distribution channels.
“Being a human and showing up saying, ‘I make something, do you want to buy it?’ worked,” Jackie said. “Even now, I would say that is so far outside of my personality to do, but it felt like we had to do that to get started.”
They quickly outgrew the licensed home-baking operation, signing an agreement to work in a newly built shared kitchen in 2014, allowing the pair to enter the wholesale market. Getting into this space was necessary to maintain the caliber of bagel Emerald City was gaining a reputation for.
“We could have made them with a cottage license in one of our homes, but that did not work,” Deanna said. “The bagel dough is too dense for a regular home mixer, so we needed some heftier equipment.”
While rolling out bagels by hand at the bench in that shared kitchen, the mother-daughter team dared to dream big, knowing that a brick-and-mortar operation was the endgame.
“We never set out a specific time goal for ourselves,” Jackie said. “We didn’t say, ‘We’re going to get into a brick-and-mortar in a year.’ We started like, ‘Let’s see if anyone cares,’ and three years in, we were ready to actually pursue it.”
First home sweet home
They signed a lease in East Atlanta for the first store in 2016, an ideal spot for Emerald City due to its proximity to current wholesale customers. Getting to that point, however, wasn’t easy.
“Finding a commercial space where the agent will actually call you back was really hard; I didn’t expect that to be the hard part,” Jackie said. “I thought you could inquire, and someone might give you some rates or even call you back. But without an established name, it was very difficult.”
The Halcrows self-financed the first location, using money from personal investments.
One major roadblock they encountered was an improper in-ground grease trap. The oversight caused an 18-month delay. Once resolved, the build-out only took six months, and included the installation of a new 45-gallon gas kettle, 4-tray rotating rack oven, two IRIS spiral mixers, and a dough divider and former, all from Empire Bakery Equipment.
“We didn’t want to go with used — especially refrigeration equipment — because in the shared kitchen, they had bought all of their refrigeration used, and it was continually leaking or breaking,” Deanna said. “We wanted to make sure that everything that we bought was brand new.”
In 2018, two years after signing the lease, Jackie and Deanna celebrated the grand opening of Emerald City Bagels.
Growing up and out
Business boomed for Emerald City, and it quickly became a community staple. Four years after opening, Deanna and Jackie considered their next move: Should they buy a building to bolster the wholesale business or open a second retail store? While the former may have been easier, the latter offered more residual income.
“We thought if we opened up two neighborhoods over, about two miles away, then maybe it would take off some heat and customers would have a better experience instead of having to wait 20 minutes to get a bagel sandwich,” Jackie shared.
These factors in mind, the Halcrows were off to grow Emerald City once again. Now more established in Atlanta, it was easier to lock in the second store — located on the Beltline, a pedestrian walking path — which opened July 2024. The second location boasts double the sandwich-making capacity of the East Atlanta shop.
Given the foot traffic near the new location, Jackie was inspired to integrate an element she’d long been interested in: an automat. Vending machines are popular in Europe, and, with an interest in providing faster service, adding a grab-and-go experience made sense.
“It seemed like a fun thing to do and another experience to have at the shop,” Jackie said
While the automat initially offered hot sandwiches, technical troubles caused Emerald City to pivot the concept, and it will soon relaunch with cold items to better serve customers and ease operations.
Baked for good
With two storefronts, Jackie and Deanna are satisfied with the state of Emerald City. While they currently have no intention of expanding locations, the pair are considering a return to their wholesale roots via e-commerce to get their bagels and shmears in the hands of more customers. This also opens the door to some automation, taking their bagel-making process to the next level.
In reflection, Jackie would take a minimalist approach to building the bagel shop’s menu.
“If I had to do it over again, I would simplify everything,” she said. “But it’s hard to commit to simplifying when I know that people like the choice to build their own bagel sandwich and have their own special thing.”
Another hard-earned lesson for the Halcrows is knowing when to step back from the internet and not taking every review or comment to heart.
Navigating starting and building a business as a family unit is no small feat. Over the years of building Emerald City, Jackie and Deanna have struck a balance, working together on an equal playing field. If there’s one takeaway that stands out, though, it’s to prioritize family.
“Family is the most important thing,” Deanna said. “Being in business is great, but remember that you’re family first, and you’ll always be family.”
Over the years of building Emerald City Bagels, Jackie and Deanna have struck a balance, working together on an equal playing field and bringing a taste of the Big Apple to the Big Peach.
