Forest Hills Bagels Gets Back to Business

 

 

Forest Hills Bagels Gets Back to Business

 

 

Forest Hills Bagels is on longstanding intimate terms with the Parker Towers community. An estimated 20% of its clientele – that’s one in five – live or work in Parker Towers, according to its owner.


Residents are regular customers, but so are doormen, supers and porters along with physicians, lawyers and dentists renting office space. There is no surprise there: Forest Hills Bagels is located right across Queens Boulevard from Parker Towers.

It also has a lot to do with the bagels.

They’re hand-rolled and baked fresh every morning starting at 3 a.m., each weighing about one-third of a pound, free of preservatives and about $1 each. The bins behind the counter are brimming with plump, warm bagels spanning the flavor spectrum -- sesame, poppy, pumpernickel, onion, garlic, salt, egg, whole wheat everything.

Food writer Joe DiStefano goes to Forest Hills Bagels about once a week for a buttered egg bagel. The longtime Queens resident, behind the food blog Chopsticks and Marrow, says, “They make bagels the old-fashioned way – I’m always impressed by the crackly crust.”

Customers drop in from all over Forest Hills – cops about to go on-shift, construction workers, teachers from a nearby daycare center – and even from Astoria and far-flung Brooklyn. (Anyone celebrating a birthday, by the way, gets a free breakfast or lunch.)

The fast service borders on legendary. The key is that each staffer takes personal responsibility for each customer. They hustle to take orders, smear the cream cheese, and ring up the sale at the cash register. They zig and zag around each other as if choreographed, fetching bagels, pouring coffee and bagging the takeout.

You can get on a line behind ten customers, ask for an egg sandwich with bacon and cheese on an everything bagel and – presto! – leave less than five minutes later, your fragrantly steaming breakfast sandwich in hand. 

“We work like a team,” says manager Luis Diaz. “Everyone does everything. If someone needs my help, I help. And they do the same for me.”

The employees here are loyal and last long, a rarity in the high-turnover retail food business. Luis started here 14 years ago. So did Jeff. Francisco goes back nine years and Reggie and Guillermo, 20. The reason is Eddie Babaisakov, its owner since 2006 (and a former Parker Towers resident).

“Everything starts at the top,” Luis says. “Eddie treats all of us with respect. Whatever you need, he gets you. He takes care of us. He makes us feel like we’re all members of the same family. We love him as we would an uncle or a father.”

In case that comes across as lip service, think again. In mid-March, Eddie caught word that customers testing positive for the coronavirus were visiting the shop without wearing masks. He talked to Jeff, who spoke to Luis, and then to Eddie. Luis dreaded bringing the virus home to his wife and three children, including a newborn girl. “I got really scared,” he says.

“It’s up to you guys,” Eddie said. “Whatever you decide to do, it will be okay with me.”

The boss gave his workers the final say, and Forest Hills Bagels stopped making its signature bagels. All the employees were furloughed, and sales shrank to zero.

But now Forest Hills Bagels is coming back strong. The whole staff has returned. Sales are on the upswing. As before, all promotion is strictly word of mouth, but changes have unfolded, too. More orders come in online. Contactless deliveries and curbside pickup are increasingly popular. 

Eddie is also making sure the place fulfills its civic responsibility to serve the community during the COVID-19 crisis. Forest Hills Bagels consistently donates boxed meals to healthcare workers at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills, Elmhurst Hospital, and police officers at the 112th Precinct.

“We’re successful only because of our customers,” Eddie says. “You help us, we help you.”

 

 

Written by Bob Brody