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By Margie Cullen
The exterior of Boichik Bagels in Santa Clara. Courtesy Emily Winston.
Berkeley-based bagel company Boichik Bagels is opening its fifth Bay Area location in Santa Clara on Thursday, Dec. 7.
Located at 2050 Wyatt Drive in the Mission Park Marketplace, the newest location is the largest yet and is housed in a wood- and glass-sided building with lots of natural light. The store has limited indoor counter space (standing room only) but lots of outdoor seating, with a patio that includes a community bocce ball court.
The Santa Clara location will offer the same menu found in all its stores: 16 different types of bagels from the classic plain to Eggything (a combination of an egg and everything bagel), as well as a variety of spreads, fish, salads and coffee. Soon they will also offer black-and-white cookies and reroll out their chocolate chip loaf cake first debuted a couple of years ago.
“It’s not fancy. It’s just excellent,” founder Emily Winston said of their selection. “Just keeping it really tight and really New York. These are my memories of ‘80s New York and I was a kid hanging out with my dad. That’s what I’m trying to recreate.”
Winston opened her first Boichik Bagels on College Avenue in Berkeley in November 2019. A New Jersey native, she found herself longing for New York-style bagels when she moved to the Bay Area in 2010 and decided to try to make them herself. Her goal was achieved when her store was included in a New York Times article titled, “The Best Bagels are in California (Sorry New York)” in March 2021.
In late 2022, Winston opened her first Peninsula store in Palo Alto. The Santa Clara store will be her second Peninsula location.
“We have a sizable fan base down in San Jose. I’ve had people tell me that they’ve been driving up to Berkeley, so I know that there are folks down there that want a good bagel,” Winston said. “I dug that spot when I first saw it. We really wanted to put something in the heart of Silicon Valley, and being next to Intel – that was pretty much the heart.”
With a space of 2,000 square feet, a large oven and baking on-site, the new location will support an expanded catering program, explained Winston.
“If someone wants to order 5,000 bagels with lox out of there, they can,” she said. She thinks Silicon Valley businesses will want to take advantage. “I think that’s a good way to bribe you to come back to the office. Tell them a bagel is waiting for them every Monday and I think they’ll be a bit more chipper on coming in.”
The Santa Clara Boichik was originally slated to open in the summer of 2023, but construction, permits, utilities and local rules all caused delays.
“Delays are the nature of the beast,” said Adriana Heiler, manager of the Santa Clara Boichik Bagels. “But we’ve finally reached the point where we can open!”
Boichik Bagels, 2050 Wyatt Drive, Santa Clara; Instagram: @ boichikbagels. Open daily starting Dec. 7 from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. or until sold out.