Formerly found in cafes around the city and via delivery-service, Spread the Bagel’s outstanding selection of bagel sandwiches were finally united in one impeccably adorable storefront this recent October. From an expat (and bagel-lover)’s perspective, this pop-up shop on Nanchang Lu (南昌路) was arguably one of the past year’s best culinary additions to the city. To begin with, STB offers Shanghai’s finest selection of savory, O-shaped, hard-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, baked balls of dough by far. And frankly, true New York quality bagels weren’t available in Shanghai prior to founder Christine Asuncion’s entrance in 2010. However, what began as delivery-only bagels and schemers evolved into storefront bagel sandwiches that are delectably to die for. Now, let’s walk through these sandwiches. If you’re the early-riser type who manages to eat breakfast every day (snaps for you), maybe pick up either a breakfast sandwich (fried egg, bacon, cheese) or the Grumpybuttinsky (two eggs, avocado, cheese) to get you through the morning. For the late sleepers, grab a savory brunch-worthy sandwich whose indulgence will last you all day. I recommend the chicken and turkey clubs (chicken/turkey, avocado, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mustard), pastrami hu (thick-cut pastrami with mustard, onions, cheese) or “the works” sandwiches (lox, cream cheese, capers, tomato, avocado, lettuce, onion, and more lovable goodness).

And don’t fret, sweet tooths aren’t neglected here either. A fresh cinnamon bagel with nutella, sliced bananas and almonds (otherwise known as the “Loueatsmore” bagel) will definitely hit the spot. Of course, if you lean towards the side of standard, plain toasted bagels with butter or cream cheese are also available, and notably cheaper than the decadent sandwiches mentioned above at 20RMB versus 50-60RMB. Flavors offered include: onion, everything, poppyseed, plain, chocolate, sesame, whole wheat, garlic, and parmesan. Head over early for the best selection of bagels; they bake fresh daily, but also sell out daily. Spread the Bagel 611 Nanchang Lu, near Xiangyang Nan Lu 南昌路611号, 近襄阳南路 Mon-Fri 7:30am-6pm; Sat-Sun 8am-6pm spreadthebagel.com I also had the chance to interview the mind behind the bagels, Christine Asuncion. She speaks about her background and journey in creating what Spread the Bagel is today. Where are you originally from? Originally from San Diego, California. Moved to NYC after graduation where I worked on Wall Street for 3 months doing a business internship for a public policy company. When did you move to Shanghai, and what inspired your move? I moved to SH in 2008. Knew from my junior year of college that Shanghai would be the next step in pursuing my career after graduating. I had studied the growth of China in my economics courses and was fascinated by the unprecedented levels of growth. I decided that SH would be the next step after graduation and this prompted me to learn Mandarin as a second language. Did you have a background in entrepreneurship, or making bagels, prior to starting Spread the Bagel? I didn’t have any experience in entrepreneurship as I always thought that I’d be working a corporate job. I thought it would be cool to work for a large company, but after moving to Shanghai soon learned that 9-5 wasn’t for me! I worked in a bagel shop in high school, but was the cashier so never had the hands on experience baking them. However, I did learn about the bagel making process even though I had never baked a bagel. When I moved to New York I had bagels every morning and this is where I learned what a real bagel should taste like. For our recipe, there was a lot of googling involved and 6 months of trial and error and baking every single night. I started with an oven that could only bake two at a time, so you could imagine how small the batches were to start with. Finally, when I thought the product reached a level that I was happy with, I lumped up a bit of cash and invested $500 into a website (that was outsourced to India). What’s your favorite bagel? An everything bagel with cream cheese and smoked fish. What would you say has been your biggest challenge to starting a business abroad (not to mention, in a culinary field previously unknown to China)? The biggest challenge starting a business abroad was definitely the language barrier and the cultural differences that you encounter with your employees. The Western way of communicating is a lot different than the way the Chinese communicate, so this was something I had to work with. But I let my employees know that I would be very direct and this helped the barrier. Also, sourcing ingredients was definitely one of the hardest things as I started from using ingredients at City Shop. Then I became a frequent TaoBao user, which made things easier but still had issues with consistency. Any future plans of expanding STB? I have big plans for Spread the Bagel. I’m hoping to open more retail locations with a comprehensive, high-quality menu (deli meats, fish, desserts, salads, sides and coffee) in office and foreign centric areas in the city, as well as start up QS wholesale production. I’m already in talks with one of the largest coffee chains about supplying our bagels and really excited about the prospect of supplying them!

Christine in Krakow, Poland (the birthplace of bagels) This article was written by Betsie Wilson. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Tatiana Bautista