JOIN USAre you a bagel fan? Do you love your bread- white, brown, plain, spiced, centre-filled or not- with a hole? Then Lalita’s Bagels Café is your place to be. This Dutch expat in India- 33-year old Lalita De Goederen missed the Bagels (boiled and baked bread) back home so much, that she started her own Bagel-centered concept café in Gurgaon. And now, four such cafés across NCR serve the Bagel-lovers amongst us.
For Lalita, this ‘bagelicious’ journey began with her birth itself. Her father stayed in India in the 1960s and was so inspired that he gave her an Indian name. Years later, Lalita started volunteering at Amnesty International and became an ‘India specialist’. Soon, she and her husband Alexander de Goederen decided to make India their home and pursue their respective entrepreneurial ambitions here. That is how the first Bagels Café outlet at
Arjun Marg, Gurgaon was born in June 2009.
Then came one in DLF Cyber City -III Gurgaon, a third in Hauz Khas Village and the latest in Meharchand
Market, Lodhi Road. “At the time, there were no Bagel bakeries in Delhi. It was a gamble since there was a possibility of the idea not being accepted here. However, to our surprise, these breads flew off our shelves, selling more numbers than we could count. It told us what we knew from day one – everyone loves Bagels,” shares
Lalita.
Their popularity is no surprise, looking at the number of items they have come up with in Bagels. In ‘Plain Bagels,’ there are nine types: plain white, plain wheat, sesame-white, sesame-wheat, multigrain, onion-garlic, cheddar cheese, everything and cinnamon-raisin. In ‘Bagels with French cream cheese’ there are another nine varieties like Olive, Jalapeno, Sun dried tomatoes, Smoked salmon and Caramelised Onions.
Then there are umpteen options in Omelette Bagels, Burger Bagels, Pizza Bagels, Sandwich bagels (vegetarian, fish and meat), Signature Bagel Flights and even ‘Make Your Own Bagel Sandwich.’
Apart from Bagels there is more on the menu – from full breakfast to refreshing salads, soups, pasta, home-made quiche pie, Dutch pancakes, desserts, shakes, smoothies and coolers. Besides, they make cakes on orders and make home deliveries too.
With chic and minimalistic interiors, Bagels Café wins favour across age groups as a popular place to hang out. It is a perfect joint for a hearty family meal and also doubles as the ideal choice for the ‘fast moving’ generation with its fresh and nutritious quick food options. It is also becoming increasingly popular with professionals as it offers free wi-fi too.
The price of single Bagels range from Rs. 200 to 400 while full meals can go up to Rs. 500. A happy customer Sunanda Shekhar shares, “I find the café and its food very innovative. A Bagel Salad –who would have heard of that before? But it is crunchy, healthy and very filling. I come back here almost every other day especially for the sweet Bagels. Never thought Dutch specialties could be so tasty.”