Empire State Bagels: New York-style bagels are coming to Portland

📍 Portland, OR
🔗 hotplate.com/empirestatebagels

When Joe Tessitore moved to Tennessee, he spent a lot of time craving the bagels he grew up with on Long Island. Nothing scratched the itch.

“There’s nothing around that even comes close,” he says. “It was just round bread with a hole.”

So he decided to start making his own, just for fun at first. He spent months researching techniques, watching tutorials, testing recipes, and refining his process until he finally landed on something he was proud of.

“When he nerds out on something, he really nerds out,” his wife Shannon says.

What they didn’t expect was how quickly it would turn into a business.

How one Facebook post launched a business

One night, after Joe had been experimenting with bagels for a while, Shannon had a sudden realization.

“I think you’re supposed to be making bagels,” she remembers telling him. “And he just went with it. I'm not entirely sure why that inspiration hit or why he even took my word. Because I've told him things before and it’s in one ear and out the other.”

At the time, money was tight, and the idea of turning bagels into a real business felt uncertain. Still, Shannon posted in their local Facebook group to see if anyone might be interested in taste testing some homemade New York-style bagels.

The response was overwhelming. Orders started coming in through Facebook Messenger. Shannon found herself juggling customer messages, Venmo payments, and pickup coordination while she was out grocery shopping.

“We were blown away by how much people love bagels,” she says.

Within a few weeks, they moved the business onto Hotplate after Joe heard another cottage baker talking about it.

“As soon as we got on Hotplate, it made everything so much easier,” he says.

Scaling production from their home kitchen

In the beginning, Joe bought small bags of flour, kneaded one dozen at a time, and baked everything in their home oven.

As demand increased, they slowly upgraded equipment piece by piece.

First came a spiral mixer. Then a garage refrigerator. Then a commercial fridge, a larger floor mixer, racks, and eventually a convection oven wired into the garage.

Over time, the business gradually expanded into nearly every part of the house.

“It just slowly took over our house,” Shannon said. “And our lives,” Joe added.

Empire State Bagels grew to 3 pickups per week. Dough prep began on Wednesday with baking and pickups running Friday through Sunday. Joe and Shannon now spend roughly 10–12 hours a day working on the business.

The demand especially surprised them in middle Tennessee, where they discovered a large community of Northeast transplants and New York retirees searching for a taste of home.

They accumulated more and more regular customers, coming to pick up bagels, bialys, and Shannon’s famous black-and-white cookies.

“I really love the black and white cookies from my childhood.” Joe explained. “And she makes the most amazing black and whites. And everybody that tries them is like, Oh my God, this is the black and white.”

Keeping things traditional

Even as the business has grown and the menu has expanded, Joe and Shannon have stayed traditional when it comes to the bagels.

Empire State Bagels focuses on classic New York-style bagels that are hand-rolled and proofed over 48 hours. The bialys are where they allow themselves to get more creative with different flavor combinations, like Apple and Ricotta & Fig Jam.

Despite regular requests from customers, they’re not interested in turning into a breakfast sandwich operation.

The focus remains making great bagels consistently and building systems that allow the business to scale sustainably.

Building systems that could grow with them

One piece of advice Joe and Shannon return to often is the importance of systems.

“Have systems in place for all your steps and write everything down,” was a piece of advice that changed how they work.

As the business grew from a handful of test batches into a full-time operation, that mindset became even more important.

They carefully stagger pickup times, manage multi-day fermentation schedules, and structure production around the realities of running a business from home.

Although many growing bakeries eventually move into commercial kitchens, the Tessitores intentionally decided to stay home-based for now. Because their bagels require a 48-hour proof and extensive refrigerated storage, moving production offsite would significantly complicate their workflow.

“We’re home bodies,” Shannon says. “We like working together. We like being in our house.”

Returning home to Portland

Joe and Shannon just packed up their entire operation - and lives - and moved from Tennessee to Portland, Oregon.

In many ways, they see the move less as starting over and more as returning home. They had previously lived in Portland for eight years and always felt connected to the city’s culture.

“Portland feels like home to us,” Shannon says.

Leaving behind a wildly successful and growing business in Tennessee was not an easy decision.

“It’s kind of crazy that we’re giving up all this momentum,” Joe says.

At the same time, the success and support they gathered in Tennessee gives them belief they can rebuild again.

They packed up their mixers, ovens, refrigerators, and racks and will be restarting from home while building a new customer base in Portland. They’ll be hiring another set of hands to help run the show. Really good coffee - another thing Joe is very passionate about - may also be involved in their PDX operation down the line.

For now, they’re focused on getting settled, rebuilding production, and introducing Portland to the best New-York style bagels.