Bagel Pickup Service, Blithe Bagels, Set to Open for Business
Photography by Nik Bucci
Not many would open a business during a pandemic. Don’t tell that to Tina Selsky. For Selsky, it was the perfect time to launch her bagel pickup service, Blithe Bagels, based out of her home in Peekskill.
Selsky—a footwear designer by trade who spent seven years with Coach, who’s now at the upstart Thursday Boot Company—had always wanted to break into the food service industry with her husband, Matthew. The idea for a bagel-based business came about in the days and months leading up to the couple’s wedding. Selsky mentioned that she didn’t want to go on one of those “dreaded wedding diets.” To resist, she got creative and found different ways to eat what she wanted to eat. One of those was a bagel recipe (since tweaked, no doubt) that was half the carbs and half the calories of store brand bagels.
“We always talked about opening a small shop or a B&B,” she says. “I love bagels! We both do! And I ate these every day leading up to our wedding, so I wanted to share these with everyone locally.”
Hand-rolled and locally made
The business model for Blithe Bagels came to fruition during the COVID-19 quarantine. Selsky simply had more time while working from home for over a month. “Even though I’ve been working from home full time, I finally had a little more time to commit, design a website, and put together all the logistics of how it would work,” she says.
Before Blithe Bagels officially launches on April 16, 2020, what should one expect at first bite?
Selsky tells us that they’re not the quintessential New York bagel. Expect crispiness on the outside, doughier on the inside, and smaller than bagel shop bagels. “They’re still filling and satisfying,” she says. “The dough mixture uses nonfat Greek yogurt, making it rich, but not heavy. There are no preservatives in the dough. They’re simple, clean, and each is 180 calories or less.”
Flavors range from plain to everything and even blueberry-rosemary
But what’s in a name? Selsky went with “blithe” after Googling and breaking out the thesaurus for synonyms of “happiness” and “bliss,” because, as she puts it, you won’t feel weighed down after you eat these bagels. “Blithe had two meanings; one kinda negative, the other positive,” she recalls. “The first meaning is ‘a casual and cheerful indifference,’ that could be considered callous. The other meaning is ‘happy, joyous, completely carefree.’ I liiked the two meanings because New Yorkers could show some resistance to a bagel with a different spin on it. I thought it made sense. The name worked!”
Now with a cottage license in hand, Selsky is literally ready to roll.
Until she has a better gauge on things, online ordering will take place on Thursdays (the first day being THIS THURSDAY) until sell out. Bagels will run you $5.50 for a three pack or $10 for a half dozen. Prepay, then grab your order via porch pickup in Peekskill.
Post-pandemic, there’s a possibility that Blithe Bagels will expand to include muffins, rolls, bread, and some vegan options that Selsky is still tinkering with. Depending how it all goes, she mentioned the possibility of someday baking out of a commercial kitchen or opening up a small storefront. For now, Selsky’s plan is to “bake like crazy!”