Bagel Shop

I'll give you the benefit of 20+ years of restaurant experience. Open a cigar shop. -)

Seriously, I like people who think outside the box and have learned not to ridicule seemingly crazy ideas. The first thing you need to do is determine if there is a market and if it is sufficient. Actually, the first thing you need to do is determine what's involved with opening a business, particularly if you are not a Dominican citizen. I would also consider dominicanizing it instead of gearing it towards only Americans. My initial thoughts.

I live near santiago and shop for bagels at jumbo, national, la sirena, bravo and pricesmart. I like bagels and cream cheese. My very large dominican family think I am strange, many have tried a bite of my bagel and not one has liked it. It?s one food quite safe in the fridge....nobody dominican will eat it so always there for me. My american and canadian friends that visit from time to time have liked them. Jumbo has them in frozen section but I like mine fresh. Not so easy here, a few times I have bought old stock that spoiled in just a day or two.
I would like to be able to buy fresh baked bagels about once a week or so but dominican?s, at least my family, will not eat them.
My opinion bake and sell the bread they like.

One day I got up early on a sunday and made, for the whole family, french style creaps (spellcheck) with strawberries and whipped cream. I have never tried that again lol

Good luck with bagels should you go ahead with it. My wife owns a colmado and her family is involved in surtadoras. She buys wholesale and has products delivered all over santiago.....she could include bagels but it would be on your dime. Currently after much negotiation her bread supplier switches out the unsold stock and gives her fresh. She started this only after I explained to her this was possible.

Again best of luck

Years ago there was “Bagels & More” in Santo Domingo with a great variety of bagels, spreads, sandwiches and coffee & they couldn’t survive.

gas said:

I'll give you the benefit of 20+ years of restaurant experience. Open a cigar shop. -)

Seriously, I like people who think outside the box and have learned not to ridicule seemingly crazy ideas. The first thing you need to do is determine if there is a market and if it is sufficient. Actually, the first thing you need to do is determine what's involved with opening a business, particularly if you are not a Dominican citizen. I would also consider dominicanizing it instead of gearing it towards only Americans. My initial thoughts.

Click to expand...

you have to take into consideration the fact that it is very difficult to introduce new foods to Dominicans. i have had great difficulty getting some people to try things like cheesecake and apple pie.

bagels, you say? if that was a good business idea you'd know where to put it. just sayin'

i think you could do well with a bakery. proper dark sourdough breads, bagels, croissants, ciabattas, baguettes. but to base your business on one product? no.

dv8 said:

bagels, you say? if that was a good business idea you'd know where to put it. just sayin'

i think you could do well with a bakery. proper dark sourdough breads, bagels, croissants, ciabattas, baguettes. but to base your business on one product? no.

Click to expand...

even if you can make a range of bread types, you now have the little obstacle called La Sirena...

breads in la sirena are crap, let's face it. bakery is not a bad business but there is large initial investment and high costs in terms of monthly bills. but the belgian bakery in cabarete is doing well. and there are many bakeries in POP as well. panaderia rita, a stone throw from la sirena is a good example. pick up a good location and you may succeed. PC has a large population of foreigners, would a european style bakery work there?

I'm looking to start a mango stand .... Looking for a partner to climb the trees to get the mangos, I'll do the rest.

dv8 said:

breads in la sirena are crap, let's face it. bakery is not a bad business but there is large initial investment and high costs in terms of monthly bills. but the belgian bakery in cabarete is doing well. and there are many bakeries in POP as well. panaderia rita, a stone throw from la sirena is a good example. pick up a good location and you may succeed. PC has a large population of foreigners, would a european style bakery work there?

Click to expand...

bread in La Sirena is crap, but is golden nectar when you grew up on pan de agua.

dv8 said:

breads in la sirena are crap, let's face it. bakery is not a bad business but there is large initial investment and high costs in terms of monthly bills. but the belgian bakery in cabarete is doing well. and there are many bakeries in POP as well. panaderia rita, a stone throw from la sirena is a good example. pick up a good location and you may succeed. PC has a large population of foreigners, would a european style bakery work there?

Click to expand...

there's already one in El Dorado Plaza. there was another one for sale about a year or two ago... I think it was in Veron... but not certain on the location.

went to get a sandwich at the belgian bakery at around 3pm... they were sold out of bread... sniffff....

BelgianK

Bob Boyd said:

Years ago there was ?Bagels & More? in Santo Domingo with a great variety of bagels, spreads, sandwiches and coffee & they couldn?t survive.

Click to expand...

They priced themselves out of the market. There's only so much you can charge for a topped bagel!

The biz plan was a disaster. This ain't no Kansas!

The majority of biz that go south in the DR had more to do with poor planning and execution, rather than the economics of supply/demand. There's a market, just not one where you want to get rich since the day you open the doors for biz!

A good H&H bagel is a commodity in DR, I usually bring a few dozen and barter them for a juicy mango.

the gorgon said:

bread in La Sirena is crap, but is golden nectar when you grew up on pan de agua.

Click to expand...

Bread is crap everywhere they sell it! Unless you make it at home...

But given of how in some countries their kids virtually grew up on PB and bread is hard to argue against ANY type of bread!

the gorgon said:

bread in La Sirena is crap, but is golden nectar when you grew up on pan de agua.

Click to expand...

Pan de Agua is the only bread I can pass through my throathe here. Even though it depends on where it comes from Nacional / Jumbo are ok. I just wish there was a bakery in SD that could make a bread of a CONSISTENT good quality. I'd be their most loyal customer.

Some time ago when I dreamed about opening a small supermarket by idea was to pull customers with an in store bakery with Dutch style bread. But probably the worst business ideas are those that fulfill a need you have and you only assume others have too.

You really want a great business with the locals?? food!! and here is how, i wanted to do this but she did not, its called work, but most doms don't like it!! If you happen to be married to a Dom girl or know one that can cook very well, most can cook great!! Take a survey of the surrounding bodegas, Corner Markets, Comodos, whatever you call them. Make a list of any that serve food..doubt you will find any...Find out the owners names, and ask them if they would mind serving your food at a cost, kind of like renting a barber chair, your paying them in some way..Or, offer a percentage, or just a kick back since you will be supplying all cook pans, utensils, and plates, all plastic cheap stuff...you will hopefully be able to setup a table in or outside of the market, so during your survey, see whats doing, is there room...

all supplies you can get from sirena, national, whatever store, you buy those 16 inch aluminum pans and 2 burners for each, maybe need 6-8 depending on how many different foods etc...and again, somebody better know how to cook...this will work ten fold!!! and you can pilot test it at first, do a few weekends and see how it goes..if the food is good, the word of mouth will be heard...and if that market delivers to boot, great!! I would also discuss about a dedicated food line, so any food calls go direct..thats it, low investment, huge returns...how much per plate etc, 200 pesos per plate?? should be in the ball park..and you can work the owners with extra sales as well..with the food they sell, the customer will certainly buy soda and snacks to go..

and this post has copywrites, I need my kick back as well Trust me, it will work!! with very little work! let the bodega earn their money! its not hard serving food....woopoie..

and if you can't find a good cook, put an ad in the paper for one, but come on! I truly can say 95% of Dom woman can cook!! I had 3, and yo!! I can't say who cooked the best, but man!! the best food ever,,so thats 100% for me.


As for the bagels, keep a few for the bad customers, rock hard bagels hurt like hell when hit in head

Anthony[/QUOTE]



Anthony

dogstar said:

I am looking to start up a bagel shop, I believe I have solved the wheat supply problem, water I'm still working on.
Where is the most important ?,ie location, location is everything. North Coast or Punta Cana, give me the benefit of your experience DRoners

Click to expand...

Ps..if anyone want to do this in puerto plata with me, hit that pm! Hey whats a thread with no hijack...

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC..MAY NEED SOME CHEESECAKE BRO

It's prob too late to get going this tourist season. If you can get good enough ingredients (and find a small storefront), I think it's doable, esp if you can wholesale to some tourist hotels and restaurants. There are PLENTY of abandoned pizza ovens you could use. It's the kettle for boiling that I think would be the tricky part. If you sold HOT out of the oven bagels at night(or HOT soft pretzels) you could make enough for a modest business. People drink beer, and pretzels go with beer...

I'm thinking you'd do better with the pretzels myself. I think drunk tourists would have no problem spending 60 pesos for an 8-11 ounce pretzels right out of the oven late at night. Another option would be to sublet from a pizza place and run two businesses out of the same store front. When I made pretzels commercially, we'd form them and freeze them in stacked pie pans to set, then we'd boil and bake them salted. Here is the recipe I used scaled down:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlL6yHkghAxFdHFkVU1vdmtSbjhOdi1OUTBUT1EtUFE#gid=0

I'd be concerned about the quality and price of good flour, but you've prob done your footwork on that.

At the bagel shop I worked at we did like 10,000 bagels a day. I kind of wonder what the minimum would be to break even with a small operation..

Thats a ton of work to boot...the store that i went to in wantagh ny, the guy making the bagels was in the back and never moved...so i wonder as you said, not just how many to break even, but how many per day would be required which translates into paying man hours to boot..

BETTER OFF BUYING FROZEN PIZZA BAGELS AND CALL THEM YOUR OWN

peterinbrat said:

it's prob too late to get going this tourist season. If you can get good enough ingredients (and find a small storefront), i think it's doable, esp if you can wholesale to some tourist hotels and restaurants. There are plenty of abandoned pizza ovens you could use. It's the kettle for boiling that i think would be the tricky part. If you sold hot out of the oven bagels at night(or hot soft pretzels) you could make enough for a modest business. People drink beer, and pretzels go with beer...

I'm thinking you'd do better with the pretzels myself. I think drunk tourists would have no problem spending 60 pesos for an 8-11 ounce pretzels right out of the oven late at night. Another option would be to sublet from a pizza place and run two businesses out of the same store front. When i made pretzels commercially, we'd form them and freeze them in stacked pie pans to set, then we'd boil and bake them salted. Here is the recipe i used scaled down:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0all6yhkghaxfdhfkvu1vdmtsbjhodi1outbut1etufe#gid=0

i'd be concerned about the quality and price of good flour, but you've prob done your footwork on that.

At the bagel shop i worked at we did like 10,000 bagels a day. I kind of wonder what the minimum would be to break even with a small operation..

Click to expand...