Brooklyn transplant Deanna Tripolitis wants the good people of Moore County, her home for more than two decades now, to know that if you’re consuming packaged bagels from your local grocery store–well that’s just “a roll with a hole in it,” kid. The professional chef has been making New York Style bagels, Bagels By Dee, to order for the last few months, recently relaunching out of Southside Grill at the Seven Lakes Golf Club complete with a new website to take orders.
Classic bagels are her bread and butter but she offers flavors like everything, cinnamon crunch and jalapeño cheddar. Deanna hopes to bring back flavored dough bagels like pumpernickle and blueberry. She can sell anywhere from a handful to 45 dozen in a week depending on orders and if she’s selling at a market. “Customers will get a dozen, freeze them and eat them throughout the week … You can pop them in your toaster and it’s like fresh.”
Deanna, who is half Greek and Italian says she grew up around food and cooking. “Every holiday everything was from scratch. We’d have a whole lamb at Easter. Food brings people together.” Cooking professionally made sense to Deanna, who quickly learned that banking was not her vibe. “I have ADHD … I like to stay on the move.” She enjoys making bagels, a 10 or more hour process since she does everything by hand. It was a crumby start, trying to find a kitchen to operate out of and perfecting the recipe, which took five months of testing. “I studied shops in New York … taking a piece from this video and that video.” But she got by with help from friends who tasted her prototypes and lent her equipment. After some 25 years in the cutthroat restaurant industry, Deanna says it’s been dough-tally worth it to have something of her own now. “(It’s) finally validating because I would do stuff before and someone else would take credit for it, even with large catering orders.”
There are currently three pick-up locations for Bagels By Dee: Seven Lakes, Carthage and Sanford but she hopes to expand to shops in Pinehurst, Southern Pines and even Robbins. Eventually, she wants to offer wholesale bagels for people in the service and restaurant industry who may feel stuck and are looking to make more bread. “You can start a kiosk, sandwich cooler … premade meat.”
Fellow northerners have especially enjoyed Bagels By Dee. “It’s nostalgic,” says Deanna. “We grow up having a bagel almost every morning for breakfast.” After seeing a Moore Foodies Facebook complaint decrying the area’s lack of a New York bagel for crissakes, Deanna personally messaged one commenter and sent him a free sample pack. He took to Facebook to retract his statement the following day.
Stay (glu)ten in because there’s more to crumb. Deanna recently added mini bagels to her menu and will also have bagel dogs in time for back-to-school. She’s keeping her operation small for now, although she says she’s not opposed to opening a shop one day. “I just want to figure out a way to still have a life.” Hungry? Place your order on the Bagels By Dee website or join her Facebook group.
