There’s a new, delicious food aroma wafting through midtown Omaha.
On the opposite side of Dundee from where the scent of Amsterdam Falafel’s curry fries have long enticed noses into ordering, Omaha Bagel Co. is now officially also in the business of free smells.
What started just four years ago as a cottage bakery out of the basement of owners Hank and Michelle Shields’ basement has now expanded into a full-blown brick-and-mortar off 54th and Leavenworth streets, in the former location of Tasty Pizza.
The heavenly scent of warm bread wafts out of the shop, which, on the recent Friday morning when I visited, had a line all the way to the door.
Here’s what I can say for sure: Since the first time I wrote about Omaha Bagel Co. in 2023, the bagels have only gotten better. That’s something, considering how good they were coming out of a basement bakery.
“We always said, ‘Man, if people like these bagels as much as they do right now, wait until they come right out of the oven,’” Hank Shields said. “We knew it was going to be a game changer.”
He was right about that.
During the past several years, I’ve tried nearly every flavor the shop makes, so I focused my recent visit on revisiting one and trying the two recent, new seasonal flavors of the week.
I remembered the deeply savory asiago bagel from my previous story, and it remains a standout: a layer of crisp, browned nutty cheese blanketing the soft sourdough bagel. The texture and flavor of Omaha Bagel Co.’s lineup has only improved over time; in part because of its now aged sourdough starter, I’d guess.
Shields said his technique has gotten better since the first bagels he made – the first he’d ever made, in fact.
Omaha Bagel Co. started out as a side gig. Shields got the idea of becoming a bagel baker during COVID. He had driven past a location of Bruegger’s daily on his way to the gym and wondered: “Why are there so many cars in line there?”
He wondered then: Was there a gap in Omaha’s locally made, quality bagel scene? He decided to find out, even though, as his wife Michelle pointed out, he had never made a bagel in his life.
He started scanning online auctions and found a commercial mixer for sale in Hebron, about three hours outside of Omaha, and stuffed the giant machine into the back of his Honda CRV.
He started tweaking different recipes. He got a sourdough starter from a friend, Andrea, named the starter after her and learned how to feed it and keep it alive. He called baker Ellie Pegler, who used to run Omaha’s Farine + Four, asked her for advice, and she taught him the method.
Michelle started social media accounts for the bagel business, and through their partner, No More Empty Pots, they got a booth at the Aksarben Farmers Market. At first, they made 120 bagels, then 500, then 700 and now between 5,000 and 7,000 for their permanent spaces at both the Aksarben and Old Market farmers markets.
For now, the brick-and-mortar is open only on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Shields said they have no plans to give up either of their farmers market spots, and the goal now is to have the staff to run the shop during weekends and the farmers markets by next season.
Now that the farmers markets have ended for the year, the shop will keep weekend hours.
After the first four years, the business, Shields said, had outgrown the family’s home. Their kids Will, 11; Jack, 9; Maddie, 6; and Charlotte, 2; are getting bigger. They couldn’t make enough bagels to keep up with the demand, and Michelle was ready to have her house back.
Shields said the shop location was intentional from the start. Michelle and Hank had always kept an eye on the little house at 54th and Leavenworth. The couple met in the neighborhood, and the spot just felt right.
About three years ago, he met Mary Joseph, the owner of Tasty Pizza and the building. He asked her for advice. They built a friendship. And though she had turned down several other requests from people interested in leasing the building, she leased it to the Shields family.
Joseph became a fan of the business and an advocate for its success, but Shields didn’t take one piece of her advice: She suggested the shop also should sell sandwiches. Instead, he stuck to the simple formula of just bagels and cream cheese. But not just any bagels and cream cheese.
I am still thinking about the cheddar hot honey bagel, which I got, as Shields envisioned, straight out of the oven.
It is excellent, with a texture almost croissant-adjacent, with a crisp outside that the bagels didn’t have before. I watched a member of the bakery’s team drizzle each cheddar-crusted bagel with a drizzle of the hot honey; the salty-sweet-spicy combination is heavenly. I highly recommend dragging a chunk through the shop’s house-made chili crisp cream cheese.
We’re deep into pumpkin season, and Omaha Bagel Co.’s pumpkin bagel is subtle when it comes to the pantheon of pumpkin items, but it hits right: a hint of pumpkin pie, not too much spice and the same excellent texture. I paired mine with another of the house cream cheese flavors: cookie butter.
Shields said the featured flavors change weekly – a recent week’s included caramel apple streusel and French toast crunch – and the team is having fun coming up with new combinations.
Though the shop does focus just on bagels and cream cheese, there’s also coffee, provided by the Village Grinder, and a cooler full of drinks, including one of my personal favorites, Hal’s New York Seltzer, which I have never encountered anywhere outside of Manhattan. I promptly bought a bottle, and will be back for more.
Omaha Bagel Co. has a great story. It’s run by a lovely family, and it’s the kind of place all of us Omahans want to see succeed.
It has.
Omaha Bagel Co.
5423 Leavenworth St.
402-706-2529
Hours: Wednesday through Friday from 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. or until they sell out. Now that the farmers markets have ended, the shop will add weekend hours.
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