838: How Apollo Bagels Took Over NYC… and Tokyo with Joey Scalabrino

This Is TASTE

In this episode of 'This Is TASTE,' host Eliza Barbanel interviews Joey Scalabrino, co-founder of Apollo Bagels, a New York-based bagel brand known for its old-world

Key takeaways

• Apollo Bagels was born from experimentation at Leo, a Williamsburg sourdough pizza restaurant.
• The brand's success stems from thoughtful pop-ups, strong design, and strategic collaborations like the Tokyo Dean & DeLuca pop-up.

Main topics

• The origin story of Apollo Bagels
• Design philosophy and branding strategy

Notable quotes

For me, I just wanted to not look like a bagel shop. We didn't have so many cream cheeses, so I didn't need that fridge up in the front.

Conclusion

Joey Scalabrino's journey with Apollo Bagels exemplifies how passion, craftsmanship, and smart branding can turn a niche

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:07) For me, I just wanted to not look like a bagel shop. We didn't have so many cream cheeses, so I didn't need that fridge up in the front. And I wanted to look like just like some sort of bakery eatery that just happened to only sell bagels. Speaker 1 (0:20) Yeah. Speaker 3 (0:20) And then that's evolved over time since the first one and always playing around with something new with the interior. Speaker 1 (0:29) This is Taste. I'm your host, Eliza Barbanel. Speaker 1 (0:35) Joey Scalabrino is the co-founder of Apollo Bagels, a new school bagel shop rooted in old world techniques with nine locations across New York City and Jersey. He started making bagels in the kitchen at Leo, the Williamsburg sourdough pizza restaurant, and built Apollo through thoughtful pop-ups, design, and collabs. Today on the show, we talk about building up Apollo Bagels, its recent mega popular pop-up with Dean and DeLuca in Tokyo, and its brand new bagel chips. And at the top of the show, Matt and I talk about some of the fall cookbooks catching our eye. Speaker 2 (1:11) Eliza, we are back. How are you doing? Speaker 1 (1:12) I'm doing well, Matt. How are you? Speaker 2 (1:14) I'm doing great. We are in the midst of the fall cookbook season. And I wanted to take this time to talk about some books that we're looking forward to. These are not out yet. Speaker 2 (1:27) You know, I think the preface is that we haven't seen these books, like at least in their physical form. I've seen a couple of mine in PDF form. So I don't want to take away from the actual bookmaking, like the trim, the paper quality. All that really goes into assessment of these cookbooks. And I haven't physically held all these books. So that's like the preface. But it's such a cool season right now. Yeah, Speaker 1 (1:50) there are a lot of things to be excited about. And I'm looking forward to cooking from all of these books and many more that we're not discussing. Speaker 2 (1:57) Absolutely. We have a really full lineup of conversations this fall with so many authors from around the world of cookbooks. And we'll be dropping those all fall into December. So many cool authors. Okay, the first one is The Kitchen I Came Home To from Sarah Bradley with Emily Timberlake, my old colleague here at Crown. That's out September 29th. This book really speaks to me. It's from Bradley, who was a Top Chef runner-up twice, Top Chef Kentucky and Top Chef World All-Stars, and a Chopped Grand Champion. So big TV chef. I'd known the name Sarah Bradley. But I didn't really know her story until I checked out this book. And it's a really interesting approach. I mean, she's from Paducah, Kentucky, which as somebody who grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I grew up in a version of that city that, yes, there is a Paducah, Kentucky. Yes, there is a Kalamazoo, Michigan. Respect. It's more of Speaker 3 (2:55) a Speaker 2 (2:55) Midwestern book than anything. It's not a Southern book. And I think the thread here is that Sarah is sharing her. her Jewish traditions, but also the Appalachian traditions, Midwestern traditions in some ways. She says it's not the Midwest, not the South, but the middle of everywhere is how she describes Paducah. And I think that's well said. But I love it. She's a chef at Freight House in her hometown. And really, the recipes jumped out on the page. A couple of them that come to mind, the beer cheese with crudités. Yes, please. There's a pepperoni dip. There's a cornbread salad with not ranch, which she's describing as a Midwestern taco salad, which I think is really, really fun. And there's a honey kugel recipe that has a little bit of a twist. And then there's this pimento cheese waffle, that beautiful photography there and cool idea. Like, yes, more pimento than waffle. please. And I just love the way it's written. It's really well done. That's The Kitchen I Came Home To from Sarah Bradley. Speaker 1 (3:58) Incredible start. Speaker 2 (3:59) What's your first one? Speaker 1 (4:00) My first one that I want to call out is Nista Taqueria Presents From Tacos to Tariq, Recipes and Stories from Mexico, Iran, and the Inbetween. And this is a cookbook from Nista Taqueria in Austin, Texas, which I have wanted to go to for years and never been to. I've actually never been to Austin. Speaker 2 (4:17) Wait, really? Speaker 1 (4:18) Yes. Whoa. This is, I think, what's so cool about cookbooks is that you can try recipes from a restaurant that you've never had the opportunity to go to. And there's so many recipes in this book that I want to try. This is from this couple, Sarah Mardambighi and Edgar Rico. And Sarah is of Iranian descent and Edgar is of Mexican descent. And they are kind of sharing recipes from each of their backgrounds and also intermingling between the two in a way that just sounds really delicious and fun to me. So they have smash burgers al pastor. saffron tres leches, torta de milanesa de pollo, chicharrones and salsa verde, and then also kind of more Persian staples like kukusabzi, feshenjan. I love all of these things. Speaker 2 (5:01) Yo, me too. Speaker 1 (5:02) Growing up in LA, I think there's a big Mexican community and a big Persian community, and somehow I've not had things from the in-between. So I feel like this is a big... hole in my stomach that I'm excited to get to fill. Well, Speaker 2 (5:15) those two cuisines, you know, just a heavy reliance on acidity and sourness and heat. I think that I've not been an ecstasy myself and I'd love to go. I mean, previewed this book myself and I think it's beautiful. It's cool that there's finally a book that merges the two cultures together in a very seamless way. They've got this restaurant of great acclaim operating for years. So I can't wait to maybe have them on the show. I think we're working on that. Speaker 1 (5:38) Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I think I'm going Speaker 2 (5:40) to Speaker 1 (5:40) get to speak with Sarah. over the fall. And I think getting to talk about not only... restaurant and the cookbook, but where are the similarities and the differences between the two? Sometimes people, you know, adopt a recipe that's a big hit in the restaurant for home cooks or they make something completely different. So Speaker 2 (5:56) it'll be Speaker 1 (5:57) interesting to learn more. Okay. What's your next thing? Speaker 2 (5:59) My next book that I want to preview is a book that Maggie Hoffman pointed out when we were doing a little bit of a preview a couple months ago, and I finally got to check it out. It's Radicchio, A Celebration of the Beloved Italian Vegetable. Speaker 1 (6:12) Okay, fun. Really Speaker 2 (6:13) fun book. Single topic from Timber Press. It's out September 29th. It is from Lane Selman, who I believe in my research, Selman is a professor of practice at Oregon State University Horticultural Department. And Lane is the person who single-handedly drove Radicchio's American Renaissance over the past several years. We can credit this author for Radicchio. Big Radicchio. Speaker 1 (6:43) In the U.S.? Speaker 2 (6:44) In the U.S., of course. Got Speaker 1 (6:45) to be really careful with the Italians. Speaker 2 (6:47) Of course. I mean, Italy, it's canon. But in America, radicchio salads, very common on bistro menus. You look back even 10, 15 years, it certainly wasn't there. I Speaker 1 (6:58) love radicchio also. This is really a book for me. Speaker 2 (7:00) Oh, for sure. I mean, I love it as well. And I think the book blends, you know, some horticultural history and some of that decaf. deep academic research with actual recipes. So there's like pasta, risotto, polenta. And there's this recipe that really stuck out is a chocolate radicchio cake with mascarpone frosting, which I'm down. Like, that's cool. Do Speaker 1 (7:24) you know how the radicchio is incorporated into the cake? Speaker 2 (7:27) I couldn't find the recipe. It was only mentioned. So I actually haven't seen the full book. But it is a question for the author who I'm absolutely going to invite on the show. Speaker 1 (7:36) I have been loving making just radicchio Caesar salads. I think radicchio is the perfect vegetable for a creamy dressing like that. So I look forward to learning more about radicchio. Speaker 2 (7:46) Yeah, I mean, too, I think you're right. Like, you know, a big, big, big leaf, a big bitter leaf needs a big, bold dressing. So Caesar is perfect. It's lovely. So, yeah, maybe more from the author later on in the fall. Yeah. So what's Speaker 1 (8:01) your Speaker 2 (8:01) next book? Speaker 1 (8:02) My next book I want to call out is Fundamentals of Flavor by Nick Sharma. Yeah, cool. Nick Sharma is a molecular biologist turned cookbook author, recipe developer. I really loved his book Season that came out a couple of years ago. And the food nerd in me just really enjoys hearing about the scientific reasons. why things work in the way that they do. I interviewed Dr. Ariel Gordon on the show a couple years ago when her wonderful book came out. And I think this is just another fun kind of sciencey opportunity to be understanding. Specifically, the book focuses on how fire, earth, air, and water improve your kitchen techniques and the flavor of your meals. So fire is caramelization. Air could be drying out your cookie dough in the fridge so that you have the perfect chocolate chip cookie and so on and so forth. And they have... All these infographics that are breaking down the scientific principles, which I think is cool because I am a pretty visual learner. So I think really going back to bio a little bit with this book, some of the recipes that stand out to me, caramelized shallot, feta, labneh dip, these salt-baked new potatoes with gochujang vinaigrette, and the chocolate chip cookies that I mentioned before, which are called extra-rich chocolate cinnamon crinkle cookies. And this is out on Hardy Grant. Speaker 2 (9:14) I love Nick Sharma's books. I mean, he is one of my favorite deep thinkers about food chemistry, but also just a creative thinker with recipe development. Nick wrote a column for Taste in our early years, like 2017, 2018. I loved working with him on that column. And this seems like he's really picked up the mantle, picked up the torch from like Kenji Lopez-Alt, who did Food Lab. I think Nick's books. diving into food science are really important for home cooks who wanted to really learn from from a cookbook and you know cookbooks can do many things and i think teaching about chemistry in like a very fluent way and interesting ways is so difficult as an author and nick's so great at it Speaker 1 (9:58) Definitely. What's your next book? Speaker 2 (9:59) My next book is Korean Soups from Clara Lee and Edo Kim. That's out October 6th. And I have a great conversation with Clara and Edo coming out in a few weeks, maybe into October. This book really spoke to me because they are doing something that hasn't really been done, which is think about Korean soups holistically and really deeply. We're thinking of chige, tang, jeongol. all the large format soups and gook. And we get into, in our conversation in this book, How these soups Speaker 1 (10:36) are Speaker 2 (10:36) for many different occasions and different, I would say, ratios of water to seasoning. I think that's something that's really hard to articulate. And they do it so well. And how some soups are mostly water and for certain, like a pairing or maybe earlier in the day. And then, of course, some are more stews and thicker and full of seafood and all sorts of great tofu and everything else. So I think this book is a must. must for anyone, especially going into the colder months, who wants to really learn about this great canon of soup cooking in Korea. And really, they're cool. They started a company called Queens in San Francisco. And I love the way they talk about food and think about their products there as well. That's Korean soups. Sounds like perfect Speaker 1 (11:24) for Speaker 2 (11:24) soup season. Oh, soup season. It's really a beautiful book. What is your next book? book to preview. The Speaker 1 (11:30) next book that I will call out is East to East by Rachel Gujar. This is a really cool kind of I wouldn't say split book as much as a book that's bridging two different places, which is Mumbai, where she was raised, and New York City, where she's been based for the last many years. And these recipes just sound so, so good to me. Some of them that are really catching my eye would be a spicy butter masala pasta, dirty chai espresso martinis, chicken kebab Caesar salad, paneer with sun-gold tomatoes and basil. And then there's also more kind of classic recipes as well, like shrimp biryani. All of these kinds of staples that Rachel feels like she can kind of put her own spin on. I had a really fun conversation with her on the show that I think people will be able to hear soon. Speaker 2 (12:17) Yeah. Not Speaker 1 (12:18) sure exactly when around this time. Speaker 2 (12:20) We'll run it soon in October, probably. Yes. Speaker 1 (12:22) Around the book release. And I think like she is such a creative person who really wants the recipes to work and really put in a lot of time in the cross testing and the development stage. And I think the result is. Something that just feels really singular and special. I've Speaker 2 (12:36) always enjoyed Rachel's work online and at BA. And like I'm so happy that she has a book now to kind of bring much of her story together. And such a creative thinker with recipe development. Absolutely. What's Speaker 1 (12:49) your