Mt. Bagel: The Bagel Shop That Pre-Sells 3000 Bagels Every Week

Meet Mt. Bagel

A Seattle bagel shop with a lot of character and a simple menu. Their small neighborhood storefront opens every morning at 9 and has become so popular that they usually sell out by noon. Check out their Hotplate storefront here.

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How they got started

Believe it or not, this isn’t founder Roan Hartzog’s first rodeo as a rockstar. The former frontman of the garage band Cabana started making bagels out of his friends commissary in 2019 and quickly developed a following through Instagram and local press. Like him, customers in Seattle were eager and ready for a high quality bagel and schmear from a classic bagel shop.

His bagels were so popular they were dubbed the “Taylor Swift Tickets of Bagels” given how quickly they sold out after he put them up for sale. After taking a break during the pandemic, Roan happened upon a great space in Seattle and came back full force offering his bagels for walk up and pre order.

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Why they integrated Hotplate

The team at Mt. Bagel roughed it through almost 3 years of manual data entry before implementing Hotplate into their workflow. According Roan, they were constantly losing orders because customer information was everywhere - across random notebooks, post-its, and Instagram DMs. Hotplate has saved the team 15-20 hours per week of administrative data entry - that’s like a lot of extra time back to focus on making bagels!

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Their business today

While you’re still likely to see a long line outside Mt. Bagel every morning, these days 50% of their sales come from their Hotplate preorders. They’re churning out around 1200 bagels a day, half of which have already been paid for before their doors even open. Their Hotplate drops happen every Friday when customers can pre-order for pickup Tues-Sat the following week.

Lessons learned from the best

Roan Hartzog, owner at Mt. Bagel, not only figured out how to make a delicious bagel that everyone wants, but also figured out an operating model thats profitable and built for scale. Here’s what we see as some keys to their success:

• Simplified menu and concept: If you walk into Mt. Bagel in Seattle, you’ll see one table, a rack of bagels, and an iPad to pay.  Everything from their website to physical store to the menu is stripped down and simple. Not offering too much means the team can be laser focused on delivering the highest quality product, which of course keeps their fans coming back.

• Ordering made easy: If you visit Mt. Bagel’s website, the biggest and only button you can click leads directly to their Hotplate storefront. Customers appreciate a simple, easy to understand way to order.

• Consistent schedule: Mt. Bagel has had the same schedule for years so fans know they walk in Tuesday-Saturday at 9 am and that pre-orders open Fridays. The schedule is simple enough that it fits into the company’s Instagram bio. Like many other top businesses on Hotplate, having a consistent schedule has led to their drops selling out faster and faster each week as their SMS list of customers grows.

• Branding that reflects the business: It’s no secret that good branding goes a long way, and Roan’s simple black and white line drawings for Mt. Bagel feel reflective of the overall stripped back, homey, and authentic vibe of his business.

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