Bagels N' More owner Carol Lonigan. Photo by Paul Chin, Jr.
By T.J. Prieur
Bagels N’ More in Virginia Beach has been a part of many franchises in its 16-year history. In fact it’s been part of so many franchises that the current owner, Carol Lonigan, can’t name them all, even though she has worked at the bagel shop since a few months after it opened in 1994.
“The original owner was John Turner,” explains Lonigan. “We were just a bagel bakery and we made bagels from scratch here on the premises.” The only “full scratch” bagel chain in the U.S., it was started by “two guys who came up with the idea. The original logo was the Washington Monument. Then we were Chesapeake Bagel, then Chesapeake was bought out by Manhattan Bagel” (a part of the Einstein and Noah Group).
But throughout all the changes, one thing remained the same: fresh bagels made daily.
“The first year we were open we were insanely busy. We hit over a million that first year; you have no idea how crazy it was,” remembers Lonigan. Turner was surprised himself. His background was in construction, not the food business. “His daughter talked him into it because she’d been to a bagel place while she was at UVA.”
But while the local store was doing well, things weren’t so good at the corporate level. The first name change led to another and finally, “Chesapeake Bagel was bought out literally overnight. I mean I learned about it the next morning from one of the customers,” Lonigan says.
The deal the corporate office made stated that the new company had the right to turn any of the stores into a Manhattan Bagel shop at any time. “John Turner put on the war paint!” says Lonigan. He broke with the franchise and went out on his own as Bagels n’ More.
A short time later, in 2006, Turner decided to retire and sold the business to his long-time employee, Lonigan. “Our name officially changed on Aug. 3, 2005, and I bought it in January of 2006. I would never have bought the business if we’d been Manhattan Bagel.”
Buying the store from Turner wasn’t a difficult decision. “It wasn’t a massive decision, it was a natural evolution. First, if I hadn’t bought it I’d have had to go out and find another job. The store is my baby. I raised it. I have employees who have been here four to ten years and more. Some are my family. If I hadn’t bought it we would have all lost our jobs. The store would have died,” she says.
“We’re not your average bagel joint,” says the business’ website. Lonigan makes sure that the restaurant always lives up to that claim with fresh, homemade bagels, croissants and focaccia bread sandwiches.
There are some things she misses about the franchise experience. “There’s a lack of camaraderie with the other stores. When you think about a franchise you pay fees for advertising, for the camaraderie. But the franchise was never strong. If we wanted to do local advertising the other stores were never interested.”
“I guess I’m just anti-franchising. I worked at Burger King and Hardee’s and there was a lot of bureaucracy. I don’t want corporate coming in here and telling me my floor’s dirty and get it clean when we just had a $300 hour!”
Lonigan understands the need for consistency in a chain, but in the end, she wants to go it alone.
“Here, at Bagels n’ More, I just think we are better off by ourselves.”
