When I told Jay McCarthy, owner of The Place Restaurant, that I was thinking about getting scratch bagels to my Sunday market, he said, “Why don’t you talk to Scot Logan?” My response was, “Isn’t Scot a commercial pilot?”
It turns out that, during the pandemic, our mutual friend/acquaintance – Scot Logan – changed his career path. Yes, I was familiar with Logan’s Bagels, but I was not aware that Scot was the person behind the operation.
When I spoke to Scot earlier today, he had his hands full, with 100 pounds of dough. I was curious to hear how he had transitioned from being a pilot to bagel purveyor. He told me that he had been flying commercial planes for 14 years, based out of Florida. He moved back to Buffalo in 2016, upon realizing an opportunity to sell and broker jets. The new job allowed him to spend time at home with his young family instead of constantly flying the friendly skies.
“Then the pandemic hit,” said Scot. “They told me that I would have to go back to flying the planes full time, and I turned the offer down. The pandemic was a time when people were cooking at home. They were also baking bread at home, which led to a scarcity of flour.”
Not deterred, Scot decided to try his hand at making bagels. He started baking out of his house. Pretty soon, word was out that Scot’s bagels were really good. When he wasn’t baking, he was learning about bagels. That’s when he came across an article in the New York Times about Beth George, a bagel consultant out of New Jersey. Scot figured that if he was truly going to make the best bagels, then he should get to know Beth.
Up until that time, he had been talking to, and getting feedback from, Jay Langfelder, owner of Jay’s Artisan Pizza, as well as Robbie Gianadda at Flat #12 Mushrooms. It was Robbie who suggested that he move his operation out of his home, and into one of the kitchens on Chandler Street (also home to Flat #12).
By that time, he had retained the consulting services of Beth George, who began to teach him the ins and outs of running a successful bagel business. He figured that that would yield quicker results that sifting through 8 million YouTube videos, looking for the occasional ‘diamond in the rough.’
For Scot, the biggest challenge was creating a dough that was healthier than that of the typical bagel – one that wouldn’t “Sit in your stomach like a brick.”
He decided to go down the sourdough route, which would be more digestible. The science of the fermentation also meant that the enzymes and the prebiotics would result in “good bacteria in the belly.” Scot also sourced the best flour that he could find (unbleached and unbromated), tracked down the Cadillac of high power mixers, and began to crank out bagels that he says, rival the best that NYC has to offer. In fact, some of his best repeat customers live in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Long Island. Another one of his biggest fans is a bigwig Boston-Buffalo businessman who has Logan’s Bagels flown down to one of his residences in Palm Beach.
With culinary friends in Buffalo, and Beth helping from afar, Scot began to piece all of the bagel bites together. The result was a bagel that had people talking, ordering, eating, and reordering.
To get people’s hands on the bagels, Scot has set up an online ordering system that is very efficient. Due to the format of the fermentation technique, then the boiling and baking, it takes about four days to make a batch of bagels – they are boiled and baked on Fridays, and freshly ready for pick-up.
With orders in hand, Scot starts the process on a Monday, to ensure that the bagels are ready for customers by the weekend. His timing for pick-ups has been so precise that the bagels are out of the oven, into the bags, and into the hands of the customers all within a ten minute span of time.
“A lot of customers can’t wait, and they rip open the bags as soon as they get them,” said Scot [laughing]. “It’s a long and intimate process. There is a whole crew of regulars that come in every week. I’ve gotten to know them so well that they have become my friends. I also have a lot of people that come in that typically have issues with sensitivity. Even people with sensitivity to gluten tell me that they are OK eating these bagels. They’re also vegan. During the pandemic I had lines down the hallway.”
Scot told me that he would probably never have a traditional brick and mortar retail store, because the current system works so well.
“We won’t leave Chandler Street,” said Scot. “The financials are working well. I listen to my colleagues who warn me about the headaches, and costs and the hours associated with the retail stores – people are happy to come pick up their orders at Chandler, so I’m not changing the system. If anything, I might add a delivery service this fall.”
Retail is one thing. Wholesale accounts are another. Currently, Scot sells to Ashker’s in Niagara Falls and on Amherst Street. He also sells to Ellicottville Brewing, Kornerstone Coffee in Larkinville, and Emily’s in Black Rock, among a number of other accounts. He’s always looking to add wholesale accounts, for anyone that is looking to source high quality bagels for their business.
Aside from wholesale accounts, Scot is seeing an uptick in businesses requesting bagels for their employees, whether it’s for a breakfast meeting, or for a function.
“I love it when we get weekly repeat orders from local businesses,” Scot told me. “Instead of Taco Tuesdays, it’s like Bagel Thursdays [laughing].”
After 2+ years in business, Scot is very happy with the direction that everything is going. He’s in the process of hiring a couple of workers, so that he can spend some more time with his family. And sometimes, he brings a kid or two along with him to work. Family means the world to him, but so does his love for feeding Buffalo the best bagels that he can possibly make.
From his high flying days, to riding the wave of the pandemic, to being happily grounded in Buffalo, Scot has managed to live a well balanced life. His latest accomplishment – Logan’s Bagels – is a testament to his fortitude, as well as a lust for life. And what would life be without an amazingly fresh bagel once in a while?
Logan’s Bagels | 27 Chandler Street | Buffalo, NY 14207 | (716) 783-0837 | Order online, choose a time, and pick-up Friday through Sunday | Plain cream cheese available – specialty cream cheeses down the road | Iced coffee in summer and hot coffee in winter | Bagels range from jalapeño cheddar to rosemary and sea salt | Inquire about wholesale or office orders
Lead image: Photo by Mario Puzo
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