Mary Ting Hyatt
Mary Ting Hyatt
Photograph by Lydia Carmichael Rosenberg/The Thirty-One Percent
If you’ve ever seen a long stream of people trailing down Mass Ave early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, congratulations, you’ve run into the Bagelsaurus line. Mary Ting Hyatt and her team make incredible things out of eggs, avocado, hummus, and, of course, bagels. Here’s what a typical day working the sandwich line and snacking on a “bagel roll” might look like for her.
6:00 AM
The goal is usually to wake up around 6 or 6:30. I have a one year-old son, and so a lot of times my wake-up depends on when he wakes up. My morning routine is a lot of getting him ready to go to daycare, feeding him, getting his bottles ready. I’m usually trying to get caffeinated while I make his bottles, so we can both drink our morning beverages. I have a Nespresso at home, for the easy, quick cup of caffeine that I need, it’s so perfect.
7:00 AM
At 7 AM, we’ll start mixing the dough for the next day’s bagels, and then we start shaping around 9 AM, and then we proof them and put the bagels and fridges overnight. The next day, at 4 AM, the baker comes in and starts baking and boiling bagels so they’re fresh for that day.
8:30 AM
Nowadays, it’s the exception for me to come straight to the shop, but if I do, I’m usually here around seven. Since the baby, though, I’ve been pulling back from the early mornings. I’ll try to go for a quick jog around the Charles before coming in at 8:30, most days.
Bagelsaurus’s “Classic Jumbo” comes with egg, cheddar, and mustard butter, but you can add decadent extras, like sun-dried tomatoes, avocado, or bacon for a real breakfast treat.
Courtesy of Bagelsaurus
10:00 AM
Myself and Chloe, our manager both manage the Instagram. We used to try and post every day, but we don’t pressure ourselves as much anymore, which feels good. Now we post a couple of times a week, and that feels more genuine, somehow, than forcing ourselves to do it. If we’re going to post, we’ll post by 10 AM, because we’re mostly a breakfast place. Our main customer base is from Instagram, for social media. We definitely notice that if we post a picture of an Eggspañola that looks really dreamy, the next few days those sales will go up, so that’s kind of fun.
I’ll also eat a little bagel snack in the morning, around ten. I’ll check in on how our bagels are tasting, you know? There might be an olive bagel roll hanging around so I’ll toast that up with some mustard butter, something like that. Pretzel with honey rosemary is one of my favorite combinations, anything with butter, I love.
When I’m in, I’ll see if I need to wipe down the front or if the sandwich line is really busy. We’ll usually have two bakers, one mixing and one boiling and baking bagels. A third might come in and start shaping them. Then there’ll be a couple of people on the prep line, so I’ll just hop in wherever they need me. I could be packing up catering orders that haven’t gone out yet. I like to be an assist player when I’m here, but often times I need to be either shaping bagels or on the sandwich line myself, which is also fun.
11:00 AM
At eleven, I’ll start giving lunch breaks. I usually have my hands on the dough every day, and I love making sandwiches, it’s so fun. I like making the Hot Smoked sandwich because it has very distinct layers to it. It’s cooked smoked fish, so it’s not like lox. I like cutting through it and opening it up to see all of the colorful layers. I don’t really sit down for lunch, a lot of times I’m just kind of grazing. I still love bagels, believe it or not. A little later, I might make a salad with some of our ingredients, and occasionally I’ll make an Eggspañola as a salad.
1:30 PM
Sometimes I have special projects to work on. We make banana coffee cake and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, so I might be mixing those in the afternoon. I could be answering emails, prepping catering bags and coffee boxes, labeling things, fiddly work.
2:00 PM
Then I’m sorting through our fridges to see what we need to order more of, lots of different vendor ordering, which sometimes I deal with, or one of our two other managers might be dealing with it. On a Sunday where things are busy until things close, I work the eggs on the line. That’s been our tricky staffing day usually.
Bagelsaurus’s selection includes the classics, but also some unexpected choices—the menu is rounded out by seasonal flavors of cream cheese and bialys, which are available starting at 10AM until supplies run out.
Courtesy of Bagelsaurus
We spend a lot of time in the back shaping bagels across the table from each other, and that’s how we brainstorm specials and things like that. The menu hasn’t changed all that much since we’ve opened, but we like to mix it up with specials and seasonals.
5:00 PM
I’ll wrap up the day, clean up and check that everything’s taken care of before I lock up. I’ll go and pick up my son (it’s either me or my husband). One of the great things about having a breakfast place is that it means I can be out of here by five.
7:00 PM
There’s a lot of spending time together, reading books, and trying to get him to eat things other than strawberries and chicken. He’s one, and he hasn’t spent a lot of time with bagels yet because he didn’t have a lot of teeth until recently. He’ll go to bed around seven or eight.
I want to say that I cook, but I don’t cook that much at home right now, more because of the baby than the business. Usually it’s whatever we can fashion out of a rotisserie chicken - tacos or rice/salad or take out - often India Pavilion. We’re usually in bed around ten.
To see the full menu, check out www.bagelsaurus.com. To keep up with beautiful bagels, news, and seasonal flavors, follow Bagelsaurus on Instagram.
