ORLANDO, Fla. – Jeff and Danielle Perera opened their bagel business out of their home kitchen in 2020, and less than three years later, they are hoping to have eight brick-and-mortar locations open within the next six months.
The rapid expansion is being made possible by the couple’s new business partner, Justin Wetherill.
Wetherill is the owner of 1337 Capital and the co-founder of the uBreakiFix chain of mobile device repair shops.
The couple first came into contact with Wetherill as they were opening their second location in College Park.
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“(Min Cho) started coming into the shop and — friendly guy — bought bagels, come in the next day, bought some more bagels,” Jeff Perera said. “(He) was continuously chatting me up, and one day, he just stopped me. He said, ‘Hey, Are you the owner?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ He’s like, ‘I’m Min.’ I said, ‘I’m Jeff. Nice to meet you.’ And he’s like, ‘We love your bagels at the office.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, great. I’m so glad you enjoy them.’”
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Cho continued visiting the College Park shop, eventually revealing that he had been talking up the Pareras’ business to his boss, Wetherill.
“Like a week later, he comes back,” Jeff Perera said. “He’s like, ‘I’ve been talking with my boss and the team at the office, they like love your bagels so much. We’d love to do something.’ I’m like, ‘Great! Why don’t you just send me some information? It’d be great to catch up.’ He emails me, I don’t respond. Text me, I don’t respond. This is in like August, September goes by, October goes by.”
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Cho remain persistent and eventually was able to convince the Pereras to have a meeting with Wetherill.
“Justin shared his story with us about how he built his business and where it started,” Jeff Perera said. “It’s strange to say — Danielle’s like, ‘It was a kinship.’”
“Building something from scratch — there’s not a lot of people that truly understand what that feels like,” Danielle Perera added. “I think there was like this understanding and I think that for us, that was really nice and just made the conversation more organic and just natural.”
Wetherill said, prior to meeting the Pereras, he had actually been considering investing in a bagel franchise.
“There’s the stalwart brands that we all know and are aware of and there’s not very many emerging brands in the space. So, we struggled finding a brand that we were comfortable partnering with — that had a vision different than what was already happening in the bagel space,” Wetherill said. “I enjoyed meeting Jeff and Danielle and appreciated hearing their vision for the business, but I think what really made the difference was, I think our second or third meeting, they’re like, ‘Why don’t you just come bake with us, come see the experience, work in the kitchen.’”
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What finally sealed the deal for Wetherill was experiencing a hot bagel fresh from the oven for the first time.
“To me, that was really life-changing,” he said. “And I think (that hot bagel) really sums up the opportunity we all have going forward — introducing the world to that experience. Because I have never had a hot bagel. I don’t eat cold ones anymore.”
Wetherill and the Pereras plan to make Jeff’s Bagel Run more of an experience overall. They plan to have an open kitchen concept with their new locations to “bring people into the experience and educate them on how bagels are made.”
Wetherill said they have already signed multiple leases, with plans to sign more.
“We have pretty aggressive plans,” he said.
On the latest episode of the Florida Foodie, the trio of business partners talk more about their plans for expansion. They share stories from a recent pilgrimage to New York City to sample bagels and how they hope to bring in new technology to improve the bagel business.
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Florida Foodie is a biweekly podcast from WKMG and Graham Media that takes a closer look at what we eat, how we eat it and the impact that has on us here in Florida and for everyone, everywhere. Find new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.