Follow-Up File: House of Bagels is rebounding

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• House of Bagels Central Coast is 'more than just bagels'

  House of Bagels Central Coast is 'more than just bagels'

  If you’re going to call yourself a house of bagels, you better have the process to back it up — boiling bagels before baking them. That’s exactly what House of Bagels Central Coast delivers.

  Both locations (Paso Robles, which opened in 2005, and San Luis Obispo, launched in 2006) first began as contract stores with the House of Bagels in San Francisco, explained co-owner Mike Prowse. That involved getting frozen bagels from the landmark Bay Area store and baking them off locally, a business model that eventually proved too costly with rising transportation costs.

  “We also just couldn’t manage the quality as much as we liked,” said Prowse, so in 2007 they dissolved the contract arrangement and became House of Bagels Central Coast. More importantly, the San Luis Obispo location evolved into a bakery to make all the chewy, crusty, New York-style bagels for both stores.

• Holiday costs changes over 10 years: Making merry with less

  Holiday costs changes over 10 years: Making merry with less

  Karen Woods pays around $100 a week more for groceries than she did a few years ago. While some of that increase can be attributed to buying healthier food for her family of four, she has also noticed a significant rise in grocery costs.

  “We have to think twice before buying just to make sure we don’t overspend,” said Woods, a Los Osos mother of two who works in the billing office of a local pathology lab. “I pay attention to the ads a little bit more now, seeing what’s on sale.”

  With the Christmas shopping season in full swing, you’ll probably notice that some things are considerably more expensive than they were 10 years ago — whether it be that pair of Ugg boots you plan on getting your wife or a pack of batteries for the kids’ toys. While the cost of goods is expected to rise, so too are salaries. But more recently, that hasn’t occurred.

• Dining Out: Broadway Bagel and Coffee Company in Arroyo Grande

  Dining Out: Broadway Bagel and Coffee Company in Arroyo Grande

  Fifteen years ago, the curtain went up on Broadway Bagel and Coffee Company in Arroyo Grande, and it’s been getting raves ever since.

  Owner Sally Lauringson was looking for her next career role (post-ER nurse, post teacher, and then the mother of two young boys) when she hit upon the idea of bagels. As in real bagels, as in overnight proofing of high gluten flour dough, as in boiling the bagels before baking them, as in toppings on both top and bottom.

  After two years of research and learning her way around authentic New York-style bagels came the search for the right location.

• Letters to the Editor 9/26

  Letters to the Editor 9/26

  Stop water rate hike

  Is anyone aware that the Nipomo Community Services District plans to raise water rates and there is something you, as an NCSD customer, can do to stop this rate increase? The proposed higher water rates must pass a Proposition 218 protest hearing set for 9 a.m. Oct. 12 to become effective.

  NCSD sent a seven-page (blue) mailer of information to its customers during the past month explaining the water rate hikes and outlining the protest process.

• Letters to the Editor Jan. 26 - Feb. 1

  Letters to the Editor Jan. 26 - Feb. 1

  Ironic

  There’s a tragic irony in the fact that Vance Hyde is rallying “Occupy” demonstrations in Cambria, protesting against the power of the 1 percent richest in America, when the policies she advocates locally are making Cambria into a place where only the richest 1 percent will ever be able to afford a home, and the only jobs will be for restaurant workers and housekeepers.

  Deryl Robinson Huntington Beach