Step inside the small bagel shop near the Coney Island subway station in the early morning hours, and you’re likely to see a crowd large enough to rival Coney Island itself.
As early as seven o’clock in the morning, Coney Island Bagels is already packed with customers, as a mix of residents, police officers, ambulance and sanitation workers and teachers from the nearby schools all lined up to order bagels for breakfast. “The morning is the craziest,” assistant manager Bobby Bashirwarv says.
The first hectic wave dies down at around one in the afternoon, and the atmosphere becomes more relaxed. That is, until the next big wave starts up at five o’clock, as residents of Coney Island are coming back from work. Though often right in the center of the madness, Bashirwarv and the rest of the staff behind the counter work to accommodate each and every hurried, hungry customer with friendliness and enthusiasm.
Bashirwarv, 27, is energetic and cheerful, with a ready smile. He treats customers like old friends, jokes with regulars, and spends the days seamlessly multitasking as he zooms from one part of the store to another. “I love my job. Anything I do, I do to the best of my abilities, just to see how hard I can push myself .” In addition to his in-store duties, Bashirwarv is also responsible for marketing the store online and securing catering jobs. “I do everything, man,” he says. Bashirwarv works about 63 hours a week, and the magnitude of the store’s customer base ensures that there is always something to be done.
However, business wasn’t always this plentiful. When Bashirwarv started working at Coney Island Bagels three months ago, the Ridgewood, Queens native observed what he felt was unenthusiastic service and an uninspired outlook. “My philosophy is, the way I’m going to give someone the food is the way I want it.” When he was promoted to assistant manager, Bashirwarv began encouraging the rest of the staff to put more effort into food preparation and counter-side manner: in short, to have “a little pride, a little dedication, just to try a little harder.” It worked.
Since then, Bashirwarv says, Coney Island Bagels has been getting a lot more customers. The store’s combination of gourmet food and a customer-friendly atmosphere, along with its proximity to the subway station and the beach, all seem to be factors of its rising success.
Coney Island Bagels also gets its fair share of tourists, especially in the summertime. Bashirwav recounted a day this past summer when a group of fifty tourists from England visited the shop. With a store capacity of about twenty, the shop was absolutely packed, but Bashirwarv and the rest of the staff managed to make it work.
In comparison with the attention and press that its beach and amusement area have gotten over the past century, the residential part of Coney Island is practically neglected. “It’s not a safe neighborhood,” Bashirwarv says. “There’s, for one, too much drug activity…” He discussed the dangers of the neighborhood after six o’clock. “Mermaid Ave. and 16th St. is like a crack spot…”
“There’s no really wholesome bagel stores around here, in the vicinity,” Bashirwarv says. Coney Island Bagels, and fellow local Brooklyn Bagels on Neptune Avenue, are outnumbered by three Dunkin Donuts stores. “You have fried chicken shops, liquor stores, and check cashing spots everywhere. This is what you want to have?” Like his philosophy towards work ethic and food preparation, Bashirwarv believes the residents of Coney Island deserve more effort and variety from their eating establishments. “Every place is all food stamps; it’s all low budget. So why can’t we have a little gourmet in the neighborhood?”
Bashirwarv’s own vision for Coney Island Bagels has the echo of the Coney Island of old. “I wanna make it into a little beach store eatery,” he says, adding, “Like an old-style sandwich shop from the forties.” He feels that the ‘special touch’ from the eateries of past decades is lost in many businesses. “Everything’s turning commercial… there’s nothing homemade anymore, there’s nothing dedicated.”
If the shop’s recent surplus of customers is any indication, the residents of Coney Island want a piece of his dream, too.