Bagel delivery company comes to life during the pandemic

CRIEVE HALL, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Crieve Hall, man who lost his job during the pandemic, has turned to delivering homemade bagels to make ends meet.

According to Ben Cornfield, the art of bagel-making isn’t always cut and dry. "Quite a few lessons, quite a few disasters I would say,” Cornfield said, “I think a lot of failure to rise I would put it. You wake up in the morning and have a flat hunk of dough."

To pay the bills, he reached out to see if neighbors wanted bagels delivered. "It’s okay to be humbled," Cornfield said, "It really started off helter-skelter. I posted something on the Nextdoor App saying 'Hey I’m making sourdough bagels in my free time' and it kind of has grown and grown from there."

He wakes up at 1a.m. to get to work in his kitchen. Lately, he's been making 150 to 200 bagels a day at Crieve Hall Bagel Co. Cornfield said, "It’s been such a wild ride and the demand has really been there, the support has been there from the community, so now let’s ride the wave here."

According to his kids, Wren and Levi, the bagels come highly recommended. Wren prefers cinnamon, and Levi likes chocolate chip.

When the bagels are done, they're delivered, or mailed out. "We’ve sent our first batch over to Alabama," Cornfield said.

At first, he was still interviewing for other jobs, but now there’s no knead. “It’s like having kids right? It’s never the right time, but once it happens, it’s the right time.”

Through this process, he's learned many people only look at the holes in their life, and as a result... miss everything. "It’s a tough time for me, it’s a tough time for my family, but if we can get this thing done, we can have a real bright spot to 2020."

Ben and his wife, Lizzy, are looking into leasing a storefront where people can pick-up bagels. If delivery is far from their home, they charge a delivery fee. Order here.