Chef-driven Rise Bagels goes beyond the schmear
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Chef John Park hadn’t been considering opening a bagel business, but while recently developing a superior dough for a pizza concept, the renowned restaurateur and baker stumbled upon bagels.
“As we were developing dough we decided since pizza is only open at night, and it’s the same equipment, same mixers and ovens and all that, [we should] do bagels in the morning,” Park recalled. “So, through testing out pizza dough, we fell into bagels.”
Rise Bagels has been open for roughly two week at Irvine’s Centerview, serving a menu of inventive opened-faced and sandwich bagels that go beyond the usual schmear.
Park has made a name for himself in Orange County as a partner on concepts like Toast Kitchen + Bakery and Tableau Kitchen and Bar, after honing his craft at places like Water Grill, the Ritz-Carlton, Quenelle Ice Cream Shop and Providence LA.
Park developed Rise Bagels with Jeff Tran, former bar manager at Toast and Tableau, leaning on his pastry chef experience for the small-batch, hand-rolled and boiled bagels that are baked fresh daily.
Bagels are available in flavors like salted butter, everything, furikake, cheddar and sesame, each with the perfect chew of a classic New York bagel. They are also used as a vehicle for showcasing California’s produce in bagel sandwiches that source ingredients from farm partners like Girl & Dug Farm, Munak Ranch, Sunny Cal Farms, Valdivia Farms, Murray Family Farms and Garcia Organic Farm.
“It is our job, a lot of the time, to get out of the way of the good product,” Park said of the farm fresh ingredients. “It’s our job to let it shine.”
The open-faced “One Fish” bagel features citrus-cured salmon, yuzu kosho pickled onions, red onion, tomato, dill and citrus olive oil with a lemon schmear. The open-faced “Farmer John” is studded with hunks of seasonal fruit like pluots and persimmons with an orange blossom schmear finished with rau ram chimichurri for a sweet and savory breakfast.
Bagel sandwiches include the “McDeez” with a sausage patty, scrambled egg, crispy hash brown and melted American cheese and the “Get Jjigae With it,” a Korean barbecue-inspired sandwich that uses bulgogi beef, kimchi jjigae, scrambled eggs and American cheese with a ssam gang schmear.
“The menu is globally inspired, based on foods that I ate growing up or things I have tried when I travel,” Park said.
The chef has always emphasized at his restaurants a menu with food his young children will love.
“I have four kids, and I don’t always get to see them a lot because I work so much. I want to make sure they really enjoy the food, so they want to come and see me,” Park said with a laugh. “Obviously, they want to come and see me, but if the food is good they are going to want to see me even more.”
While his children are among his best customers, there is also a built-in clientele at the office park where Rise Bagels is located. But corporate employees aren’t the only ones flocking to the shop. Thanks to viral TikTok videos, foodies are coming to the business park to try the “Tokyo 7/11” bagel, an egg salad bagel topped with jammy eggs that was inspired by a Japanese convenience store sandwich.
“We didn’t know the egg salad was going to be our number one best seller, by far,” Park said. “Thank you, TikTok!”
For those who love Park’s pastries, there is always a small selection of cookies and cake slices to choose from, like a yuzu poppyseed snickerdoodle and an everything spice chocolate chip cookie or chocolate mousse cake. Park said the menu will also rotate with new bagel sandwiches and limited-time specials added.
“We have a lot of fun stuff coming up down the road, like fried chicken and caviar bagels,” he said. “We definitely want to get a lot more creative. This is kind of the starter menu.”
Despite its success, the bagel business has not distracted Park from the earlier goal — he is still planning to open a pizza concept, too.
Rise Bagels is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at 2010 Main Street, Suite 180, Irvine.
