San Diego has suffered a bagel drought long enough. But with anticipated openings like Marigold Bagels in North Park and beloved bakeries like Secret Sister adding the bready delights to their weekend menus, it feels like our dry spell is on the verge of ending. Baker Cheryl Storms says it’s about time.
“I definitely feel like San Diego, for better or worse, is always just a few years behind everybody else with all these food trends,” she adds, pointing to other cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, all of which have launched new iterations of East Coast–style bagels or embraced the sourdough bagel revolution in recent years.
Storms and her business partner Matt Cardwell are behind the pop-up concept New Wave Bagel. For the past year, they’ve brought their bagels to places like Ironsmith Coffee in Encinitas and Michi Michi in Bankers Hill, all the time searching for their forever home. In a few months, they’ll have one—right on the Leucadia coastline.
Both bakers have a ton of experience between them, each working at Wayfarer Bread in 2018 (Storms helped open the award-winning bakery in Bird Rock, and Cardwell joined soon after). Both held restaurant roles in San Francisco, as well—Storms even ran her own restaurant and bakery in the city for six years—and bonded over punk and New Wave music like Depeche Mode and The Cure.
After Storms left Wayfarer in 2021, she and Cardwell kept in touch as friends. She wanted to get back into ownership—“my type A personality just can’t be contained for too long,” she jokes—and mentioned to Cardwell that she didn’t think there were any good bagels in San Diego. “And [Cardwell] was like, ‘I’ve been thinking the same thing [and] have been testing recipes,’” Storms recalls. A few drinks later, New Wave Bagel was born.
Storms says they chose Leucadia to stay close to their existing pop-up customer base along the central county coastline, but they don’t plan to stop with just one location. They’re already looking at a spot in even more northern North County and would love to one day expand into a local franchise that still centers around local, organic, artisan, handcrafted baked goods, she explains. “Things that are made with care, you know?” she adds.
Although “bagel” is in its name, New Wave has also made a name for itself with its bialys. Bialys are made with flattened bagel dough and given a small divot in the middle that can be filled with anything sweet or savory. At New Wave, that might look like a classic New York BEC (bacon, egg, cheese) with a twist: chive cream cheese, Baker’s bacon, and pasture eggs.
Or it might be seasonally sweet: honey vanilla cream cheese with organic yellow peaches and local raspberries. Storms and Cardwell rotate their menu every month or so, offering around seven different naturally fermented, 100 percent sourdough bagel options with five or six cream cheese flavors.
Once the shop opens in Leucadia, Storms says she hopes to begin offering about a dozen different bagel varieties, plus breakfast and lunch sandwiches. For phase one of the buildout, expect a sort of permanent pop-up out front while construction goes on. During phase two, the duo will be working out of a smaller commissary kitchen at LuckyBolt in Sorrento Valley, until phase three brings full, onsite kitchen operations with indoor and outdoor seating to Leucadia. (Storms promises they’ll continue their pop-ups at Ironsmith and Michi Michi until phase three.) Eventually, local roaster Crossings Coffee will partner with New Wave in the space.
As the pair works towards building a better bagel future in San Diego, Storms says not to expect New York–ified bagels coming out of their kitchen. Their expertise is strictly sourdough. “That’s sort of California’s take on bagels,” she explains. “We’re not just going to do regular New York–style, because New York’s got that down pat. We’re doing our own thing … [and] in my opinion, it’s better.”
New Wave Bagel opens this year at 312 North Coast Highway 101 in Leucadia.
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
It’s Wine O’Clock in Carlsbad at the California Wine Festival
Soak up the sun and slosh some suds at Park Hyatt Aviara Resort Golf Club & Spa’s California Wine Festival in Carlsbad. On June 20 and 21, wineries from across California will bring their best bottles to showcase alongside bites from Prager Brothers., Seven Barrels Olive Oil, Ponto Lago, and more. From Ramona Valley Vineyard to Caymus Vineyards, Kubani Wines, Harvey and Harriet, Wilson Creek Winery, and more, the gang’s all going to be there. Choose from two events—the Sunset Rare & Reserve Tasting on Friday or the Beachside Wine Festival on Saturday—or lean into an oenophilic weekend and go to both.
PARTNER CONTENT
Beth’s Bites
- Happy first birthday to Sunny Grove Brewing Company. On Saturday, June 21, the family- and pet-friendly brewery in Santee is throwing an all-day bash starting at noon with music, merch, food, and a new beer. (My fingers are crossed that it’s a schwarzbier, but I’m an optimist.)
- It looks like 99 Ranch Market is getting a new eatery from the north—and a wonderfully named one at that. Potato Powder Love Noodle, home to noodles made with (you guessed it) potatoes, has one location in the City of Industry in LA with rave reviews. I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like, so I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
- Jitters Coffee Pub in Oceanside has a bright future (and a famous new owner) and plans to celebrate both on Saturday, July 12. The recent renovations are complete, the stage is set, and a new menu is finalized, so grab a cup of joe and an açai bowl to toast to another three decades in business.
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