March 8, 2021

Emily Winston, founder
Boichik Bagels
The Subject
Emily Winston
an engineer, a baker, an icon.
A California transplant from the East Coast, Emily grew up on the iconic NYC bagel emporium H&H. An engineer by trade, she spent countless hours in her home kitchen recreating the New York bagels of her childhood — the malty chew, the blistered crust, the impossible density.
Friends urged her to open a pop-up. Lines stretched for blocks. She left engineering and never looked back. Then came the headline that changed everything: The New York Times declared “The Best Bagels Are in California (Sorry, New York)” — 1,657 comments and a coast-to-coast debate over bagel supremacy.
Today, Boichik operates 12 stores and counting, anchored by an 18,000 sq-ft factory capable of producing 12,000 bagels an hour. Emily has recently expanded into Los Angeles, competed at BagelFest West, and took home “Best Yeasted Bagel.” A true bagel entrepreneur, she has built a “Mensch Culture” at Boichik, and her signature Pumperthingle Everything Pumpernickel Bagel has become a Bay Area icon.