One Year In, Dolce Bagel and Pizza Cafe Is Tasting Sweet Success

Not long ago, a customer came into on West Bay Avenue for breakfast and ordered Nova lox, cream cheese, red onion and tomato on a bagel – owner Rosino Romeo remembers the order perfectly – only to get home and find something missing.

“She called me and she said, ‘Look, I’m sorry but I came home and there was no lox in the cream cheese,’ ” Romeo remembered. “So I made her a whole new bagel."

And then she drove it to the woman’s house.

It’s the embodiment of the philosophy that inspired Romeo and her husband Joe to open up their Barnegat restaurant a year ago this month: Give the people what they want.

And it’s working. With its first anniversary behind it, Dolce now sees a steady stream of loyal customers and is expanding, offering a bigger menu and catering services.

Romeo and Joe, who is part-owner of an Italian restaurant in Jackson, decided to open Dolce in part because they saw a hole in Barnegat. A New York native who has made the township home for 16 years, discerning Rosina Romeo was never satisfied with local bagels and Italian pastries.

“I said ‘Even if it’s to Bricktown, why do people have to travel?’ ” she said. “Why can’t they have something here in their hometown?”

So they decided to bring a little Brooklyn to Barnegat. Joe, who grew up in Italy, was new to bagel making, but he caught on quickly.

“He’s been dealing with dough all his life,” said Romeo. “He’s so dedicated to his cooking."

Dedicated is the right word. He churns out about 150 dozen bagels every morning before heading to his job at the healm of his other restaurant, where he works four days a week. The rest of the time, he’s in the kitchen at Dolce, Romeo said, where the couple makes everything from cannoli cream and tiramisu to their own rich, red marinara sauce.

Now the menu is growing, with hot and cold subs, house-made pizzas and breakfast all day. They’re catering parties, and hoping to expand their hours come summer, Romeo said. Regular customers fill the tables in their sunny front window on a daily basis, and the feedback on the food has been great, she said.

“It was a little scary opening up,” Romeo acknowledged. The economy was still floundering, and she worried that things wouldn’t take. After all, she was moving into a spot abandoned by another bagel shop that went out of business after less than a year, she said.

“You don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” said Romeo. “You don’t’ know if they’re going to like the pastries, or if they’ll like the bagels or they’ll like the coffee.”

But the business is paying the bills, she said, and the staff and customers have come to feel like family. She loves hearing what people have to say about the food they’re serving up, she said, and she loves seeing people leave with a smile.

“Even if they’re not happy,” she said, “I’ll try to make them happy.”