After 30 Years, The Bagel Barrel Has Become A Doylestown Institution

After 30 years, the Bagel Barrel is a Doylestown institution

By Foster Winans

DOYLESTOWN, PA — October 13, 1993: A gregarious 26-year-old lad from a local Catholic family opened the doors for the first time on an authentic (but not kosher) Jewish bakery and deli at 60 West Main St. in Doylestown. Three decades later, this October 13, that same gregarious, now graying lad, Patrick J. Murphy, opened the doors to begin his 31st year getting up at 3:00 am to bake the bagels.

Along the way, Murphy’s jovial, wisecracking personality and arguably the best bagels between here and Philadelphia created a de facto community center. Any morning, with a cloud of steam rising from the vat where precooked bagels are boiled before baking, you’ll hear many customers greeting each other as they enter.

They may be friends, co-workers, relatives, neighbors, or others who regularly meet and catch up over coffee and a breakfast sandwich. There are four men who sometimes sit at a table listening intently to a podcast. “We’re the Bagel Barrel Bible Boys,” one of them explains—a bible study group. Early mornings, the big table is often commandeered by a group of about ten seniors who look like they could be at a convention of grandmothers.

A sole proprietor who manages to survive and thrive for 30 years in the same location, and maintain a large crowd of loyalists who often are lined up out the door, is fast becoming a rarity. How did it all start?

“I’d just gotten fired from a job in a clothing store in Princeton,” Murphy recalls. Seeking a bit of solace in food, he went to the local bagel store, Abel’s Bagels, where he was a regular. By the time he left, he had been offered a new job, working in a bakery with the owner, Alfred Kahn, who had learned the trade in New York.

The work turned out to fit him. “It was such a fun experience, doing something completely different from retail sales. Also, there’s an authenticity to it. I still get a lot of pleasure out of being able to just make the product right here, and people wanting to buy it.”

After a couple of years at Abel’s, Khan encouraged him to open his own shop. Murphy, who grew up in the area, said, “I knew immediately where I wanted to be, in Doylestown. It’s so walkable, perfect for a bagel shop.” His was the first.

First-time customers often ask why his bagels taste so much more like “the real thing” than the competition’s. The difference, he says, is in the kneading. Commercially produced bagels are made from dough that has been, in effect, whipped, and is full of bubbles. “The right way is to use a kneading process that folds the dough, so the bagel comes out denser and chewier.”

The making of bagels at the Barrel takes place in full view of customers. The kneading, forming the raw shape, boiling, glazing with egg yolks, sprinkling with seeds, and feeding the maw of the huge oven with its rotating racks of browning, fragrant delights.

Another rare thing about the Bagel Barrel is the longevity of the staff. One of his full-time bakers, Thomas Bennett, started in 1994, a year after it opened. With some breaks along the way, he’s been there ever since. Jason Gawronski has 15 years under his belt, and Thomas Cormican nearly as many. The employee who has worked the longest is Murphy’s son, Patrick Jr. (PJ). He started when he was three.