Bantam Bagels entered the Shark Tank in Season 6 pitching their cream cheese-filled bagel balls. Husband and wife team Nick and Elyse Oleksak struck a deal with Lori for their tasty treats, that come in flavors like Cookies and Milk and French Toast.
Back in May, they appeared on the first season of Beyond the Tank and we visited Nick in his shop in New York City to discuss their growth and new developments. And since that time, they’ve partnered with Starbucks and you can find their products in the pastry case there, which the pair calls, “a dream come true.”
As they are revisited by the Tank on October 23, we caught up with the couple to see what they’ve been up to. When asked about their future plans, they said, “We want to change the way America bagels, one mini stuffed bagel at a time. We know that our bagels have this amazing power to make people’s eyes light up when they eat them, and we are excited to share them with every single person from coast to coast.”
Here’s what else they told us about…
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What We Can Expect From the Episode
You will see updates on our retail store on Bleecker Street, which has really become a national tourist destination over the last few months with people from all over seeking out the best, most exciting New York City bagel! Our web sales have really taken off since we last spoke, with people from all over the US buying and sending our mini stuffed bagels to friends and family. We have some other exciting new deals to announce as well, but you’ll have to see tomorrow night.
New Flavors, Including ‘Birthday Cake’
We have released some amazing new flavors in the last few months at our retail store on Bleecker Street. In honor of our second birthday this past Labor Day weekend, we launched the ‘Birthday Cake’ as a permanent flavor, which is a sweet vanilla bagel topped with rainbow sprinkles stuffed with sweet frosting cream cheese. It’s quickly become a customer favorite. We have also been launching weekend special flavors, which have included ‘The S’mores’ a plain bagel topped with graham cracker, marshmallow, and chocolate bar stuffed with sweet marshmallow cream cheese and ‘The Jalapeno Popper’ a plain bagel topped with house seasoned breadcrumbs and stuffed with chopped jalapeno and cheddar cream cheese. With people traveling to see us, we are making a conscious effort to make our in-store flavors as exciting and unique as possible, and for those who can’t make it to New York we worked very hard over the last year to extend our online offerings. We have 16 different online SKUs available for National shipping on website currently, which is 15 more than we had available when we aired on Shark Tank in January.
Lori As Their ‘Biggest Supporter’
Lori is still very involved, and I know we have spoken about this before, but she is honestly our biggest supporter and champion, and the best part about our relationship is she is a real partner. Lori wants only the best for us and the business and we speak to her very often. She has been beyond integral in helping us grow, and grow so quickly.