Alabama’s second ever New York-style bagel bakery will open its doors in Cahaba Heights this fall. To get a taste of what the new Crestline Bagel will offer, we talked with Jennifer Yarbrough, who has owned the original Crestline Village location with her husband, Ralph, for a decade. The ETA for opening is November.
What should a newbie know about Crestline Bagel and your new space in Cahaba Heights?
We are more than a bagel store, but bagels symbolize who we are and our attention to detail. We are a full bakery and make our breads, granola and bakery goods. We serve signature sandwiches, salads, paninis—and a lot of coffee. We use a custom coffee blend of H.C. Valentine, which is what Highlands and Hot and Hot use.
We will have a whole block on the corner of Crosshaven Drive and Ridgely Drive. We tried really hard to make it blend into the neighborhood and will have residential doors and windows. The outdoor dining area will open into Leaf & Petal, and on the other side of that will be Becky Satterfield’s new Latin American concept. We might have an event space in the greenhouse in Leaf & Petal.
What should we order?
At breakfast the eggwich is most popular. It’s our breakfast sandwich on a bagel with egg and your choice of meat and cheese—we are very customizable.
All our lunch sandwiches get ordered petty routinely, and a lot of people make their own. We have 16 flavors of bagels, and we have a pumpkin spice in the fall and a cranberry-orange in December.
We also have 10 different cream cheeses that vary by season—cucumber dill, pumpkin, cookies and cream, eggnog, pepper jelly.
What makes a bagel a Crestline Bagel?
Our bakers get there around midnight to bake for the next morning. Bagels come out of a cooler where they have been proofing and get boiled and baked. We are the only New York-style bagel and Kosher bakery in the state.
What are your family’s favorite things to eat?
We are an everything bagel family. My kids eat them, my husband eats them, we make sandwiches on them. Our salted chocolate granola is a second family favorite. We eat it plain or sprinkle it over plain Greek yogurt.
What drew you to this location?
We spent 10 years living in the area and felt like it is on the fringe in our customer base. It’s a growing area where we’d seen a lot of change in, and we think it’s underserved as far as food is concerned. We have a central kitchen already in Vestavia where we slice our meats and cheeses, make our chicken salad and pimiento cheese, and run our catering. We have limited space, so only our bagels and bread are currently made in Crestline. The city has been great to work with and seems to have a great growth plan in that area.
