Not many would open a business during a pandemic. Don’t tell that to Tina Selsky. For Selsky, it was the perfect time to launch her bagel pickup service, Blithe Bagels, based out of her home in Peekskill.

Selsky—a footwear designer by trade who spent seven years with Coach, who’s now at the upstart Thursday Boot Company—had always wanted to break into the food service industry with her husband, Matthew. The idea for a bagel-based business came about in the days and months leading up to the couple’s wedding. Selsky mentioned that she didn’t want to go on one of those “dreaded wedding diets.” To resist, she got creative and found different ways to eat what she wanted to eat. One of those was a bagel recipe (since tweaked, no doubt) that was half the carbs and half the calories of store brand bagels.

“We always talked about opening a small shop or a B&B,” she says. “I love bagels! We both do! And I ate these every day leading up to our wedding, so I wanted to share these with everyone locally.”

A beginning business model for Blithe Bagels came to fruition during the COVID-19 quarantine. Selsky simply had more time while working from home for over a month. “Even though I’ve been working from home full time, I finally had a little more time to commit, design a website, and put together all the logistics of how it would work,” she says.

Before Blithe Bagels officially launches on April 16, 2020, what should one expect at first bite?

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