KILLEEN, Texas —
Bite the Bagel Deli Cafe, located on 2710 S Clear Creek Rd in Killeen, is taking 'self-made' to new heights. The restaurant prides itself on doing as much as they can from scratch.
After a decade in the business of making fresh bagels and pastries, Bite the Bagel is expanding to new savory territories and US Veteran and owner, Jim Januszka couldn’t be happier.
“As we continue to evolve we change things on the menu," Januszka said. In 2013 we opened our first bagel shop and now we’re smoking our own bacon, pastrami and doing our own corned beef.”
THE ALASKAN ASSASSIN
Bite the Bagel's most popular sub-sandwich: The Alaskan Assassin, utilizes their brand new, in-house smoked bacon and pastrami and 6News was given behind the scenes access into the creation of it.
The bacon is dry cured for five days in a brown sugar and black peppercorn mixture.
As the bacon and pastrami cook, fresh baked bread is dressed in mayonnaise, oregano, olive oil, vinegar, onion, tomato, shredded lettuce and pepper jack cheese.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Since the very beginning, Bite the Bagel has heavily invested in being family oriented. Even before Bite the Bagel opened in Killeen, Jim worked with family back in Michigan.
"While I was still in college and just before I got commissioned, my sister and I opened a bagel shop in Grand Rapids Michigan. We had that running for several years, and my wife now used to be a customer every day."
Januszka recounts his wife getting a bagel every morning. In an effort to impress her and speak to her every morning, he would make her breakfast before she even showed up to the cafe. Today, his wife helps run one of their restaurant locations.
Working with family can be challenging but has proven to be very rewarding for Jim. He appreciates the time it allows him to have with his children. His daughter, Emma Januszka does all the baking for his Killeen and Harker Heights locations.
Making delicious food in a heart warming environment is more than enough to keep guests coming back to Bite the Bagel, but Jim is adamant about going above and beyond.
"It is customer service you know. These guys just walked in, everybody knows them," Januszka says, turning towards two men approaching the register. "We already know what they want."
Januszka is no stranger to doing more than what is expected of him and his business. Bite the Bagel earned a COVID-19 Community Support Award for their ability to adapt to a challenging situation and thinking quickly. As local grocery stores were running out of basic items like bread and eggs, Bite the Bagel was still able to get eggs and made bread fresh in-house. They retailed eggs and loaves of white bread.
"The majority of the money we brought in from that, we donated to Operation Phantom Support which is a non-profit downtown that serves soldiers and veterans.”
So what’s next for Bite the Bagel?
“Well, our original plan was have five stores in 10 years and we have five kids," Januszka said. "If the kids want the business. There’s five businesses for them.”
Right now with two Bite the Bagel locations and one Village Pizza location, Januszka is close to his goal of five locations. Currently the family is eyeing another pizza location and believes that might be it for them, citing the restaurant business as being very challenging.
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