Great Barrington — This started out as a story on how Marvin and Judy Lieberman conceived of a bagel store “in the country,” but morphed into an article about the Great Barrington Bagel Company’s new owners, longtime manager Bobby Climo and his wife Karen.
Before becoming a bagel baron, Marvin worked as an illustrator and a graphic designer during his 15-year career in multimedia. Judy, too, worked in multimedia, which they define as a type of corporate advertising for corporate meetings, and design and trade shows. They worked for such companies as American Express, Canon, and J. C. Penney.
Opened in 1996, the Great Barrington Bagel Company, situated across South Main Street from Guido’s and flanked by the Great Barrington Fairgrounds on one side and Volunteers in Medicine on the other, is popular for people stocking up on bagels and their accoutrements, as well as for meals and catering. The footprint of their original store was less than half of its current size. It has been expanded twice, the last time in 2006, when the Liebermans bought the building.
Bobby and Karen Climo also moved to the Berkshires in 1996 when Bobby became a demonstration chef at Canyon Ranch. In what must have been a complete culinary and psychological shift, he left Canyon Ranch and started working at Barrington Bagel eight years ago. Karen was director of development at Shakespeare & Company, and then went into real estate, where she now works with William Pitt Sotheby’s real estate.
The staff at Barrington Bagels is well seasoned, Many of them have been working at the store almost since its inception. In fact, the kitchen staff is the same as it was when the store opened in 1996. As Judy says: “The staff is a reflection of our customers. We’re like a family store.” And if you’re wondering how it is that so many of the staff know your name, it’s partly because Bobby reminds them to know the first names of their customers.
The most popular sandwiches at the Bagel store are their Reubens, of which there are three. The “real” Reuben is made with homemade corned beef, sauerkraut, Russian dressing, melted Swiss on Jewish rye bread. The other two substitute beef or turkey for the corned beef.
Another popular sandwich is the Dr. Mark, featuring hickory smoked bacon, avocado, sprouts, tomato, chive/dill mayonnaise, and melted Swiss and Muenster. The sandwich is named for a weekender with a home in Alford who’s an avid home cook. And watch for the upcoming introduction of the Smitty Pignatelli sandwich, named for the South County State Representative who was featured in an advertisement he did with the Liebermans.
One of their most popular dishes is the lobster salad sold on weekends in the summer months. The recipe comes from Lunch, a famous restaurant in Amagansett, Long Island. Judy kept hearing about the lobster roll so she went online and found the recipe, which wins raves every summer.
One frequently hears comments like “their chopped liver is as good as my grandmother’s” or “even my mother couldn’t make chicken soup that good.” Their recipes do indeed come from a variety of sources, many of them family. Grandmothers and aunts from Judy’s family provided many of their most favorite dishes, including the miraculous chicken soup.
The Great Barrington Bagel Company has morphed from a place to buy bagels into a destination. Informal meetings are held there at any time of day, lunches with friends can expand from a few folks to a dozen, and if you plan it right, you can run into friends who eat there on a regular basis. True confession: recently, my book group took over the large table in the back during one lunch time.
So how busy is the bagel store? Instead of counting customers, they count rings on the register, even though a ring could represent one, two, three or more people. During the busy summer season, they average about 300-500 rings each day. In the off-season, it’s more like 200-400 rings per day.
They don’t keep tabs on bagel sales during the week, but on weekends they sell about 144 boards a day. A board equals two dozen bagels, so in the summer they will sell about 2,400 bagels each weekend day. In the non-summer seasons, the amount drops down to about 1,400.
Ironically, the only day of the year that the Bagel store is closed is Christmas. On other holidays the store is open, but closes late morning.
Although you probably eat just one or two types of bagels, the store offers 22 different flavors. The three most popular are tornadoes (everything), plain (nothing), and sesame. Color me onion.
Great Barrington bagels are made in the old-fashioned New York style, which means that after they’re shaped, they are boiled for about a minute and then baked for approximately 15 minutes.
Made without preservatives, their bagels have a short shelf life. A day’s unsold bagels might turn into chips served with their soups, or distributed to food pantries and churches. They keep one big garbage can full of bagels for farmers, who feed them to their horses, pigs, and cows.
The future of Great Barrington Bagel will feature a larger catering component. Karen is looking forward to building that part of the business through such social media outlets as Facebook and Twitter. And be on the lookout for faxes of daily menus to those who sign up for them.
Lily Climo, Bobby and Karen’s 15-year old daughter, is old enough to work at the store, which fits in well with their plans to maintain a family atmosphere there.
The Climos will continue the traditions initiated by the Liebermans. Talking with the four of them the day after the sale took place, the Liebermans said that watching Bobby run around the store was like watching a mirror image of their past. They all say they hope no one will notice the difference in the way the store is run. After all, why mess with perfection?
