Ojai Bagel
Homemade and On the Rise
With tasting help from their three daughters, husband-and-wife team Zac Wilson and Amee Foss built a fast-growing bagel business at home in Ojai, completely from scratch and without any specialized bagel training.
With shared roots in the culinary arts, food and farming, the couple set out with a simple mission: Make the best bagel around Ojai so folks don’t have to drive to Los Angeles to find it.
In the earliest days of the endeavor, they visited every store and bakery that sold bagels in and around Ojai and Ventura County.
“Everything was OK,” Zac says, “but none of the bagels we brought home were the bagels that we wanted to eat on the weekends— like we’d done for years when we lived in cities like New York.”
Amee took the lead on recipe development, spending months testing and refining until she landed on the perfect bagel—so perfect that Zac enthusiastically devoured two on the spot.
In March 2021, they procured a cottage food permit to bake and sell their homemade bagels from home. Friends, neighbors and community members placed orders online and picked up from Zac and Amee’s doorstep. Those customers also spread the word, and with no more marketing than an occasional Instagram post, momentum grew. After several months, the bagels were selling out regularly.
Baking from scratch with top-quality ingredients is important at Ojai Bagel, but building community is also part of the couple’s plan.
“When it comes to ingredient sourcing, the idea of local is more about ‘locale.’ [We want to] build a network of purely holistic, intentional, mutually beneficial relationships with like-minded individuals, business and communities that we can support, learn from, work and grow with— whether that’s here in our backyard, on a regional level or across the country,” says Zac. “Providing good food for the local community is everything to us and continues to bring great joy to me and Amee.”
To learn more and order online visit OjaiBagel.com.
