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From Farmers' Market to a Company: The Story Behind Poppies Bagels | Britt and Cam · Behind The Village Podcast

• 0:00
  I had already left the brew house and was kind
• 0:04
  of taking some time and relaxing and in the back
• 0:08
  of my head kind of hoping that Britt would ask
• 0:10
  me. Fingers crossed. It was like a New Year's
• 0:14
  Eve party that you had at your house. Yeah. And
• 0:17
  it was like, I don't know yet, we've had some
• 0:20
  drinks, but would you want to do bagels with
• 0:25
  me? And I was stoked. You're listening to the
• 0:29
  Behind the Village podcast. Our guests today
• 0:31
  are Cam and Britt from Poppy's Bagels. This is
• 0:38
  exciting because we haven't done an in -person
• 0:42
  kind of location situation. So this is exciting
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  at Poppy's. Poppy's is our first one. We get
• 0:50
  to be the first ones. Hopefully it goes well.
• 0:52
  Yeah, it will be good. So why don't you introduce
• 0:56
  yourselves? Well, my name is Cameron Fraser and
• 1:00
  I'm one of the owners of Poppies. And I'm Britt,
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  Brittany Hicks, if you want my full name. And
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  I'm the other owner of Poppies. Very cool. So
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  I guess tell me about the two of you and what,
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  like why Poppies? Like what kind of made it come
• 1:18
  together as Poppies? I suppose I will start.
• 1:22
  Yeah, cool. So I have always wanted to open a
• 1:26
  bakery or a cafe of some sort. I've always had
• 1:29
  a bakery that I ran out of my house, kind of
• 1:31
  low stakes, which was kind of nice. It was always
• 1:33
  like my side hustle. But in the back of my head,
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  like always 100 percent, I'm going to open a
• 1:37
  cafe one day. It was just all about timing. And,
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  you know, I'm a little bit older now. It took
• 1:42
  me a while to get here. But the timing slowly
• 1:44
  but surely. got a little bit better. So I moved
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  here really a few years ago and I started doing
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  the farmer's market, um, which was a hit, but
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  I just did sweets. So it was like cakes, pastries,
• 1:53
  things like that. And then I started doing bagels
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  a couple of summers ago and they just like blew
• 1:57
  up, which was cool. It was like the most I'd
• 1:59
  ever had like recurring customers and they wanted
• 2:02
  deliveries to their houses. And like the bagels
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  just like really, really blew up and took off.
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  Um, so that's when I really started thinking
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  like, okay, like there's a business here. I think
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  we could actually take that next step, but doing
• 2:12
  it by myself was a very scary thought. Um, so
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  So Cam is a friend of mine's boyfriend at the
• 2:19
  time. That was how I knew Cam. So I knew that
• 2:21
  he was a chef, that he had opened a few restaurants.
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  He'd opened the kitchens there and ran the kitchens
• 2:27
  there, which is something I've never done. So
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  I had kind of the passion and the recipe and
• 2:31
  the skills to do it. But I knew that Cam would
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  be like the perfect addition because he also
• 2:35
  is a chef, could take over on that side of things,
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  but also kind of knew. how to actually run a
• 2:39
  kitchen and how to staff a kitchen and all that.
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  So he was going to be leaving his job. I was
• 2:45
  ready to take the next step and start looking
• 2:46
  at spaces. So I approached Cam and asked if he'd
• 2:50
  be interested. And I guess I'd let you take it
• 2:51
  from there. Yeah, that's super cool. Yeah, I
• 2:55
  had already left the brew house and was kind
• 3:00
  of taking some time and relaxing. And in the
• 3:04
  back of my head, kind of hoping that Britt would
• 3:06
  ask me. Fingers crossed. It was like a New Year's
• 3:10
  Eve party that you had at your house. Yeah. And
• 3:14
  it was like, I don't know yet. We've had some
• 3:16
  drinks. But would you want to do bagels with
• 3:21
  me? And I was stoked. Yeah. Super excited. That's
• 3:25
  cool. And Britt had already done a lot of legwork.
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  Definitely. With all the farmer's market and
• 3:31
  the Instagram and a lot of work put into it.
• 3:34
  Yeah. So I knew that this was going to be awesome.
• 3:37
  Very cool. Yeah. So you have a background. You
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  mentioned you were a chef. So you already had
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  that culinary background. Yes. Yeah. So I've
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  been working in the industry now for 13 years.
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  Started as a dishwasher in Banff when I moved
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  out there when I was 21. It was the first it
• 3:55
  was just the job that I could get because it's
• 3:57
  such a hospitality town and fell in love with
• 4:00
  it. It was like a mom and pop shop. um so the
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  head chef was the owner and the front house manager
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  was the owner through there i also they put me
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  through school like i did like kind of an apprenticeship
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  or i got my red seal in calgary um and then uh
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  worked my way up i ended up leaving el toro when
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  they sold it i was the sous chef of their location
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  and stayed on for a couple months to help the
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  new guys take over but and then moved on tried
• 4:28
  different restaurants and uh another notable
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  one would have been double zero in calgary um
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  where i kind of really got my hands on dough
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  uh and really mass producing dough yeah yeah
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  uh yeah we make a lot of bagels it's it's a lot
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  of repetition yeah um so you gotta have some
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  good posture and some good, good community around
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  you. You got to have fun while you're doing it
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  too. So yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Brittany, you
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  also mentioned, um, farmer's markets and that's
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  where you kind of built, I guess, your clientele,
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  your following, your diehard fans. Um, did you
• 5:11
  have a background in like culinary? at all yourself?
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  I did. Yeah. Yeah. So I went to culinary school
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  right out of high school. I took a year off and
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  then went to culinary school with the focus on
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  pastry chef. That's always what I wanted to do
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  is the desserts. But I did both just to kind
• 5:26
  of get the skills of both. So I went to Humber
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  College for that. And then. Immediately after
• 5:31
  that, before diving into working in a kitchen,
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  I moved to Australia for a year because I just
• 5:36
  wanted to get some travel out of my system. Little
• 5:40
  did I know it would then lead to me traveling
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  for the next 10 years because I fell in love
• 5:43
  with traveling. So I got a job in travel instead
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  of doing a full -on job in a kitchen. So basically
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  I had the basis, I'll say 15 years ago. I don't
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  want to age myself. So I went to culinary school,
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  had all the skills, took a bit of a break, but
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  that whole time is when I was always doing it.
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  the markets or selling cakes out of my house
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  things like that I always had a job on the side
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  doing baked goods but it was never like the prime
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  focus yeah so yes did a lot of travel and then
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  once I was like okay you've got it out of your
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  system bought a house moved up here with my husband
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  and I was like okay I think now is the time that
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  I can like actually fully focus on on doing it
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  as a as a business very cool yeah So you mentioned,
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  I want to know about, because you mentioned that
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  New Year's Eve, where you were kind of hoping
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  and waiting. So what was the lead up? Were you
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  just kind of talking generally about wanting
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  to do this? And then you've just kind of secretly
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  been hoping and kind of listening? I guess from
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  my side of it, to me, it was like a natural match.
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  It made the most sense to me. I think that Cam
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  and I work off each other in really good ways
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  because he does have that background. knowledge
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  of working in the kitchen whereas I can be very
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  like I'm all excited and just want to go go go
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  but it's it's good to have both sides of it so
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  I was already thinking okay Kim's thinking about
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  you know um changing rules this is the perfect
• 7:02
  time to jump in probably had some loose conversations
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  we our group of friends has um dinner parties
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  every month so there's like a group of 10 of
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  us we get together it's very fun um that's where
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  we would spend most of our time together and
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  i think that the conversation just naturally
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  went that way and when the bagels really went
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  off that's when i started slowly talking about
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  it more seriously so i think i'd probably planted
• 7:21
  the bug without even knowing it and then of course
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  you have a couple glasses of wine and you get
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  a little bit more like uh it's new year's eve
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  it's a new year should we talk about this because
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  i think i had made my mind up like i'm gonna
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  go for it yeah but i need help so um it was kind
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  of the perfect opportunity and and cam's reaction
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  was great but i think both of us were like let's
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  have this conversation tomorrow but but it was
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  a good like it was a nice start to the to the
• 7:45
  conversation the follow -up the the sober conversation
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  afterwards we we took a drive into toronto and
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  went to one of my favorite bagel shops And just
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  talked about it all the way down to Toronto.
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  Got bagels. Ran into one of my best friends from
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  grade three at the bagel shop. Oh, cool. And
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  then headed home and continued talking about
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  plans and kind of our visions and make sure we're
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  not like... I don't know, thinking of something
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  totally different. Yeah. Yeah. Like I didn't
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  know Cam loved bagels so much. I didn't know
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  he grew up down the street from all of these
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  bagel shops that he would go to every weekend.
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  So like for me, I was like, ooh, bagels. I like
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  to go to New York and have bagels. And that's
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  my favorite part of traveling is trying food.
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  Right. So then it was kind of cool for him to
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  be like, well, let me show you my favorite bagel
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  spot. And the fact that he even had a favorite
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  bagel spot. Not a lot of people do here. Realistically.
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  So. So, yeah, that was really cool. I was like,
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  OK, this this all makes sense. It's coming together
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  even more. So when did you open Poppy's officially?
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  We actually took over this lease February of
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  last year. And it looked very different at the
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  time. It was bright orange for starters. It was
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  a great space. We loved it so much. But in terms
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  of actually opening our doors, that was July
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  1st of last year. So it hasn't quite been a year
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  yet. It's almost. We're almost there. Santa today
• 9:01
  is our anniversary. So we'll never forget it.
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  Yeah. But yeah, it was February of last year
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  was when we really. kind of took a leap so as
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  it wasn't that long after new year's eve we were
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  like you're ready you're ready to go yeah i you
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  know sometimes i feel like action is like what
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  gets things moving and then you kind of figure
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  things out along the way totally i think that's
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  the way to do it some people are very meticulous
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  planners and that's cool but Yeah, I appreciate
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  just diving in. There was a lot of diving in.
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  I think Cam would say, to the point where we
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  opened the doors, we were diving in, I would
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  say, pretty full on. It was nerve -wracking,
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  right? It was our first time working together
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  as business partners. There was a lot of brand
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  news. But yeah, we did totally just have to dive
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  in. And we're like, we've got to try it. If it
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  doesn't work, we'll figure that out. But let's
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  just go for it. Absolutely. Is there... something
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  that people don't know about bagels like is there
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  kind of anything oh there's a lot yeah no you
• 10:01
  go ahead anything kind of Montreal New York style
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  yeah that's the big one yeah um it's kind of
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  in my opinion and it's all just an opinion really
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  yeah um and often we find ourselves saying they're
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  really a style um because we have we definitely
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  respect and love both categories And we kind
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  of sometimes pull a little bit from either one
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  or the other. We do call ourselves New York style.
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  Cool. Yeah, no, I would say like that difference
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  of New York versus Montreal. A lot of people
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  maybe think they know and don't actually really
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  know the difference, which is cool because we
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  get a lot of questions about it. Like, it's nice.
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  We have the kettle right at the front. So it's
• 10:40
  either camera usually or one of our bakers that
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  can answer that question of like, what are you
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  doing over there? Like, why are you boiling them?
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  And I think that's kind of the cool part about
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  it is we can be interactive with our customers
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  and be like, this is what makes it a bagel. If
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  you don't boil it, it's just a bun. So yeah,
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  so boiling it gives it like that chewy outside
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  with a soft inside. And that's true. for New
• 10:58
  York or Montreal. Yeah. And what is the difference?
• 11:02
  Yes, here we go. Yeah, I know. This is not to
• 11:07
  a T. If you Google this, it's not going to say
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  exactly what I'm about to say. But for me, the
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  difference is they do it at a higher oven. And
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  a lot of the times in Montreal, it's a wood -fired
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  oven. So that's different from New York. And
• 11:17
  they boil it in either malt or honey. So it gives
• 11:19
  it that like sweet kind of harder coating. Whereas
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  a New York style is usually just boiled in water
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  or salted water. And you don't get that like,
• 11:28
  yeah, that hard. Montreal style bagel. It's more
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  of a softer chewier. So how many bagels do you
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  typically prep either like a day or a week? Like
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  I'm sure it's many. So we make our bagels from
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  scratch every day. Wow. We're averaging about
• 11:47
  400 a day. Oh, wow. Yeah. I'll tell you the most
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  that we've ever made would have been 900. Wow.
• 11:57
  In a single day. Yeah. And once you get to that
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  number, everyone's tired. Everyone's everyone's
• 12:04
  grumpy. Yeah. The oven doesn't want to work anymore.
• 12:07
  The water doesn't want to boil anymore. And yeah,
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  then everyone's tired. Do you pretty much stick
• 12:15
  within your location now or do you still go out
• 12:18
  and do not necessarily farmers markets, but events?
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  Right now, location, we do some wholesale. So
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  there are a couple of places that sell on our
• 12:26
  behalf, which is great. Would love to do markets.
• 12:29
  I think we're trying to figure that out as something
• 12:30
  we can do probably more of a next summer than
• 12:33
  this summer. Again, we are still young, but I
• 12:36
  love doing the markets. I think Cam did as well.
• 12:38
  It's such a like fun way to chat to people. I
• 12:41
  really like getting out of the shop and doing
• 12:43
  stuff like that. So maybe not a consistent every
• 12:45
  Saturday market, but events and things like that.
• 12:47
  Absolutely. We want to get back to it. It's our
• 12:48
  roots. Right. So I would love to do it again.
• 12:51
  And yeah, we both had a really good time doing
• 12:52
  it. So cool. Going back to making bagels. What's
• 12:55
  how long is that process? Like how early do you
• 12:57
  have to be here to prep? And, you know, all the
• 13:00
  dough, the dough stuff. Yeah, it's a long process.
• 13:04
  I mean. Huge shout out to our bakers. They get
• 13:07
  here at four o 'clock in the morning. The first
• 13:08
  baker's here at four. Because start to finish,
• 13:10
  it is about three hours if you're doing it right.
• 13:12
  So basically they've got to come in. They mix
• 13:16
  the dough and then it's got to rest for about
• 13:17
  an hour and then they can shape it into into
• 13:20
  the balls that you will eventually turn into
• 13:22
  a bagel. And then those have to rest. And then
• 13:25
  you kind of open them up into that bagel shape
• 13:27
  that we're used to. Then we boil them. So that
• 13:29
  basically from the very first mix to when they
• 13:32
  go in the oven, I would say is about three hours.
• 13:34
  Yeah, that's what I tell everyone. Yeah. So that's
• 13:36
  why we do sometimes sell out because we try and
• 13:39
  make sure we don't have too much food waste.
• 13:41
  But we basically like to do two shifts in a day.
• 13:42
  We'll do that first round and then we'll knock
• 13:44
  out another round. right after that so so that
• 13:46
  we always have bagels fresh when we open and
• 13:48
  then kind of another round right before lunch
• 13:50
  and then um and then if we sell out we can't
• 13:53
  you know we can't it's three hours we're kind
• 13:55
  of strapped right yeah you can't just whip up
• 13:57
  another yeah i wish but yeah it's you want them
• 14:00
  to taste consistent every time so i would never
• 14:02
  want to rush that process And you never know
• 14:06
  what's going to happen. It's a new day every
• 14:07
  day, especially this first year with the holidays.
• 14:11
  We didn't know what to expect. Snow storms, ice
• 14:15
  storms. Yep. And the result, it's just a moving
• 14:21
  target, and we try our best. And it's a tough
• 14:25
  goal to try, and we want to sell out every day
• 14:27
  to prevent food waste, to be making fresh every
• 14:32
  day. So it's a it is a moving target. That's
• 14:35
  difficult. But yeah, we're doing pretty good.
• 14:37
  Yeah. Yeah. And we've got lots of lots of options.
• 14:41
  We're constantly donating to the fridge, the
• 14:46
  new fridge. We're also sharing place and then
• 14:50
  we're using Too Good To Go as well. That's great.
• 14:53
  That's really nice to hear, too, because then,
• 14:55
  you know, I like knowing that the businesses
• 14:58
  I'm supporting also support the community. So
• 15:00
  that's really nice. What's your favorite part?
• 15:02
  of maybe what you've created with poppies doesn't
• 15:05
  have to be the bagels but it can't be bagels
• 15:08
  got a good one yeah um and even just as we were
• 15:10
  talking you may see it i waved to someone it's
• 15:13
  all all of our like the community um everyone
• 15:16
  who comes in through that door is so happy and
• 15:19
  so excited to see us and it just it bounces back
• 15:22
  and forth um we we always try our best to keep
• 15:26
  that great attitude keep a smile on our face
• 15:29
  and it and it seems to reflect really nicely
• 15:31
  yeah in the community and it's So much fun having
• 15:34
  such awesome regulars. Yeah, piggybacking on
• 15:37
  that for sure. We have the best customers. Everyone
• 15:40
  is so kind and welcoming. And for the first year,
• 15:43
  that's a very scary part of it. I've never had
• 15:45
  to fully be customer -facing every single day.
• 15:48
  So that was intimidating. And we've had nothing
• 15:50
  but positivity come back at us, which is great.
• 15:54
  But yeah, it's such a nice community to be a
• 15:56
  part of. And not just our customers, but the
• 15:58
  other shop owners in downtown. Everyone's so
• 16:00
  welcoming. There's no competition. that part
• 16:03
  of it has been really good and then also like
• 16:05
  truly being our own boss is great it's so like
• 16:09
  coming from the corporate world it's a like I
• 16:11
  I didn't even hate my job before you know I had
• 16:13
  a great job but it's different when you get to
• 16:15
  be your own boss and and it's awesome like and
• 16:17
  we have great staff and people we can count on
• 16:20
  so yeah I think it's built our relationships
• 16:22
  inside and outside of the shop it's probably
• 16:24
  made all of them stronger because it's yeah it's
• 16:27
  a whole new ball game and and it's strengthened
• 16:29
  all of our relationships I think yeah yeah very
• 16:31
  cool What does your friend group think? Are they,
• 16:34
  like, really excited for you? Oh, so supportive.
• 16:36
  So supportive. And they're all like, we were
• 16:38
  there on the ground level. We were there. We
• 16:41
  were at the dinner parties. We knew this was
• 16:43
  happening. Yeah, friends and family have been
• 16:46
  amazingly supportive. I think that has been really,
• 16:49
  really cool as well. And, like, brought our friends
• 16:51
  and family closer together, too. Yeah. Which
• 16:54
  is really awesome. I got to give a shout out
• 16:56
  to our partners. Oh, my God. Elena and Matt.
• 16:58
  Yeah. It's this. team up as it's kind of freaky
• 17:04
  the way that our partners are similar in the
• 17:09
  way that I find that we're a little bit similar.
• 17:11
  So supportive and very strong in places that
• 17:16
  we're not able to help us pull up the slack and
• 17:19
  and just awesome. It's such a great team. Yeah,
• 17:23
  that's really nice. And it's nice to have that
• 17:25
  village and that support because. I'm sure there
• 17:30
  are many stressors sometimes that crop up that
• 17:33
  maybe require attention when you had hoped that
• 17:36
  it wouldn't have to be business or work related.
• 17:38
  And sometimes it needs to be, it's just kind
• 17:40
  of the reality of having your own business as
• 17:43
  lovely as it is. There are things that you're
• 17:44
  like, okay, I got to focus on. You work in the
• 17:47
  business and on the business at the same time.
• 17:51
  I do relate to and love all of those like things
• 17:53
  online where it's like my wife opened a business.
• 17:55
  So I opened a business and I'm just like, yeah,
• 17:57
  yeah, you did. Yeah. You're, you're helping just
• 18:01
  as much. Say goodbye to your weekends. Yeah.
• 18:04
  Bye bye. We're working. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess
• 18:08
  my last question for you both is, uh, what do
• 18:12
  you hope for poppies in the future? Great question.
• 18:15
  Yeah. Um, I think growth is the big thing. Like
• 18:18
  we're, it's been, really going well so far you
• 18:21
  know knock on wood everything has been going
• 18:23
  going really well this community has been so
• 18:26
  supportive of us so we definitely want to stay
• 18:27
  in Aurelia um and and grow if we can we really
• 18:31
  love this space if you've seen the ceiling then
• 18:33
  you get it but it's like being on this corner
• 18:36
  is really nice it's a great location um but yeah
• 18:39
  I think like growth and and maybe I don't know
• 18:41
  exactly what that looks like right now but some
• 18:43
  form of growth would be I think our focus Where
• 18:48
  can people come and visit you or do you have
• 18:50
  like socials that people can follow? Heck yeah.
• 18:54
  So. Poppy Stop Bagels on Instagram. That's us.
• 19:00
  If you want to swing by the shop, we're at 42
• 19:02
  Mississauga Street West. We are close to the
• 19:05
  library, right across from the library if you're
• 19:06
  in Orillia. We also sell out of Mariposa Market.
• 19:10
  And for anyone in Collingwood, we actually just
• 19:13
  started, Misfits Bodega just started selling
• 19:15
  our bagels there. So they're a little sandwich
• 19:17
  shop and they're going to be selling at the shop
• 19:19
  and at the market. But yeah, come and say hi
• 19:22
  to us. That's our favorite thing is meeting customers
• 19:24
  and chatting with you. So any way you want to.
• 19:27
  chat to us message us on instagram come by the
• 19:29
  shop that would be that would be awesome awesome
• 19:32
  yeah cool well thanks for having me of course
• 19:35
  yeah thank you very much yeah that was really
• 19:38
  fun yeah i can't wait to come back and eat more
• 19:40
  bagels thank you for listening to the entire
• 19:44
  episode All the links and info you heard in this
• 19:47
  conversation will be featured in the show notes
• 19:49
  on our website, villagermagazine .ca slash podcast.
• 19:53
  If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing
• 19:55
  to our channels like YouTube, Spotify, or wherever
• 19:58
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• 20:00
  Thanks again and I'll see you next time.