SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
By Mary Ellen Zangara Special Writer
When Danny Bessasparis opened his bagel store on South Main Street in December 2006, he wanted to offer more than gourmet bagels.
His business, Bagelicious, offers many items besides bagels, including sandwiches, catering and much more.
Mr. Bessasparis decided to come to Manville to open his third Bagelicious store as he felt “it was an excellent opportunity due to the fact that Manville had no bagels.”
Having grown up in Hillsborough, he was familiar with the town.
”When I saw the Rustic Mall was going out and all the construction, I thought it was an opportunity. There was another one and it did very well. I figured it was the perfect opportunity with perfect timing,” he said.
Mr. Bessasparis didn’t attend a culinary school for his education instead, his training has been by doing catering and learning everything on his own. He started out at Snuffy’s in Somerville many years ago.
”My mother was a waitress with a family of six and she couldn’t afford a babysitter so she brought us to work at Snuffy’s,” he said.
He started busing tables there and then went to Jack O’Connor’s in Bridgewater when he turned 18, where he worked for 11 years. Mr. Bessasparis has also worked for the Somerville Elks Lodge, doing all theirits catering for 11 years.
”I had enough of working for someone else, so I went into business for myself,” he said. “I opened up the Bagelicious in Hillsborough four years ago and I opened up another one in Raritan seven months later.”
He is 44 years old and has been in the business for 34 years.
It hasn’t been easy his partner died about two and a half years ago. Mr. Bessasparis bought him out and is the sole owner. The Hillsborough and Raritan stores are larger than the one in Manville.
Why he decided on a bagel shop was obvious to him.
”I am a family man. If I had a restaurant, I could not be with my three small children so I opened this because I’ve worked in a restaurant all my life and I know it’s a night life and I know it is weekends. I take care of the public during the day and if somebody wants to book a Communion, birthday party or anything like that, it’s not that I have to be there all of the time.”
Bagelicious is a unique name and Mr. Bessasparis did not think of it. It came with the business when he bought it in Hillsborough. Now it is a corporation with the stores.
The bagels are made fresh every day.
”I get up at quarter after three in the morning seven days a week. My bagels are available from four o’clock in the morning until five in the afternoon and we bake throughout the day at Hillsborough,” said Mr. Bessasparis.
Some of his bagels include jalapeno cheddar, Russian, super cinnamon, French toast, sundried tomato and spinach and others are available.
He has sandwiches like the favorites of tuna salad, egg salad as well as subs and combos. The oldies but goodies include the NY Grill, Hillsborough Lights, Route 206 and the Garden State. Bagelicious offers food from the grill and soups. He also has muffins and breakfast sandwiches. For the catering, Mr. Bessasparis has a wide variety of items on the menu from sausage and peppers, chicken francaise, seafood Alfredo and the usual baked ziti, meatballs fried chicken, homemade salads and cold cut platters.
After catering for 20 years, he does a little of everything and has a special item he brings to house parties.
”I do something really unique. I do house parties. I worked in a Chester restaurant and they had a unique pasta bar there. People would come up and have pasta cooked to order. So I put that into the Christmas parties and house parties.”
He also has a commercial grill to cook food for up to 500 people. “The sky’s the limit,” he said. Mr. Bessasparis has also catered many weddings from both the places he worked and on his own.
Besides selling the items in the store, Mr. Bessasparis has been doing a bagel stick fundraiser for local groups. It is great item to sell and eaten on trips and at games and is a “good healthy product,” according to Mr. Bessasparis.
He is looking for some more help as in two full-time workers and part-timers. Bagelicious has a lot of customers that call in orders from businesses.
”A lot of our business is people calling in orders due to the fact of parking. We do deliver. You can be in and out of our store within three minutes.” When you see the Back in 10 Minutes sign, he is out on a delivery and will return.
In Manville, there is just one other employee right now Michelle Davis, but his family helps out. His sister Diane Kaufman and Orlando Monteil in Hillsborough help run the other stores.
When asked about a possibility of opening another store, Mr. Bessasparis laughed and said, “When my kids get older and they can work for more.”
Customer Marge Szczepanski is a regular at Bagelicious. She comes in every single day and eats breakfast or lunch. She sits and enjoys the company.
”Michelle is a really good employee. She handles the whole store basically by herself. She gets so many customers and she handles it terrifically. People think because the place is called Bagelicious it’s just bagels, but there is a variety of food and the food is very good. Everybody here knows everybody. It’s a family style place so come in and enjoy it,” she said.
He has local customers come in and it is like Cheers where he knows everybody by name. It is a friendly place to come in grab a bagel, sandwich or coffee and sit and chat.
Bagelicious is located at 110 S. Main St. by Sacred Heart Church. The hours are 6:15 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday. It is closed on Sundays. Mr. Bessasparis is hoping to open up on Sundays in the future.
Mary Ellen Zangara is a freelance writer and lifelong resident of Manville.

