Owning It: Montague Hot Bagels
Albert Lee, owner of
Montague St. Bagels
tells us why the first business
he opened was a
bagel store in Brooklyn.
All Photos by Hadiya Gaiters
So this is your first business?
Why bagels?
My very first business. Why a bagel store? Good question.
I’ve always had a love for food and wanted to get into the restaurant business.
In short, my philosophy was that out of the three meals, (breakfast / lunch / dinner) breakfast always seems to be the "simplest”. It seemed like a bagel store had the greatest potential to be scalable breakfast model too.
After talking to close friends who owned bagel stores, it seemed this model could be profitable for the long term.
Alright before we get into bagel talk, what type of work were you doing before this?
I was a financial advisor at Edward Jones, working with everything from startups to small businesses.
I was an advisor for about 3 years in my early 30s.
I dabbled in product development for a financial software company. Really felt finance just made sense to learn about.
Can we guess you went to
school for finance?
Yes I did.
I went to the Gabelli Business School at
Fordham Lincoln Center campus
Before Fordham, did you spend your childhood in New York?
I have been in Queens a really long time.
You could say it's my "home" although I have never considered it that until now.
My family moved out of New York and to Brazil when I was 3
They were in the clothing industry and felt they would do really well in the Brazilian market. It was growing at the time and many Koreans were finding success with clothing shops in the country.
Very quickly, my parents owned a clothing store.
They did everything from design to manufacturing to retail
And somehow you end up back in
New York and not in the fashion industry?
Well, my parents decided to move back to Queens when I was 15.
They wanted me to get a college education in America more than anything.
In order to do that, starting high school in the US seemed like the best bet to ensure it.
“A lot of education is really about, finding out where the information is, using it,
and learning how to think through life.” - Albert Lee
Do you still apply a lot of what you learned in business school to the business today?
Hmm, I don't remember all the details.
Yeah, I learned all about financial reports and that has definitely helped me work out if a business is profitable. But I believe a lot of education is really about
finding out where the information is, using it, and learning how to think through life. The most important thing college pushed me to do is start thinking this way. Knowing where to look for information and how to use it. In terms of management, I try to test out different methods I remember from school, new styles I read about and see what works or doesn't work
Are there more bagel stores in the future?
Yes, my goal is start a store and concept from scratch.
With Montague, I basically took someone else’s leftovers and kept improving quality one item at a time.
I think Queens would be a great spot, little bit closer to home and my family.
I’m pretty open to the right opportunity when it comes along.
When you're not eating bagels,
what food are you going for?
I'll eat anything really.
I love trying out new dishes with ingredients I've never seen or remember having. I like a lot of Thai food, the curry dishes, the wings...I'm always trying to take some of these unique flavors and add them to bagel sandwiches and cream cheeses. I've also really got into Colombian food lately and have been looking for inspiration from that for some new bagel sandwiches. Every day I can't stop thinking about the next thing I'm going to create.