What does an authentic Montreal bagel taste like? “Dee-lish!” says Teena Gupta, one of three young entrepreneurs behind Rosemary Rocksalt. In 2012, Parise Siegel, daughter of Siegel's Bagel founder, Joel, and two of her friends (Teena and her husband, Ken Sim), launched Rosemary Rocksalt as a means of expanding Siegel's Bagels, but under a new name.
The first store on Lonsdale in North Vancouver opened in March 2013, followed a year later by a second location at Main and Broadway in Vancouver. Rosemary Rocksalt gets its name from the store's most popular bagel – a tasty dough infused with rosemary and sprinkled with rock salt. “Think Rosemary Rocksalt, think bagels,” was the marketing technique behind using the bagel as the store's name.
The bagels are made fresh onsite, boiled in honey water to bring out the flavour, and then baked in a wood-fire oven. “Most commercial bagels are bread with a hole in the middle,” says Teena. “Authentic Montreal bagels are denser and chewier on the inside, and harder on the outside.” Smoked meat from Montreal is another treat at Rosemary Rocksalt, along with freshly baked pastries and other deli goodies.
