We are a family of food obsessives.

Harman Bagels is a family business founded and owned by George, Emma and Jack Harman.

We didn’t choose the bagel life. The bagel life chose us.

Family Business

The story of the Harman family is a story of food, and if we were to pinpoint the beginning of this story, it would be at our Gran’s home kitchen at Tile Hill Lane, Coventry, another lifetime ago.

Two pans would sit atop the stove: one filled with the mahogany richness of her latest curry, and the other glistening with the pearlescence of steaming white pilau. From these two pans, everything else would flow: congregation, conversation and memories that would echo for eternity.

Her son, our uncle George would take this spirit of hospitality and set up ‘Maz’s Deli’ on Streatham High Street in the late 1980s. Heavily influenced by delicatessens of New York City, Uncle George and his partner set up a joint serving freshly baked bagels and house made salt beef cured with saltpeter. It was here that our family first made the connection to this most amazing of baked goods.

George, Emma and Jack created Harman Bagels with this spirit, albeit embellished with their own experiences of food and hospitality.

Hand rolled. Kettle boiled. Devon bagels.

Before the bagels…

On the 25th April 2017 The Hutong Cafe opened its doors for the first time. Inspired heavily by George’s time in Australia, The Hutong rode the third coffee wave and became an instant destination for coffee heads in the city aching for expertly brewed cups of the good stuff. Jack and Emma, who had just returned from the Far East, set to developing a menu and service level inspired by the fast dynamic pace of Beijing and Singapore. One that dovetailed beautifully with the innovation extracted from Antipodean coffee culture. The Hutong was born.

Events were a huge part of the first Hutong experience. Live music, spoken word, DJ sets, record shop pop-ups, coffee markets, boat parties and more, all became a deep part of The Hutong experience. We partnered with national and local brands such as Plymouth Gin & Steel Brew Co to create weekly evening events and hosted pre-parties for music festivals such as Knee Deep. The Hutong was synonymous with culture and hospitality in Plymouth.

We’d planned to close in the Autumn of 2019 for an extended period, as the building needed major refurbishment, and so in October of that year, the Hutong closed its doors to begin a period of hibernation whilst the building was upgraded.

It was during this period that the pandemic rocked the entire world. This slowed the refurbishment down to a crawl and during this period, the three owners had withdrawn to plan phase two of their business, and home kitchen experimentations with salt beef and boiled jewish breads with a funny old hole in them, gave birth to a bold new vision for the business.

The bagel life…

On January 23rd 2021, after 15 months of closure, we reopened our doors with a dramatic new menu: the bagel had arrived.

Years later – we decided to move on from our original identity and simplify things. With our father baking with us weekly and every member of the Harman clan having pitched in at some point in time…we become Harman Bagels.

Every bagel made here is hand rolled, kettle boiled and stone baked. Seven days a week.

Our menu is centered around classic bagel culture like traditional classics such as salt beef (Devon reared and grass-fed) which is brined in house, the classic salmon lox with cream cheese, as well as more British fare such as streaky bacon and egg.

Harman Bagels concerns itself with two things, and two things only: great products and great service.