• Courtesy
• Chelsie Brown (left) and Kim Manning in front of Wee Bird Bagel Café

After selling 120 bagels in two hours during its August 2 soft opening, Wee Bird Bagel Café more than doubled production for the official opening last Friday, owner Chelsie Brown said. The new bakery is located at 22 South Pleasant Street in Randolph, in the space vacated by Huggable Mug Café but best known as the longtime home of Three Bean Café.

The breakfast and lunch spot will be open Tuesday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a menu of housemade New York-style bagels, bagel sandwiches, other baked goods and espresso drinks.

Baker Kim Manning boils and then bakes bagels in flavors such as everything and a "to-die-for" garlic and herb, Brown said. Weekly specials include blueberry bagels made with fresh and dried blueberries.

The Orchard Harvest sandwich with fresh spinach, apple, eggs, cheddar, red onions and maple mustard is already a favorite, Brown said. The kitchen will soon add breakfast burritos, plus soups and salads by fall.

Brown and her life partner, Michael Czok, owner of Bent Hill Brewery in Braintree, started renovations in March but officially bought the building in May. They opened up the second-floor seating area to overlook the first floor and added a full commercial kitchen and upstairs prep kitchen.

Over the years, "I'd look at the space every time it came up for rent," Brown said. This time, the opportunity to buy the building sealed the deal.

"I can hilariously say I've been in the food business since I was 13," the Bethel native, now 33, said. She left the original Worthy Burger location in South Royalton in 2019 after seven years, five as general manager, and has run the new kitchen at Bent Hill Brewery since June 2021.

Brown and Czok are vegetarian, and Wee Bird Bagel Café's menu follows suit. There are vegan and gluten-free options, too. "But we're in Vermont — I can't not have cheese," Brown said.