Before COVID, Cheryl Mignone started thinking about where she would like to retire and realized that she didn’t want to wait. She loved the people in Utah and decided to give up the “chaotic, frantic vibe” of New Jersey for the more “relaxed, warm and inviting vibe” of Utah. With a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s in healthcare administration, she never pictured opening up a bagel shop. She believes, however, that giving up her job in the financial department at an East Coast university and getting to Utah was particularly well timed. COVID hit her relatives back in New Jersey much harder than her experience in Utah. 

During COVID, when everyone around her was baking sour dough, she realized that she really missed the bagels that she could get back home. No one had a bagel recipe, adjusted for high altitude, that was like the chewy, crispy bagels she could get back home. She once brought six dozen bagels home in a suitcase from a visit back east and froze them for family use, but making them seemed a better option. It took her six months to perfect the recipe for her family. Neighbors who had tasted the bagels, asked if she would consider selling them. She was somewhat reluctant but gave it a try. People would order them on Instagram and then come pick them up at her house. Her business thrived and soon became too large to sustain out of her home. In 2023, she opened her storefront, Cheryl’s Bagels at 273 West 500 South in Bountiful. “Start your day Cheryl’s way” reflects their early day focus.

The menu at her shop reflects strong family ties with bagel sandwiches named for both her parents and her two boys. “The James” for example, named for her youngest son who will soon graduate from the University of Utah reflects her son’s spicy tastes: egg, bacon, pepper jack and cheddar jalapeño cream cheese. One of her offerings is the “Bee Sting” which is the brainchild of the O’Bagel shop in Hoboken, New Jersey which is another breakfast sandwich egg, sausage, scallion cream cheese and hot honey. 

Mignone and her nine part-time employees make 25 to 70 dozen bagels per day depending on special orders and demand. Although each bagel takes three days to mix, proof, boil and bake, Mignone’s passion for the perfect fresh bagel means that any bagel that doesn’t sell the day it is baked it is donated. Fresh bagels should be delicious enough that they don’t need to be toasted – in fact they can be “eaten like a donut” one delicious bite at a time. Mignone is all “about community” and has many loyal customers that were there at the beginning and keep coming back and bringing their friends and growing families.

Cheryl’s Bagels is open 7:30 to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Friday and 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.