Bakery Four, which opened a large location at 4150 Tennyson Street in March and typically draws long lines for its breads and pastries, has plans to open a stand-alone bagel shop called Rich Spirit Bagels in the current Little Brazil space at Gold's Marketplace, 10081 West 26th Avenue, in the spring or summer of 2023. Little Brazil, meanwhile, is planning a move to a larger location.
Bakery Four owner Shawn Bergin and his wife are originally from upstate New York, and "bagels are something we always had growing up," Bergin says. But after moving to Denver in late 2019, they quickly realized there was a decided lack in this city of the kind of bagels they craved from back home.
When Bakery Four originally launched in the Highland neighborhood, its small space made it impossible to offer a large variety of products in big quantities. The move to the larger spot on Tennyson was "to do everything we weren't able to do at the other location," Bergin explains, including bagels, brioche doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches. But the popularity of the bakery's pastries and bread grew along with its expanded footprint. "Then the idea became, let's take those things out and make them into stand-alone businesses," he continues. "We always kind of knew it would start with bagels."
Bakery Four's sourdough bagels have a chewy interior.
Bakery Four/Instagram
The space that Rich Spirit Bagels will occupy in Wheat Ridge is 1,100 square feet. "Most of that will be kitchen," Bergin notes, so the focus will mostly be on carryout. Along with bagels available by the half or full dozen, there are plans to offer bagel sandwiches, too, though he hasn't yet nailed down exactly what those will be.
At one point, Bakery Four tested making its own cream cheese, but it now sources a brand called Gina Marie from Sierra Nevada Cheese Company, "an incredible old-fashioned cream cheese," Bergin says. Rich Spirit will offer that product as well, amped up with housemade mix-ins, like jams for the blueberry and strawberry options; lox, capers and dill; and fresh chopped veggies.
Rich Spirit will also produce bagels for Bakery Four, which will free up space in that kitchen to increase pastry and bread production.
"It's a really great area. There's not a whole lot in terms of food, but there's a lot in terms of people and houses," Bergin says of the decision to move into Wheat Ridge. But the lack of food options in that town is changing fast. At Gold's Marketplace, Rich Spirit will be joining Queen City Coffee Collective and the recently opened third location of Esters; an Illegal Pete's outpost and Live Slow Brewing Company are set to join that facility as well.
Nearby, Get Right's bakery and plant shop also has a location in the works, and King of Wings, which has been closed for nearly a year following a kitchen fire, is in the process of a comeback. Rolling Smoke BBQ has also purchased a building in Wheat Ridge. These developments could help turn the suburb into a trendy food town in 2023.
But Bergin is already thinking beyond Wheat Ridge. "Hopefully [the bagel shop] is more replicable than Bakery Four, and we can expand it and be able to be in other parts of Denver," he says.
