Noah Fleishman is the VP of Bethesda Bagels, a beloved Washington DC bagel eatery! Family owned and run, Bethesda Bagels has a close-knit family dynamic and close ties to the community, and is a go-to for Catherine & other east coast residents for a great bagel!
Steve and Fran Fleishman started Betheda Bagels in 1982 after adopting styles & techniques learned from the classic New York bagel. After the initial success of their first Bethesda location, the company began expanding, and now has 5 popular locations in the DC area. Noah and his three brothers grew up in the bagel business and now play prominent roles in running the stores- Noah, who is 24, graduated from the University of Maryland three years ago as a business management major and is the general manager of each location, with a focus on community building (like running recent bagel-making classes for the DC community!) Noah was truly a pleasure to speak with, and his candor & curiosity about us as hosts made us all feel like close friends! We hope you all enjoy this conversation as much as we did!
****TIMESTAMPS****
6:26 How to make bagels the Fleishman Family way
12:48 The origin story: How Noah’s parents got the idea to learn from NYC bagels and start their own in Maryland
9:14 How Noah got started in the business 25:30 What he’s like as a manager and what he brings to the business now
27:20 Tough feedback Noah has gotten
33:35 How their customers helped Bethesda Bagels in the pandemic, and how they gave back to their employees
35:05 How we all dealt with the pandemic personally
In the last third of the conversation, Noah start to ask the questions...
45:23 Noah asks Catherine why she runs a cooking instagram
51:38 Best Bagel orders
53:49 Why Madeleine is Vegan