When it comes to technology investment, the question on many restaurant operators’ minds is, “to build or to buy?” While there are several reasons a brand might choose to go with proprietary solutions instead of partnering with tech vendors, much of that decision comes down to the freedom to choose exactly what you want in your tech stack.

When seven-unit Jeff’s Bagel Run first opened up its New York-style bagel shop in Orlando just before the pandemic, founders Jeff and Danielle Perera were working with Square as their first POS system. In March, the company hired one of its top investors, uBreakiFi founder Justin Wetherill, as Jeff’s Bagel Run’s first president, with the goal of taking the brand national.

To do that successfully, they decided they would have to build a custom tech stack because running a bagel shop is unlike most other foodservice operations: the back of the house has to have constant communication with the front of the house, and the bagel bakers have to know exactly how many bagels to continue making throughout the day to meet demand, but also not make too much product. In short, Wetherill and Aaron LeClair had to figure out how to automate much of the bagel-making process without compromising quality:

“We knew that we needed to automate as much of the process as possible so that the folks working in the store can be human and create good customer service,” Wetherill said. “Our intent is making a prep-baked product, which seems simple on the outside, but a lot of what our stores do is significantly different than what's being done the rest of the industry. Our bagels are rolled daily, proofed overnight, baked the next day. We're trying to bake them as close to the real-time need as possible, so that it's the freshest, hottest product possible. They're being baked constantly throughout the day.”

These days, the only non-proprietary technology in the stores are payment processing integrations and third-party delivery partnerships. The custom tech stack is divided into two applications: one has an in-store operations platform that has a point-of-sales system, kitchen display system, inventory management, as well as metrics and dashboards. The other component is the consumer-facing app. The POS launched last year, while the mobile app launched earlier in 2024.

The front of house and back of house are fully connected and integrated so employees at the front will always know how many bagels are at the back. A front of house employee can easily add available bagels and spreads through the interface. They can also see how many bagel orders are in the queue, and how many bagels are currently in the basket and oven. If a store runs out of dough, for example, an employee can easily pause the mobile app and all third-party delivery orders with the push of a button without having to manually tell customers that they’re temporarily out of bagels.

The machine learning model is able to predict how many bagels a shop needs to prepare on any given day, so that running out of dough is less likely to happen.

“You can see [predictions] right down to the individual types of bagel and what the machine thinks should be produced that day,” LeClair said. “Then we keep updating that model than based on current sales. Then we have our baking system, which serves up each tray. Then all the employees have to do is start prepping each type of bagel and throw it in the oven and start baking…. Then, it tells the front of house person that those bagels are fresh and hot, and they can communicate that with the customer and get them excited about that experience.”

The point of this system, LeClair said, is to reduce waste, make the employee experience easier, and improve the customer service. Throughout the process of creating the custom software, the team was able to make tweaks and changes in real time based on employee needs.

“When we when we first launched our espresso drinks, we were doing the old-school Starbucks way of writing names and orders on the cups with markers,” LeClair said. “It was getting crazy, so we decided that we needed an adhesive label system. We immediately turned around and started developing that with native integration with our system and our printers. It would have taken a year or two with [external partners] doing that for us, but we did it in a couple of months.”

With more than 40 stores in the pipeline, mostly in the Southeast, Jeff’s Bagel Run is poised for success and expansion with the exact right technology they need right out of the gate.

Contact Joanna at [email protected]