The story of Ray and Amy goes like this...
Ray's New York Bagels was founded and is operated by two neighbors, Ray and Amy. Ray and Amy met while Ray was walking his dog on their street in the summer of 1999. After meeting, they realized that they had complimentary entraprenaurial talents and aspirations. They would meet regularly to discuss business ideas and prospects. They both agreed that the Boston bagel market was an area of opportunity.
Discussion after discussion revealed the fact that a bagel made in New York had distinct qualities that did not seem to be able to be replicated elsewhere. After a little research they realized that this phenomenon could be attributed to New York water. They discussed shipping the water up to a manufacturing facility in MA, but clearly that would be cost prohibitive. What to do next? They did not want to have just a New York Style Bagel; they wanted a real New York bagel made with real New York water. They couldn't ship the bagel up to Boston fresh because it wouldn't be truly fresh by the time it got to Boston. The only way was frozen, but they didn't want people to just re-heat a fully cooked bagel. They wanted their customers to have that "just out of the oven" bagel shop taste, flavor, and texture.
Then they came up with the idea - just cooking the bagel part of the way - called par-baked. They were concerned with the amount of time it would take consumers to finish baking the bagels. But they realized if they par-baked the bagel 95% of the way and consumers cooked the last 5 minutes, the bagel would be perfect, like buying a bagel hot from the oven of a New York Bagel Shop. Ray's New York bagels are delicious, crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, every time, just like a bagel should be!
Ray and Amy developed a brand name, package and website on their own. Now, fortunately they have gotten a little bit of professional help with the packaging and website!
It quickly became apparent to Ray and Amy that people appreciate a Real New York Bagel everywhere - not just Boston! Ray's New York Bagels are distributed in more than 2,500 supermarkets throughout the fourteen states along the east coast with expansion plans to market their bagels throughout all of the U.S.