Emily Winston, a New Jersey native turned Bay Area resident, embarked on a five-year culinary journey to recreate the distinctive New York City bagels of her childhood. After perfecting her recipe, she transitioned from successful pop-ups to launching her first brick-and-mortar store, Boichik Bagels, in Berkeley in 2019. Since then, Boichik has opened another shop in Palo Alto, and in 2023 opened an 18,000-sq-ft bagel production plant in Berkeley that produces 8,000 bagels daily for retail, wholesale, and nationwide direct-to-consumer delivery.