Guy Fieri, ‘Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives’ visit ski town bagel shop

Guy Fieri (third from right) and crew visit Big Dave’s in North Conway. (Courtesy)

The clock had yet to reach 10 a.m. one Saturday in October when David Hausman broke his single-day bagel sales record.

Even it was over the busy Columbus Day weekend, with New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Valley filled with leaf-peeping tourists, Oct. 8 wasn’t your typical sort of day at Hausman’s North Conway, N.H. bagel shop. It happened to be the morning after Big Dave’s Bagels and Deli made an appearance on the Food Network’s wildly-popular, “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives,” Guy Fieri’s testimonial to local flavor at stops across the country. 

Suddenly, dozens of leaf-peepers who traveled to the area for a foliage holiday had discovered a new destination for breakfast after catching the broadcast Friday night. 

“We were going to be very busy that weekend anyway,” shop owner Hausman said. “It just added a whole other layer.” 

Hausman, who opened his bagel shop in 2010, noted that among the many new visitors was a couple who drove to North Conway from Albany, N.Y. for lunch. That’s a four-hour trip each way. 

Talk about having to live up to expectations. 

It isn’t as if this is the first recognition that Big Dave’s has ever received. WMUR-TV named the deli site of the best bagels in New Hampshire in 2018. The shop has also received multiple nods in the Conway Daily Sun’s annual reader choice awards. Those sorts of local honors, in addition to online reviews written by satisfied customers, are what helped lead Fieri’s producers to North Conway. 

“Part of it is just our longevity, that we’ve been at it so long that you give yourself a chance to be found,” Hausman said. “But I also think we had received some statewide recognition over the last five years — we were voted best bagel in the state. You start getting attention like that. When it comes to when a show like “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” starts doing their research, they’re looking at things like Google ratings, social media presence, awards and things like that. And that’s ultimately, what I believe, led them to us.” 

Hausman, a native of New Jersey, was himself led to the Mount Washington Valley to fulfill his dream of opening a bagel shop in New England. He started in the bagel business in 1989, when he helped open Monroe Bagels and Deli in Monroe, N.Y. Seventeen years later, a competitor came to him with a buyout offer and Hausman accepted. The next sensible stop seemed to be where he found himself the happiest, during vacation in the White Mountains, a destination he had visited every summer for more than two decades. 

“I call it my midlife crisis. Some guys get Corvettes or mistresses, I wanted to move to New England to be on vacation here in the White Mountains,” Hausman said. “Every year, I would drive home from New Hampshire depressed. I just was jealous of the folks that lived up here. And it just always spoke to my life. One day in New York, in 2006, we got a surprise offer on our business, and we took it and sold it. We considered a few locations. But ultimately, we decided on North Conway.” 

The business was not an overnight sensation. “I don’t know if there’s as strong of a tradition of bagel shops in New England as there were in New York and New Jersey, where sometimes you see three or four in every town,” Hausman said. “I think people were wondering if this Jersey bagel guy was going to make it in northern New England for a while. But we wore people down with kindness.” 

When “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” came calling, it began an initial process that lasted four days, Hausman said. A 90-minute phone call with a show producer one Friday morning led to four hours of weekend work, during which Hausman was asked to write down some of his techniques and recipes for 12 potential food items to be featured on the show. Another phone call, this one two-and-a-half hours, followed on Monday, after which Hausman was left in suspense. He was told he would have to wait a month to discover if he was selected. 

Still, Hausman asked the producer for her gut feeling. She only told him that he checked all of the show’s boxes. And that he should keep his mouth shut. 

“I had a hunch I had a chance at that point,” Hausman said. 

When it came time for taping, two dishes made the cut — the shop’s jalapeño-parmesan bagel, and what Hausman called the “star of the show,” a pastry which he’s dubbed — and trademarked — the “kweenie.” 

“It’s my take, or my impression, of the French pastry, Kouign-Amann,” Hausman said. “We made maple kweenies specifically for Guy. I thought it was a real quintessential New England item.” 

Skiers looking to fuel up for a day on the slopes might gravitate toward the jumbo breakfast burritos on Dave’s menu, featuring a selection of scrambled eggs, turkey, cheese, pepper, onions, and potatoes. There is also a variety of egg sandwiches, cream cheeses, and sliced deli meats and cheeses for those who might be packing a small picnic for the day. 

Big Dave’s Bagels and Deli is located at 1130 Eastman Road, at the junction between Routes 16 and 302 in North Conway. 

Eric Wilbur can be reached at [email protected].