When Josh and Sara Pratt began dreaming up a business, they had one priority: build something their family could grow into together. They wanted their young sons to see what it looks like to show up, work hard, and invest in their community. After exploring their options, they came back to something simple and nostalgic. Josh’s family is originally from New York, and a proper bagel had been missing from Chattanooga’s breakfast scene. “We realized we could be the ones to open the bagel shop we wanted,” he says.
So they did, and they named it Brothers, after the boys who inspired it. That dream quickly became one of Chattanooga's favorite morning rituals.
The Pratts started making bagels at home when the idea first took shape, learning the craft from others before bringing in someone from New York City who could help them scale. That mentor taught them the commercial side of things: recipe templates, techniques, and how to translate a kitchen experiment into hundreds of bagels a day. But the recipe itself was always their own. Central to that recipe is an ingredient most people have never thought about: barley malt extract. Made from sprouted barley and live enzymes, it’s the driver behind the deep, rich, malty flavor that defines a true New York-style bagel.
That foundation gives them a base dough they use across the majority of their menu, but what happens from there is anything but rigid. The team leans heavily on customer feedback and their own creative instincts to develop new flavors. No idea is too weird to try. Case in point: Dirt Cake schmear, a nod to the nostalgic dessert, made with from-scratch chocolate cookies and homemade ganache. “We try to do things as naturally and from scratch as we can,” Josh says. That intentionality—going above and beyond when they don’t have to—shows up in everything Brothers makes.
Not long after opening in October 2024, the case for a second location became abundantly clear. Just three months later, the right piece of real estate came available, and Josh moved on it. “We didn't know it was going to happen that fast,” he recalls.
The demand was hard to ignore. North Chattanooga has a charm all its own, sometimes feeling like its own little world—but it isn’t always the easiest corner of the city to get to. If Chattanooga was going to embrace what they were building, Brothers was going to meet them where they were. The second Brothers Bagel shop opened on Brainerd Road in January 2026.
At the end of the day, Brothers is exactly what the Pratts set out to build: a true family business. Josh and Sara make every decision together, alongside his in-laws. That spirit extends to their staff. "We want our team to feel like they're cared for like family," Josh says. "We put that into everything."
It shows in the space, too. The dining room is designed to welcome kids and families, where Chattanoogans can come as they are. Josh believes deeply that a city as family-centered as Chattanooga deserves businesses that reflect those same values: rooted in community and built to last. As for his sons, they'll grow up inside a business their parents built from scratch, watching, learning, getting their hands dirty.
For Josh, that's the whole point. Entrepreneurship, he believes, is one of the most powerful forms of independence a person can have.
"More children should be given the confidence to go out and pursue something for themselves," he says. Brothers Bagel is his family's version of that lesson, served fresh every morning.