Emily and Gary King’s meet-cute is something straight out of a Nora Ephron movie.
She was a pastry chef at a renowned farm-to-table restaurant; he was the sous chef. When Emily left to help open a new spot, Gary found himself covering pastries—and texting her for advice.
One thing led to another, and today the couple is in their second year as owners of Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes.
Gary has always been cooking. He attended the French Culinary Institute in SoHo, followed by a culinary program in Parma, Italy. His career has taken him around the world—Europe, China, Australia, Southeast Asia—working alongside industry luminaries like Tom Colicchio and restaurateur Steven Starr. He’s opened restaurants from Maui to Montauk and later launched his own private chef business, cooking for celebrities and New York City’s elite.
Emily’s love affair with sourdough started when she was seven. After high school, she studied baking, pastry, and hotel and restaurant management at the Culinary Institute of America. She worked in New York City kitchens, including Oceana and Jean Georges, where she was pastry sous chef under Johnny Iuzzini. At his suggestion, she did a stage (pronounced staj) in Paris under Pierre Hermé—one of the world’s most celebrated pastry chefs.
“A stage is like an unpaid internship,” Emily explains. “You just learn as much as you possibly can. It was the best experience of my life—macarons, laminated doughs, chocolates. I learned it all.”
Pierre offered Emily a full-time position in Paris, but she had already accepted a pastry chef role via Skype (this was 2006) at Cookshop in New York.
And it was at Cookshop, as she was wrapping up her stint, that she met Gary.
“I was getting ready to leave to open Veritas,” she recalls. “Gary had worked with me a couple of times in the pastry department. When I left, they put him in charge of pastries. He kept calling me, asking, ‘What do you think of this?’ or ‘How do I do that?’ We started hanging out—and here we are.”
The couple married in 2013 and welcomed their first son, Logan, a year later, followed by Atlas in 2017. Parenthood didn’t dampen their dedication to food. Soon after Logan was born, Gary opened a restaurant in the Hamptons, and then another one in Maui.
After a year in Hawaii, the Kings returned to New York. Emily went back to Cookshop while Gary worked with Justin Smilie at Il Buco Alimentari in Manhattan and at Moby’s in East Hampton.
“Going back to working full-time in a kitchen after having a child is tough,” Emily says. “The hours! But we made it work.”
When the pandemic hit, Emily was still at Cookshop and Gary was Executive Chef at Print, a farm-to-table restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen. Having moved to Pound Ridge in 2019, they were commuting into the city. And as restaurants continued to shutter, Emily’s pastry role was cut to part-time.
As the industry settled into its new normal, the Kings shifted closer to home—Emily joined The Snackery in Rye, and Gary stepped into the executive chef role at a country club (he’s currently at Westchester Hills Golf Club). They also took on a contract with the town of Pound Ridge, overseeing food operations for the pool snack bar, summer camp meals, and community events—a role they still maintain today.
But after years of working for others, Emily began to feel restless.
“I was tired of being told what to do when I had so much knowledge and ability,” she says. “I didn’t know what to do with all that experience.”
Gary agreed—it was time to branch out.
The family was spending more and more time in Ridgefield, where Logan and Atlas were taking jiu-jitsu classes.
“I was on the prowl to find a place,” Gary recalls. “I was on Facebook Marketplace, randomly, and saw Steve’s Bagels was for sale. I reached out, and after some negotiating, we bought the business.”
The shop’s footprint has a storied history in food: John Lelak opened Lelak’s Delicatessen in 1960, which became Gold’s Delicatessen in 1975. Adjacent to the deli was Les Alpes Bakery, which closed in 1992. Steve’s Bagels opened 1993, eventually expanding the two storefronts into one large space.
It wasn’t love at first sight. The space was dark—the spiderwebbed windows had drapes over them. There was limited seating, no banquettes, and a wall sectioned the space into two distinct areas. The kitchen was tired (the equipment had seen better days) and its walls were grimy.
“Being the crazy person I am, I thought, ‘Oh, I can turn this into something,’” Gary says. “So that’s what I did.”
Gary, whose versatility spans from back-of-house recipe creation to shaping front-of-house aesthetics, set about reimagining the space.
“We changed the windows and opened up the wall to let the light in,” he says. “Then added some abstract shelving, a bench. We lightened up the walls, then reached out to different artists to showcase and sell their artwork.”
While Gary focused on renovations, Emily tackled the bagels, starting from scratch with a sourdough starter.
“I didn’t identify as a bagel baker,” she says. “I dabbled—I worked in a bagel shop when I was 15, but only at the counter. But I had lived in New York long enough to know what a good bagel was, and as a pastry chef, I understood the science. It just took time.”
Veteran employee Julio Lalvay, who had been rolling bagels at Steve’s for decades, tested recipes and adapted them right alongside Emily.
“Julio is incredible—the nicest person on the planet,” Emily says. “He had to learn and grow with us—and he’s still here.”
Their patience and perseverance paid off. Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes’ sourdough bagels are something special. They take three days to make—from starter to shop shelf. The bagels are naturally leavened, made with unbleached, unbromated flour and malt syrup. No shortcuts—and absolutely no chemicals, stabilizers, or fillers.
The result is not only a flavorful bagel with crisp, bubbly skin and a perfectly chewy texture—they’re also easily digestible. People who have diabetes, hypoglycemia, or gluten sensitivities can actually eat them.
“There’s a big difference in how the sugars and proteins are broken down, how the gluten is fermented,” Emily explains. “These sourdough bagels are more delicate on the stomach—you digest them more easily..”
Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes serves the classics—everything, sesame, cinnamon raisin—alongside jalapeño cheddar, marbled pumpernickel, and rainbow bagels made with all-natural dye. There are mini bagels, flagels, bialys, and seasonal flavors.
The cream cheese menu riffs on Steve’s originals—scallion, olive, strawberry—but with hand-chopped ingredients and thoughtful tweaks. Case in point? Their veggie cream cheese skips bitter bell peppers in favor of parsley, scallions, onions, carrots, and celery.
In the cooler, delicatessen staples—egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad—share space with smoked salmon and smoked whitefish from Mount Kisco Smokehouse. The whitefish salad is a standout: it’s hand-plucked so there are actually chunks of fish rather than processed into pasty oblivion.
Soups, another tradition carried on from the space’s earlier iterations, occupy an unassuming corner of the coolers. All are made from scratch on-site, from Italian wedding to chicken noodle to matzoh ball (depending on the time of year)
The sandwich menu spans breakfast to lunch, with options like The Creature (eggs, sausage, hash brown, avocado, cheese), The Works (smoked salmon, tomato, red onion, capers, cream cheese), The LES (ham, roasted peppers, provolone, spicy mayo), a Chicken Caesar Wrap (grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, parmesan, croutons, caesar dressing), and a decadent three-cheese grilled cheese.
Emily’s baked goods go beyond donuts, muffins, and scones. There are coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate, oatmeal sour cherry cookies (no raisins here), key lime pie (so beloved that its absence caused an uproar, earning it a permanent place in the fridge), and guest appearances by carrot cake, devil’s food cake, flourless chocolate cake, cherry pie, and more.
“I like to switch it up,” she says. “I’m always putting something new in there.”
They also have a full catering menu, offering many different platter options.
One of Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes’ quirks? They may be the only bagel shop in Connecticut with a liquor license. Hard kombucha, mimosas, local beers from Nod Hill, and wines exclusively from women-owned vineyards round out the drink list.
“At first we got pushback,” Gary says. “But then moms started coming in with strollers for mimosas. Dads would crack open a beer. On Saturdays, our neighbor—a jazz musician—plays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. People play board games, hang out, listen to music. It’s fun.”
Every so often—and always on Monday nights—the bagel shop transforms into a farm-to-table restaurant, a concept Gary somehow managed to hatch in his nearly nonexistent downtime.
“I get bored very easily,” he admits. “So I just wanted to see what we could do out of this space, see how fun we could make it.”
Gary sources local ingredients for a prix fixe menu—appetizer, salad, main course—while Emily makes dessert. Alcohol is included, as is tip. Guests get a delicious meal, Gary gets to scratch that creative itch, and everybody goes home happy.
When they replaced Steve’s, the Kings faced skepticism. But once customers tasted their bagels, they kept coming back. Today, Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes is recognized not only locally (they’re always busy) but in Fairfield County and beyond. This year, they took home two CT Insider Best of Connecticut 2025 awards: first place for Best Bagels in Fairfield County and second place for Best Bagels statewide.
The shop is mom-and-pop through and through. Emily and Gary manage everything themselves—the menu, the bakes, running the register, scheduling, finances. Logan and Atlas pitch in on weekends, working the register or experimenting in the kitchen. Sometimes their creations end up for sale in the case (always at a steep discount).
“Our kids are learning independence and responsibility,” Emily says. “It’s cool to give them the freedom to make mistakes.”
For Gary, and especially for Emily, the shop has become more than a business—it’s a lifelong passion realized.
“I love everything about this place,” she reflects. “I love talking to customers at the register. I love baking bagels, hearing the gears of the oven, the sesame seeds popping. I have finally found my passion and it’s bagels. I never thought such a simple thing—though bagels are anything but simple—would be the most satisfying.”
Ridgefield Bagels and Bakes is located at 463 Main Street. They’re open Tuesday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday and Monday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Follow along on Instagram @ridgefieldbagels.