A taste of New York

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Blue Ridge Bagels and More opens on Leesville Road, bringing deli-style food to Lynchburg

Every morning at 3 a.m., Barry and Cheryl Kane get up and begin baking the doughnuts for the day.

Blue Ridge Bagels and More is hard to miss on Leesville Road. At first glance, the store seems out of place on the lot it shares with a little tanning salon, but the inside décor is reminiscent of an authentic New York style bagel joint deep in one of New York City’s many burrows. Stools line the red and white deli counter.
Yet, this is not a place one usually associates with Lynchburg, Virginia.

“We have a lot of … transplants that live here,” Barry Kane said. “Lots of people from New York and New Jersey move down here after retirement. We just had one guy here earlier who was from New Jersey.”

Customers can buy bagels ranging from plain to French toast and poppy seed. Though the doughnuts are made in shops locally, the bagels come straight from the Bronx.

“We are constantly selling out of our Asiago bagel,” Cheryl Kane said. “People come in (and) eat it with cream cheese, or make a bacon sandwich out of it.”

Even if the Asiago bagel is sold out, the shop still has a wide selection of sandwiches. One sandwich is a classic Reuben, made with corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese topped with Thousand Island dressing.

The bagel shop is not the first business the couple has owned. Barry Kane was a former school teacher and accountant and has also run a day care in the past. When Barry Kane retired from teaching, Cheryl Kane was ready to try something new. But how the Kanes came to own the business was
very unusual.

“The original owner of Blue Ridge Bagels held an essay contest to win the business,” Barry Kane said. “The title of the contest was literally called, ‘Win Blue Ridge Bagels.’”

The Kanes entered the contest, but there were not enough entries for an effective contest. In the end, the Kanes bought the Bedford-based business in 2012.

The couple never had plans to leave Bedford. However, when God began opening doors in Lynchburg, both Barry and Cheryl Kane thought it was time to listen.

“It was hard to leave Bedford,” Cheryl Kane said. “We had built relationships with the people there, but some of our friends from Bedford come and visit us.”

However, the couple was already familiar with Lynchburg before they made the move.

“We love Liberty,” Cheryl Kane said. “We both have degrees from there and both our daughters work there. We’ve had Liberty students come in, so we have a lot of connections to the school.”

Blue Ridge Bagels and More is located on 19327 Leesville Road. For more information, visit their Facebook page, Blue Ridge Bagels Restaurant.