LAKE LINDEN, Mich. (WLUC) – A four-year journey has come to a close for Michele Southerland, the owner of the newly opened Copper Island Bagel Company in Lake Linden.
“I never imagined I would do anything like this,” Southerland. “I was an IT for 30 years. Anyone who knew me… they couldn’t imagine that I would be opening a restaurant.”
What started as a birthday habit of bringing fresh bagels to co-workers has turned into something bigger.
“(She) couldn’t find any bagels up here, so she decided to make her own,” Michele’s husband Kris Southerland said. “I thought they were really good and all of our friends and everybody thought they were really good. I’m like, ‘Well, you want to sell them at the farmers market?’ That’s how we started.”
From 2021 through last year, Michele began selling more and more bagels at multiple farmers markets weekly across the county. It became so successful, she was able to quit her job. But last summer, an encounter took things to the next level.
“Michigan Tech Catering services approached me and they wanted to carry my bagels,” Southerland continued. “At that point, I knew that I needed a commercial kitchen. I couldn’t do it under cottage law anymore.”
This led to setting up shop in the Dairyland building in Lake Linden. I asked Southerland why she thinks her bagels are so popular. She says it comes down to the 17 different bagels she has, boiling them instead of steaming them and an industry technique she discovered by accident.
“In New York and New Jersey, where bagels are famous, they would fill their baking racks with bagels,” Southerland added. “At the end of the day, they would wheel them out onto the docks. Then, overnight, it would be a cold fermentation. I accidentally stumbled upon that because I had to freeze my dough to meet the demands of the six markets I was doing.”
Currently, only Michele and Kris are running the shop. They say they hope to hire more people starting in mid-May. The shop is open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and opens at 8 a.m. Saturdays. You can find it at 805 Calumet St.
In addition to selling the bagels, the shop also offers bagel sandwiches, ice cream, coffee and weekly/monthly bagel subscriptions. You can view the full menu by clicking here.
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