Jessica & Seth Brammer
Bakers, Lenore's Bagels | Dallas
December 2021
Jessica and Seth Brammer met in 2015 working night shifts at the Westin Galleria Dallas. While Jessica ran the front desk and Seth managed the hotel restaurant, they bonded over their love of food and dreams of owning their own businesses. They both had a go-getter spirit from day one. Seth started cooking and binging episodes of Iron Chef Japan by age 7—he knew he needed to become a chef. In 2005, he left his Dallas home for Rhode Island’s Johnson and Wales University, where he studied nutrition. He spent the next several years moving around the nation to cook: Nick’s on Broadway in Providence, a wine bar in Denver, then Apple’s culinary program in Austin. He returned to Dallas and shifted to bartending. For the following ten years, Seth worked front of house jobs which eventually grew into his consulting business, Brammer Hospitality.
Jessica, on the other hand, spent a decade in the hotel industry after graduating from Arizona State. She worked her way up from the front desk at the Sheraton Grand Phoenix to director of the front office at PM Hotel Group. When the hospitality industry took a hit in 2020, the Brammers both lost their jobs. Stuck at home, Jessica developed some major bagel cravings. Unable to find any local bagels that satisfied her, Jessica and Seth became determined to perfect their own recipe. Their (not-so) secret ingredient: Using 100% Austin-based Barton Springs Yecora Rojo flour. Later that year, they launched Lenore’s Bagels, named after Jessica’s grandmother. Jessica and Seth moved their operation to a commissary kitchen where they hand roll, boil, and bake their bagels fresh, five days a week. Their bagel bundles, sandwiches, and boards—featuring locally sourced produce and house-cured fish—are sold online and at pop-ups around the city.
2021 StarChefs Dallas Rising Stars Baker Award Winner presented by Butter of Europe
