Business Spotlight: Izé’s Bagelry

Category: Blog

As new restaurants continue to open across the Pike District, we’re also celebrating the small businesses that have helped define the neighborhood. This month, meet the owners of Izé’s Bagelry, a true local institution.

For more than two decades, Izé’s Deli & Bagelry has been a beloved Pike District institution serving up authentic New York–style bagels, world-famous chicken salad, and a whole lot of heart.

Pronounced “Izzy’s,” the deli is named for the family behind it: Isabelle, Zach, and Emily, two daughters and son of owners Lee and Angie Greenberg. The Greenbergs, both business-school grads with deep roots in the food service world, took over the space in 2003, transforming what was once a Manhattan Bagel franchise into the independent, family-run shop locals know and love today.

What sets Izé’s apart is tradition. Their bagels are boiled and baked fresh daily, made from dough sourced from Long Island and finished in-house to achieve that perfect dense, crusty New York texture. On a typical day, the team goes through 5,000–7,000 bagels, supplying not only neighborhood regulars but also hotels, hospitals, and even the U.S. Senate and Capitol Visitor Center.

“We had a senator come in and like our bagels and next thing we got the chef at the US Senate who told us they were switching to our bagels. We deliver to the Senate and not the House so they are even divided on their bagels,” Lee said.

Just as important as the food is the people. Izé’s is truly a family operation with long-time employees, some with decades of service, work alongside the owners, who are in the shop nearly every day starting before dawn. “It’s all about family,” Lee says, from putting their kids through college to treating staff like family and pouring care into every batch of bagels and custom-made bagel sandwich combinations.

Izé’s is located in the bustling White Flint Station plaza along with other small businesses like Davidus Cigars and Pho Eateries.

“It’s a prime location and there is an insane amount of development going on around the area,” Lee said.

From everything bagels and jalapeño favorites to legendary chicken salad shipped as far as Israel for homesick customers, Izé’s remains a cornerstone of the Pike District proof that hard work, consistency, and love for the community never go out of style.