Pearl Street Bagels on Main
Amelia Lohrenz walks from the bakery room at Pearl Street Bagels and drops five hot everything bagels into a bin behind the front desk. She returns with four plain ones; then, she’s back again with a flavored variety, spinach feta.
It’s mid-morning at the Driggs shop, and customers are lining up. The North Main Street store, open since December 2024, was scouted as a backup location for the flagship Jackson eatery on Pearl Street because of uncertainty about the lease renewal at the original. Teton Valley marks the third location.
The Driggs location on Main Street had previously been a gas station, creamery, and, most recently, a butchery. “It’s got character and history,” owner Heather Story Gould says. “It needed some love and the right fit. Hopefully, that’s us.”
It appears to be.
Amelia, or one of her colleagues on the baking team, shows up at 4 a.m. each day to concoct muffins, cookies, and breakfast sandwiches, allowing the oven temperature to eventually kick up to 465 degrees. That is what’s needed for the bagels. The rings of dough are boiled first, then baked.
The shop opens at 6:30 a.m. First up are the commuters. Then, it’s the local workers and coffee-break crowds. Lunch hour brings in high school students during the school year and, in the summer months, tourists who swarm the shop.
They have lots of choices, with a dozen bagel varieties available. Here’s a tip: find out what’s hot. Then decide, savory or sweet? A mere smear of house-made cream cheese—or more? Lox with capers and cream cheese? Additions of veggies, avocado, or pesto? The options are plentiful and all delicious.
Toasted? Not happening. That’s a no-no that began with founder Maggie Gibson, who star-ted the business in 1990 with her husband, Les. Their shop was based on a favorite place in Vermont, where fresh bagels were never toasted. Heather, who began as a barista at the Wilson location in 2004 and is now the owner, knows that no toasting is controversial, but she has stuck with the philosophy.
Everything bagels are the most popular savory variety; cinnamon-raisin, the top sweet choice. Jeri Harrison, a Big Apple transplant now living in Tetonia, is a fan of the everything. She offers an endorsement: “It takes me back to New York.”
Her friend, Lina Marquis, goes for the cream cheese on her own everything bagel. Lina moved from Jackson to Victor and is grateful to have access to her favorite bagels in Idaho. “I’m glad they still taste the same,” she says.
About three hundred to four hundred bagels are made each day, but the number’s always a guess. Most days, a few are left when the store closes at 2:30 p.m., and those extras are sold the next day at a discount.
And, yes, those bagels can be taken home and toasted, if you wish.
