Sound Bites: Hive owner talks bread, bees, and a second bagel shop location
Hive Bagel & Deli boils its bagels in honey water using local honey from beehives at owner Josh Steiner’s home. (Holly Whitfield/The Daily Memphian file)
For Josh Steiner, bread is the common thread through all of his culinary endeavors.
“Bread is a lifestyle.”
Bread — from bagels to pizza dough to pastries — was the topic of the eye-opening conversation Steiner and I shared on this week’s Sound Bites episode.
Steiner also announced news that will be exciting for bagel fans: he plans to open a second location of Hive Bagel & Deli in the Memphis area in the next year or so. We talk more about that on the podcast.
Memphians may remember Steiner’s wood-fired pizzas and Italian and Sicilian dishes from Strano, which opened in 2014 in Cooper-Young. It moved to the former Jim’s Place at Poplar and Perkins Extended (now Belle Meade Social) in 2018.
Steiner and his team opened Hive Bagel & Deli’s Downtown location at 276 S. Front St. in 2023, serving bagels baked on site, spreads, sandwiches and heaps of pastries.
Hive also provides bread wholesale to local places like Jojo’s Espresso and Hard Times Deli.
In the episode, Steiner talked about closing Strano in the pandemic and redirecting his passion to find a niche in a complicated restaurant industry.
We also talked about his dedication to his own training, teaching his baking staff and the intentional fishbowl setup of the Downtown cafe.
“I call it romantic, the way we work with the dough over there,” he said.
Pastry cubes with different fillings, croissants and other treats fill the case at Hive Bagel & Deli. (Chris Herrington/The Daily Memphian file)
I asked about Hive’s cube pastries (the flavor at the time of recording was pumpkin spice with key lime filling) and the most popular bagel and cream cheese combinations.
While he couldn’t reveal the exact location of the new Memphis bagel shop, Steiner did give up the recipe for a dish I adore: the old butternut squash breakfast pizza from Strano.
We also nerd out about bagel styles, crack tests, aquifers and bees.
Listen to the full, expanded interview below.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Topics
Hive Bagels & Deli Josh Steiner Sound Bites sound bites podcastHolly Whitfield
Holly has more than 13 years of experience in publishing and digital content, including 10 years at the helm of the I Love Memphis Blog. She began her career at The Commercial Appeal and is author of Secret Memphis.
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