Ess-a-Bagel
Bagel shop · 6+ locations · NYC, Newark NJ
Ess-a-Bagel is a 50-year family institution, still run by the founders' niece. Six locations and a new Harlem bakery scale production, all without a dollar of outside capital in its history.
The Big Picture
Ess-a-Bagel has been a family business since 1976, run today by Melanie Frost as CEO with no outside capital in its history. The labor record carries one caveat: four wage lawsuits filed between 2011 and 2014, all closed by 2015 under the founding generation's management, with none since. Fifty years in, it still answers to the family that makes the bagels.
The Dirty Details
What do these scores mean? Learn more.
See for Yourself
Find Ess-a-Bagel near you
Enter your neighborhood or address
Keep Discovering
Explore all diningCompany data last updated September 2026
How does one person build and research all this? They don't: here's how it actually works. Verdicts are our opinions, based on the public sources cited above as of September 2026. Spotted something off? or learn more.