Yero Rudzinskas is weird about bagels.
Why it matters: The chef who trained in Michelin-star kitchens is opening Baltiks Bagel in South Richmond on Monday.
- He’s also giving away his hand-crafted and kettle-boiled bagels for free all next week.
The big picture: Rudzinskas came to bagels, and Richmond, the long way.
- He grew up in Sonoma, California, went to Harvard, worked in Silicon Valley, burned out, went to The Culinary Institute of America and trained in Michelin-star restaurants (Le Cirque and Eleven Madison Park). Then he moved to Taiwan and opened the country’s first panini restaurant, then a nightclub.
- He got homesick so he came back to the States, got an MBA at UNC, worked in finance in NYC, and finally landed in Richmond two-ish years ago.
- Along the way, the 43-year-old met his wife (a UR grad), welcomed a daughter (a second baby is due any day), bought 42 acres in Henrico for his small herd of Katahdin sheep, and turned his well-educated attention to opening a restaurant and making the perfect bagel in his adopted town.