Not long ago, Tacoma and surrounds were basically a bagel-free zone.
Chris Hetterly noticed that oddity when he and his wife started visiting her family, who moved to the city around 2018. By 2019, he had a job that also brought him here often. They began splitting their time between Northern California and South Puget Sound, but Tacoma has become home base.
“You couldn’t find a decent bagel — you couldn’t find a bagel at all,” Hetterly recalled in a March phone call. “We don’t even discuss grocery store bagels!”…