Forget what you've heard about Martha's Vineyard bagels. Best New Store/Business winner Fantzye Bagels opened last year to fill a hole in the Island's culinary scene, serving Brooklyn-style bagels, housemade schmears, and even expanding into a private dinner service. Elana Carlson formally launched the bagel business in 2021, letting it rise in a way that is slow and methodical.

“We didn’t expect to win anything, since we don’t really fit into any one category,” Carlson said. “We bake, but we’re not a bakery. We’re not easily categorized and, in that way, ‘Best New Business’ was the perfect category for us.”

Carlson is quick to point out that although Fantzye evokes the style of a typical Brooklyn bagel shop, the business model is very different. Without a physical restaurant location, Fantzye bakers move between the kitchen space at Kitchen Porch, the Fantzye trailer as seen at West Tisbury Farmers' Market and other events, and anywhere their private catering service, Fantzye Suppers, takes them. To ensure customers can nab a bagel before they run out, Fantzye encourages pre-orders and even offers a summer-long subscription service for Islanders looking to get their fix.

“We put a lot of effort and creativity into what we do, and we don’t compromise on our ingredients or our quality,” Carlson said. “Our business model allows us to make a profit and pay our employees a living wage. Our business started as a pop-up out of the pandemic — it’s not your neighborhood bagel shop experience.”

Carlson is adamant that Fantzye continues to run in a way that adequately compensates its employees for the time and work they put in. The bagels are slow-risen and shaped by hand, a process that takes three days in total.

“Bagel making is an intense process,” Carlson admitted. “The people who make our food deserve to be compensated well.”

Although Carlson appreciates the flexibility her current business model allows her, she’d eventually like to open up a brick-and-mortar location.

“I’d like to have a brick and mortar one day, or at the very least a production kitchen,” Carlson said. “For now, we want to keep up the slow pace of growth to have some control amidst the craziness."