By Emma Driban, with Ellie Gulick and Gray Cowan of Van Buren Bagel
If you have been to the Brandywine Park Farmers Market, you’ve likely been wondering about the long lines stretching down the length of the vendor tents. Well, the answer is Van Buren Bagel.
Gray Cowan and Ellie Gulick pose in their stall at the Brandywine Park Farmers Market; Photos provided by Van Buren Bagel
Started in May 2025, Van Buren Bagel is the passion project of Ellie Gulick and Salesianum School grad Gray Cowan. The couple started making bagels just for themselves, but recognized the local bagel vacancy and capitalized on the opportunity. In the few short months since venturing into the baking business, they have scaled up from making 100 bagels to 1,200 for each market—and still sell out every time!
Their bagels feature a nice outer crust and a dense, but not hard to chew center that can stand up to any desired topping, including their homemade cream cheeses. As a bagel fanatic, myself, I have become quite the fan—dubbing them “the best bagel in the state . . . if not beyond.” Don’t believe me? Try them yourself!
How did Van Buren Bagel get started? What drew you to bagels specifically?
Ellie: About two years ago when we lived in Philadelphia, we started making bagels just for us. I am a huge bagel lover; I always have been since I was a kid. I really just love a good sesame seed bagel, toasted with plain cream cheese. On the weekends, I would be like, “I need my bagel,” and there wasn’t really anything that close by that we could walk to at the time. I would Door-Dash Bart’s Bagels—my favorite in South Philly—and it just it started to get a little expensive. We were like, “you know what? Let’s see if we can do this ourselves.” At the time, we had some hobbies, but it felt cool to be able to bake together and start this whole thing together.
Gray: It started just as a fun thing to do. I mean, like Ellie said, she’s a bagel fan. She was getting them all the time. It was like, legit, every weekend. It was a must. We needed to get a bagel at some point. Bagels have such a subculture, where everyone’s chasing after the best bagel they can get their hands on, especially in the Northeast—New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania. We’re close to it, but there’s not an established bagel “culture” here. That sounds so corny, but it is true. So, we started making them our-selves and it’s such a fun process. Every single step that you change affects the end product, so it’s slowly just making it better and better. For me, that process is a really fun one. It’s very gratifying. We got them to a point where we were like, “wow, these are legit. They can hold their own against any other bagel that we’re finding.” Then, when we moved to Wilmington—back to Wilmington for me—we realized there aren’t really any shops like in Philly, where there’s one on every other corner. At some point, people started to come up to us and say, “Oh my gosh, Wilmington hasn’t had a bagel spot in a while.” So, we felt that this was something cool we could do for ourselves. It’s always been a passion of ours. We really enjoy the bagels. And then this farmers market near us started at just the right time. We could walk there, and joked that we were going to train our dog to pull a little wagon of bagels down there.
What was the transition from just baking them for yourself to selling them like?
Gray: I kept going to friends and family and be asking, “Are these good? Tell me straight up.” And everybody said they’re really good. There’s a lot of romance involved about how fun it would be to sell them. And then when you’re actually faced with doing it, it’s a bit different. It took me four hours for the first market, which now is like nothing, but it is a ton of work. Scaling up was crazy, and we’re still scaling up. We sold 100 at the first market, and we sold 1,200 at the most recent market. So, it’s been crazy. Crazy and awesome.
Ellie: A lot of it was this idea of Gray wanting to do more than what he was doing at work. A 9-to-5 is great—I have one—but we all know how it feels like you’re at your computer all the time. He just wanted to do just something where he was more invested, where it was more of a passion. We had been doing this on the side, he had completely taken on all the baking at that point. One day he said, “I’m gonna do it all.” And he really liked doing it, so at that point he wanted to get serious about this. Then, the Brandywine Park Farmers Market came around and it just felt really right.
Speaking of the Brandywine Park Farmers Market, you have a line that spans almost the entire length of the market by the time 9:00 rolls around. How has it felt to so quickly become a crowd favorite and to be so sought after?
Gray: It’s pretty crazy. We were just talking about the journey that this has taken. It’s always scary, like “will people like these?” or “are we going to get traction?” So, the fact that it’s come true has been amazing. I think there is something to be said about the community that we live in. It’s very tight knit. Everybody wants to support us, which is like the most gratifying thing ever. We couldn’t be more thankful.
Ellie: It’s amazing. It has a lot to do with the people who are coming to the market and the community that we’re in. We were just saying the other day, we feel like if we did this anywhere else it might be a different story. It just feels really right being in Wilmington. The timing and the location and the community and the support that we’re getting from all these people. It just feels really right, and we really appreciate it.
Gray: The line is surreal. At end of the day, I’m just trying to make the best bagel that we possibly can. If we just keep doing that, everything will fall into place.
How does it feel to be able to do this together?
Ellie: It’s a really cool feeling to be able to build something together and we work pretty well together, which is nice. We’re friends first and then business partners.
Gray: I couldn’t do this without her. I’m baking and Ellie is every-thing else. Neither of us could function without the other. Ellie: It’s cool to see kind of how our roles have formed, too. He does everything that has to do with the food and the products and the ingredients.
Gray: But the branding, the sales, the marketing, the actual feel of everything comes from Ellie. Also, it’s just been fun, because we’ve had this dream for a while and to now have officially made that leap has been amazing.
Do you have plans for the future? Are you envisioning a bagel shop? More flavors? New cream cheese?
Gray: I think all of that! Ideally, we are looking to open up in 2026. I will say that we’re learning something new every day and this is our first crack at an entrepreneurial venture. We’re learning a lot. We’re trying to speak with the right people and see everything that goes into it, but our dream and our hope is to get something going for next year. In the meantime, we’ll keep doing markets. The Brandywine Park Farmers Market ends in October, so after that we’re either going to be in a pop up in the area or at other local farmers markets. Definitely be sure to follow our Instagram page for those details: @VanBurenBagel.
As for cream cheese flavors, we’re constantly trying new stuff. Once we do get a shop, I’m so excited to have everything centralized and be able to produce as much as we possibly can in terms of new flavors.
Ellie: Obviously we try to make the freshest bagels that we can at the market—Gray finishes making them at like six or seven in the morning. But we drive them 30 minutes into the market. One thing I’m really excited about, whenever we are able to open a shop, is for people to have a hot, fresh bagel. It is like the craziest experience. When you have them that fresh you don’t need to toast them or anything. I’m just so excited for people to get that fresh taste.
Have you tried any really wacky flavors?
Gray: I’ve been messing around with the jalapeno bagel for a while. It’s either too spicy or not spicy at all. It’s taking me a while to put out new flavors because I’m a bit of a perfectionist in terms of wanting to give our best. I’m trying to workshop behind the scenes. I think cream cheese is where we’re going to try to get crazy, interesting stuff. But a lot of bagels are on the way. I’m trying new flours for things like whole wheat or pumpernickel.
Ellie: You’ve gotten a lot of onion bagel requests; onion, just a salt bagel, or poppy seed—like those classic flavors. Those are a little easier to do.
Gray: There’s a balance there with flavors, because we don’t want to get carried away and offer too much. That subtracts from the classics. But we’re definitely working on some things.
Ellie: Yeah, maybe some fun, seasonal flavors for the fall. Gray: That’s the fun part, because that’s when we get to be cre-ative and not focused on making the same exact bagel every time.
Now it’s your turn to give a Van Buren Bagel a try! Enjoy one of Ellie and Gray’s suggested combinations.
The How We Got Started: Sesame Bagel with Scallion Cream Cheese
A simple, timeless combination—this is Ellie’s favorite bagel pairing. The reason we started baking bagels to begin with! The nuttiness of sesame pairs beautifully with the brightness of scallion, creating a balance that never gets old.
Gray’s Off the Clock Sando: Everything Bagel with Turkey, Mustard, and Pickles
This is our take on a deli-style classic. Gray makes one of these the moment he gets home from the kitchen—even if it’s 8 PM. The bold seasoning of the everything bagel stands up to layers of turkey, sharp mustard, and tangy pickles. Hearty, satisfying, and full of flavor.
An Easy Weekend Morning: Rosemary Sea Salt Bagel with Plain Cream Cheese and Tomato
Fresh and elegant. When we have weekends off, this is our go to. Wake up, sun shining, birds chirping . . . let’s have an easy Saturday morning. The aromatic rosemary and briny sea salt are complemented by the cool creaminess of plain cream cheese and the juicy sweetness of ripe tomato. It’s a bite of late summer, anytime.
Editor’s Addendum: Plain Bagel with Plain Cream Cheese, Chili Crisp, and Honey
Emma’s addition to the mix. If you like a bit of spice, this combo is for you! The sharp bite and crunch of the chili crisp plays nicely with the coolness of the cream cheese. Don’t forget a little drizzle of honey to round out the flavor.
Bagels can be pre-ordered and purchased for pick up on Saturday. Visit VanBurenBagel.com for more information.
