Bainbridge-based Briny Bagels places 2nd in local competition

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Briny Bagels of Bainbridge Island came in second place in the recent Mensch Madness bagel competition, with Seattle-based Backyard Bagel securing first place.

Mensch Madness is an annual tournament that aims to find the best bagels in Western Washington based on voters, per It’s A Shanda, a Substack run by Seattle-area bagel enthusiast Sean Keeley.

Briny Bagels, located in Rolling Bay, is owned by Frank Giuliano. He decided in 2024 to share his passion for making bagels with the broader BI community by opening the bagel shop, which celebrated its first anniversary this past August.

Giuliano shared the early days of Briny Bagels. Just before opening, he said the shop’s Instagram account had around 30-40 followers before a friend took a screenshot of the planned opening and posted it on Facebook.

“I remember there were probably somewhere between 260 and 280 people who were like, ‘Yay. We’ll be there tomorrow.’ We do not have enough bagels for that many people, and I think that first day, we sold out in roughly 45 minutes,” he said.

Giuliano said he was encouraged by his wife, Sara Tuminello, owner of Take Haven, a shop that specializes in organic & herbal self-care products, to open a bagel shop after many years of experimenting with making bagels at home. Giuliano described some of the changes to the process over the years.

“So the team that’s going to be working tomorrow (Wednesday) making bagels, they’re gonna be making bagels on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and at least two-thirds of that team will be working front of house on Friday, and then most of them will be working front of house on Saturday and Sunday, he said. “It’s really cool to see the folks that are actually making the bagels in the back get to see the final product that’s coming out in front of customers that they’re cutting, shmearing, and making sandwiches with. So it’s really fun to see your work full circle.”

Giuliano described the challenges of trying to match supply and demand. “You want to have bagels on the shelf through the end of your day, but it’s just hard to forecast. You don’t want to get down to one bagel left when somebody walks in,” he said. Giuliano said in any given weekend, the team strives to have a variety of bagel and shmear flavors.

Briny Bagels is open Friday-Sunday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The bagels are so popular that people come by even on days the shop isn’t open, per Giuliano. He said opening a local bagel shop has allowed him the opportunity to meet a wide variety of islanders who have incorporated the shop into their weekend routines, and said it’s not uncommon for people to come from across Western Washington to try his bagels.

“All the different offerings we have are rotated through. So we’ll have some basics that we have every single week, and then we typically rotate some of our specialty flavors every other week,” he said.

Several of the most popular bagel flavors, per Giuliano, include plain, everything, French everything (includes lavender, thyme, sesame, flaky sea salt), and rosemary salt. Popular shmears include plain smear, as well as black pepper and chive.

Giuliano said sourcing high-quality ingredients is important to him, including striving to source organic produce, meats, and flour whenever possible. Over the last year, the shop has grown production from several hundred bagels per weekend to somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000. He said they typically have roughly 150 leftover bagels at the end of the weekend, which are donated to several food banks across Kitsap County, including Helpline House on Bainbridge Island.

“It’s the local community here year-round that allows us to keep making bagels every week and supporting a staff of 14 people,” Giuliano said.