Quality and Service are the Flavors at Flanders Bagels

Henry Delgado and his wife, Julie, have owned Flanders Bagels for almost nine years, but its history with prior owners dates back almost five decades.

The Delgados have also owned Chester Bagel & Deli (17 Main Street) for 17 years, and Mendham Bagel & Coffee Shoppe (88 East Main Street) since February 2020. Henry Delgado also is a partner in Parsippany’s Hogwash Car Wash Detail & Lube. “Most of the businesses that I've been involved in are all service related. I really enjoy spending time with people,” he says.

Flanders Bagels, located on Route 206 in the Sutton Plaza Shopping Center, is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. “Everything's close to each other, which is great,” Delgado says of his locations. “A lot of my customers go to two or three of my stores. There'll be times I'll be in the Mendham store and I'll see a Flanders customer, because they were on their way to Morristown or they were going somewhere for whatever reason, and they knew it was my place and they stopped in. Or Chester customers tend to go to both locations pretty regularly. As they go out towards Route 80, they may stop off in Flanders instead of coming to Chester.”

Just one of the catering platter offerings of Flanders Bagels

 A facet of that customer loyalty, in addition to the proximity, is Delgado refusing to give up quality, even as establishment owners are experiencing escalated industry prices for incoming food and ingredients. He says, “I know a lot of places nowadays unfortunately have had to try to cut back in certain areas. You walk that fine line of whether to increase prices or cut quality or quantity.” Delgado has kept the latter two. “I buy the highest grade of Boar’s Head across the board. Can I use different products? Sure, of course I could. But I use Boar’s Head across the board for all my cheeses, all my meats, and my bacon. The bacon that we use is a very high-grade bacon that I find to be delicious. I think that customers would rather have a quality product, and that means they’ll return to us because they know that it's going to be consistent.”

Also, everything made at Delgado’s three locations is made fresh. He explains. “When someone comes in and orders one of our chicken sandwiches – and we have several grilled chicken sandwiches that we make - those chicken sandwiches are fresh. That will take a little extra time, because nothing is pre-cooked. If somebody comes in and orders a burger, we are taking hand-formed patties and putting them on the grill. We are not using frozen patties. Our Taylor Ham, egg and cheese, and our bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches are our biggest sellers during breakfast. We use jumbo eggs, we give two slices of cheese on all the sandwiches, and we actually give four slices of Taylor Ham. When you get into the afternoon, believe it or not the biggest seller is the Howard Stern, which is a chicken salad sandwich on a bagel with bacon and melted American cheese.”

Flanders Bagels salads, in addition to all that’s offered on the menu, are made in-house. “Our chicken salad is made purely with chicken breasts - white meat chicken breast,” Delgado says. “Same thing with our tuna salad; we make different tuna salads with Solid White Albacore tuna. Again, when I say quality, we are above and beyond on everything. My mentality is, if I wouldn't serve it to my family, why would I serve it to a customer?” Another favorite is the Flanders Bagels macaroni salad or signature coleslaw. Delgado adds, “There is one person in particular in Flanders that comes in and regularly gets a two-pound container of coleslaw and leaves with just that. We make a really good coleslaw, and people love it. Our macaroni salad, and our chicken salad and tuna salads - they're all very popular.”

Delgado’s daughter, Delsie, works at the Flanders location, and she embodies the customer service and giving back mentality of her family. “She’s a great kid; very smart, and has a good head on her shoulders,” her proud dad says. Delgado continues. “I'm a sucker when it comes to the kids. We grew up poor, and I loved sports, so we relied on local businesses to sponsor our teams, and pay for uniforms and things of that nature. And so, I always said if I was in a position to be able to give back, that I would. We pretty much sponsor just about every team that comes our way. We do it all, and we are involved with several different schools.” During the 2022 season for the West Morris Central football team, Flanders Bagels provided the Wolfpack lunches for some of their away games.

For more information about Flanders Bagels, visit www.flandersbagels.com.