The concept of the beloved NYC artisan bagel shop, Black Seed Bagels, was born a decade ago over beers and weekly vent sessions following Hurricane Sandy. Founders Matt Kliegman and Noah Bernamoff each brought their own strengths to the business to the table, shaping a business that stands apart. Bernamoff brought his love and knowledge of bagels, while Kliegman brought his deep knowledge of what makes a restaurant work, especially in the Nolita neighborhood’s restaurant scene, where the first Black Seed came about.
Ten years and seven locations later, Black Seed Bagels has become a critically acclaimed go-to bagel spot in New York City, with its executive chef and head baker, Dianna Daoheung, being nominated for two consecutive James Beard Awards. Her technique, which borrows baking techniques from Montreal, includes boiling the bagels in water with honey for a touch of sweetness.
Keeping dough, honey, and other critical ingredients on hand can often be a tedious job for a business the size of Black Seed. To alleviate the manual burden of the procurement process, Square introduced Kliegman to a new release from Square: Order Guide. The new feature enables restaurants to streamline their procurement process, reduce food costs, and centralize vendor management.
“I’m super excited about the launch of this product. I think it has the potential to save us a lot of money,” said Kliegman after testing a demo.
AI-powered ingredient and vendor management
One of the ways Order Guide is able to streamline processes is through its ability to use AI to pull together a list of all the ingredients the shop uses. With over 50 items on Black Seed Bagels’ menu, Order Guide generated a list of over 373 total ingredients, all the way down to the flour it uses for its bagels. “How does it know we use flour [if it’s not on the menu]?” Kliegman asked Dante DiCicco from the Square team during the demo.
“It knows you use flour because it’s looking at the menu items that you’re selling to customers, and it’s inferring what ingredients must go into that,” DiCicco explained. The AI-generated list is completely customizable, so owners can edit the list as needed, eliminating the manual task of compiling each ingredient one by one.
Having a full list of necessary ingredients makes vendor management a little bit easier, especially given that owners like Kliegman can manage vendors from the same place they manage their ingredient list. Order Guide enables Black Seed Bagels to input and categorize their most crucial vendors into the system —in this case, 5—to create a holistic view of their vendors. The system displays each vendor’s catalog, pricing, and product offerings to Black Seed Bagels, all in one place.
“Order Guide takes your ingredients list and uses AI to match those ingredients up with all the items that your various vendors carry. For items that are specialty with one vendor, you’ll see that vendor and other vendors that carry the same items,” DiCicco from the Square team explained. “We’ll show you what those vendors are carrying at that given time, how those prices compare to each other on a unit converted to dollars per ounce or dollars per pound basis, so it can save your chef’s time and hopefully it can save you and your restaurant money.”
The automatic conversion stood out the most to Kliegman, who said: “Doing the math makes me anxious…converting to units is always the hardest part because they’re all different.” With one less thing to worry about, owners and kitchen staff can spend more time focusing on quality, accuracy, and cost savings where it makes sense.
Smarter vendor tracking, better price control
Salmon is a regularly used ingredient for Black Seed Bagels. Through Order Guide, the team was able to look at the price of salmon from their current vendor alongside quotes from alternative suppliers and identify a 33% price difference per ounce. This is crucial for the team because price changes are commonplace, and they’re rarely communicated by the vendor. “You never get a call from a rep telling you the price has changed. Calls are typically around, ‘Why are you buying tomatoes from another guy?’” Kliegman noted.
With a centralized place to keep track of vendor management, Black Seed Bagels can keep a closer eye on price changes, compare and contrast vendors with ease, and simplify the procurement process from end to end. Because the team is often sourcing cream cheese from across the country or salmon that’s smoked 100 miles north of the original shop, the ability to fast-track orders can help keep all seven locations flowing as smoothly as possible.
“I think Order Guide is going to be a big help. I’m looking at all the case quantities and case sizes, and it’s a lot of math to do,” Kliegman said. “It’s going to help folks like us who operate restaurants really dig into the data.”
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