Bagel Miller

Bagel Miller Hand Rolled, Kettle Boiled & Fresh Baked Bagels and Full Espresso Bar. Find Us At:
4655

Permanently closed.
09/18/2026

Something special is brewing 🇲🇽
Any guesses?

09/12/2026

Are you the type of person who loves gooey cheese and chewy bagels? Do you like a little 🔥 in your honey? Yeah?
Same.

09/10/2026

My coffee journey started in 2006, when I fell completely in love with roasting (and smelling) coffee. I spent hours at the original Metropolis cafe, reading, writing and watching them roast. Eventually, with their guidance and others’, I learned how to do it myself. I started roasting at home for friends and family, then renting time on other cafes’ roasters whenever I could. I basically launched a pre-e-commerce subscription business.

Then, in 2008, I got laid off. Around that same time, I met a guy on a similar path and somehow we stumbled onto Ipsento Cafe, a little coffee shop drowning in debt and about to close. We figured out a way to take it over, installed a little red roaster and basically built the whole thing ourselves. I wrote my first cafe breakfast menu. Friends scavenged furniture and equipment from alleys. Baristas traded roasting lessons for shifts. We were broke, scrappy and figuring it out as we went. Somehow, it worked.

Fast forward almost twenty years. Last year, I stumbled across a little red Diedrich roaster on Facebook marketplace that looked strangely familiar. The markings were in exactly the places I remembered. I was pretty sure it was our first coffee roaster. So I tracked down the woman who had it in storage and started tracing its history. Sure enough, it was the same roaster.

So I took out a small loan and bought it. Coffee roasting wasn’t originally in the plan, but it felt like destiny and I had to grasp it.

For about a year now, we’ve quietly shifted to roasting our own coffee for Bagel Miller. As of this week we are 100% switched. Today, I roasted 100 pounds while writing this story.

And that’s the origin of Moonbow Coffee Co. .

A moonbow is a rainbow that happens at night. You don’t always see it. You have to be looking.
Our slogan is “capturing the rare & radiant.” It applies to sourcing and roasting coffee, but we also kind of think it applies to living a happy life.

Keep your eyes peeled as Moonbow Coffee Co. becomes something magical. 🌙🌈

WE’RE BACK, BETCHES.We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, and somehow both of our kids are finally in school....
09/08/2026

WE’RE BACK, BETCHES.

We just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary, and somehow both of our kids are finally in school. At the SAME school. On the SAME schedule. 🙌

Ten years ago when we decided to start a family, we had no idea how much it would change our careers and our business. Like so many parents, we had to figure out the impossible math of work, childcare and how much of our kids’ lives we were willing to miss to keep pushing our careers forward. We chose the kids (and being a bit poorer than we’d like.)

We took turns being at the restaurant, worked more ON the business than IN it, and said no to a lot along the way. A book. TV opportunities. Partnerships with national brands. A partnership in a pizza business that went on to become pretty famous. Lots of media opportunities. Starbucks wanted to sell our stuff? And approximately one billion opportunities to open another Bagel Miller. 😂 Some of those things probably would have been amazing, but they didn’t fit our life.

Nine years later, we are very happy and confident we made the right choice. Maybe we lost some career momentum and a little relevance, but we got to be there for our kids and raise good humans together. We wouldn’t trade that. We watched as others passed us by, but we believed we’d make up for lost time when the moment was right. And if you’re on the fence, wondering if it’s worth making a choice like this yes, it absolutely is.

And now, we get to be a team at work again too. You’re going to see a lot more of both of us at Bagel Miller, working with our team, dialing in what we already do and figuring out what comes next.

We have LOTS of ideas. More events? New offerings? A dinner concept? A festival?Collaborations? Another Bagel Miller? But we’ve always considered this a community business too, so we want to hear from you. What do you want to see from us next?

And if you have an opportunity, collaboration, media idea or something weird you think we’d be perfect for, send it our way. We spent a lot of years saying no because it wasn’t the right season.

We’re ready to start saying yes again. Not to everything. The kids still win. 💕

08/29/2026

Bagels are pretty much the whole point around here.

Big sandwiches. Good coffee. A patio when Chicago decides to cooperate.

No VC money. No big bank behind us. Just a family from your neighborhood, serving you.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with us. 🥯

We will resume normal hours 8/18
08/16/2026

We will resume normal hours 8/18

07/30/2026

Day 1 has begun!
So far we’re loving the vibes, the music and the folks lining up for Matchas & Draft Boba Teas!

Are you here?
Come by and say hi!

07/28/2026

Well… we’re closed today and will reopen Wednesday.

Yesterday’s storm knocked out half our power, and somewhere along the way one of our team members accidentally turned off the other half. Cue several hours of, “Why isn’t this working?” while we crawled around the bakery trying to solve what felt like the world’s most expensive escape room.

Running a small business is funny like that. One minute you’re losing ingredients on top of a day of sales and wondering how this happened. The next you’re reminding yourself that good people make honest mistakes.

Honestly, it’s kind of like parenting. You can be frustrated, laugh about it, and love them anyway… sometimes all in the same five minutes.

See you Wednesday. ❤️🥯

See ya at Lolla. 🌈🥯July 30 - August 2 we’ll be serving:🧋 Boba Teas🍵 Iced Matchas🥯 Rip & Dip Bagels🥬 Chickpea Kale Caesar...
07/16/2026

See ya at Lolla. 🌈🥯

July 30 - August 2 we’ll be serving:
🧋 Boba Teas
🍵 Iced Matchas
🥯 Rip & Dip Bagels
🥬 Chickpea Kale Caesar Wraps
🦃 Turkey Kale Caesar Wraps

Year two, baby. Come find us when your feet hurt and you need carbs or cold drinks.

Boba FestivalFood

07/16/2026

Explain yourselves.
Yesterday we were down. Today we can’t stop making sandwiches.
It’s 90°, the air quality is questionable, and somehow THIS is the day everyone decided to get bagels?
Fine by us. We even scheduled an extra person tomorrow because apparently this is the secret sauce?
Why are we busy?

07/14/2026

Do you have a patio?
Yes, we have two. This one in the front and a quiet garden patio in the back!

06/08/2026

With WBEZ – I just got recognized as one of their top fans!

06/04/2026

The weather report says: cold brew tonic on the patio. Who are we to argue with science?

Address

4655 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL
60625

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 3pm
Thursday 8am - 3pm
Friday 8am - 3pm
Saturday 8am - 3pm
Sunday 8am - 3pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Bagel Miller posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category