Press

Baked and Boiled is women-owned and operated. It was born out of frustration during the search for a true bagel in St. Louis. Sad, soft bagels for as far as the eye could see, Alex knew there had to be a solution. As a chef, the obvious solution was to “just do it myself”, she said. And so, the bagel journey began in 2020. Baking for personal consumption and for friends, people started to crave the delicious, chewy dough rings being cranked out of Alex’s circa 1950’s General Electric oven at home.  The word spread to Wild Olive Provisions where the need for a good bagel lingered. The owner of Wild Olive, Nerida, offered to let Baked and Boiled pop-up, and The Shaw neighborhood rained bagels on Friday evenings.

Tower Grove Farmer’s Market was the next stop, but a commercial kitchen was the first step. With impeccable timing, SugarWitch in Carondelet opened their doors (and enormous 5 deck rotating, Paul Reed oven) as an incubator kitchen, and Baked and Boiled walked on in. Demand for a real water-bagel continued to grow and the next natural step was to find a permanent home. As Soulard mourned the loss of the beloved cupcake spot, The Sweet Divine, Baked and Boiled stepped into the historic building located at 1801 S 9 Street to offer a different kind of baked good.

Family members and friends flocked to The Lou to get the shop up and going before the fall season in 2023, and by September 23, 2023, Baked and Boiled opened the doors of its first brick and mortar establishment. The shop now works with local businesses to supply St. Louis with the best bagels the mid-west has to offer. FarmHaus Restaurant, Kuva Coffee, Volpi Italian Foods, Fourth City BBQ, Janie’s Mill, Tastachios, and many other local products are seen around the shop, as an emphasis on local and seasonal availability is an important part of the Baked and Boiled mission.

Alex Pifer was born and raised in the Tampa Bay area in Florida and gives inspirational credit to Clear-Water Bagels, located directly next to Clearwater Highschool, where Pifer graduated from high school (and got busted multiple times evading campus security to supply her classmates and teachers with fresh bagels). She was voted “Most Likely to Show Up with Bagels” by her class in The Career Academy for International Culture and Commerce at CHS. 

She met her husband, Steve (The Bagel Guy) Gaber and her mutt, Pepper (Pupperoni) while they were working at the airport during college in Tallahassee, Florida. Pepper and Steve are both the official bagel (water-bagel and dog bagel) taste testers at Baked and Boiled and can be seen doing “quality control” testing around the shop.