The Early Bird Baker: Behind the Counter at Café Bagel

Name: Dan Howard

Title: Head chef,

Age: 27

Fast fact: He’s no newbie to the business; he’s been an employee for seven years.

Favorite bagel: The supreme bagel—it’s got everything on it.

Typical day: I come in, I make sure the kitchen is stocked….I maintain a sanitary and safe workplace. I make sandwiches, I bake bagels…stuff like that.

How many types of bagels do you sell? At least 15. We’re supposed to start making our own bagels pretty soon.  

Working in a coffee shop, do you drink a lot of coffee? I only just started to drink coffee. I used to be a tea guy.

Favorite part of the job: The people that come in and the people that work here. There are so many interesting characters in Howard County.

What do most people not know about working in a bagel shop? It might look easy but it’s definitely not. There are inter-employee politics to deal with…You have to wake up early. It’s difficult. Sometimes I wake up as early as 4 a.m. and then I work until 5 p.m. It definitely gets tiring after a while.

Favorite local restaurant:

His other passion: I’m studying linguistics—specifically Asian languages.

So how did you get into that? The Maryland School for the Deaf is right up the street. I have a lot of friends who work there.

Dream job: I’d love to be a scriptwriter or work in the video game industry.