A layoff, a love story, and the best bagel in Central Florida
A layoff, a love story, and the best bagel in Central Florida
Jeff’s Bagel Run started as a love story.
Jeff’s Bagel Run started as a love story.
In 2019, Jeff was out of work and home with his family when Danielle asked him to make her a bagel. He didn’t know how. He learned anyway, because she asked, and he wanted to get it right for her. Then he couldn’t stop.
When he finally got it right, they had more bagels than a family could eat. So they gave them to friends. Then they sold them to neighbors. Then they were loading up for farmers markets, and the line kept getting longer.
Going Full Bagel
Going Full Bagel
The farmers market couldn’t hold it. The line outgrew what a home kitchen could do, so Danielle quit her job and went all in. Full bagel, no backup plan.
They opened the first Jeff’s Bagel Run in Ocoee in June 2021. No investors. No franchise playbook. Just a couple who believed that if you make something well enough, and care about it openly enough, people show up.
They showed up. Lines formed before the doors opened. Bagel of the Day became a morning ritual, people planned their day around it. Regulars brought friends. Friends became regulars. What made it work wasn’t marketing. It was the bagel.
“We weren't trying to start a business. We were trying to make a bagel we actually wanted to eat.”
— Jeff Perera, Founder
A Second Shop
A Second Shop
When the chance came to open in College Park, Jeff and Danielle didn’t agree on it. Danielle said no. Jeff said yes. They did it.
It wasn’t the safe move, a smaller footprint, the other side of town, a lot more work for a young business. But the line showed up there too. That’s when it clicked: people didn’t just love the Ocoee shop. They loved the bagels, all over town.
Scratch Made, Baked Fresh, Everyday.
Scratch Made, Baked Fresh, Everyday.
Every bagel is made from scratch in each store. The bagels are proofed overnight, boiled and baked throughout the day. No shortcuts. No freezers. The same process, every single day
Built the same way. From scratch.
Built the same way. From scratch.
The Otus story starts where the JBR story starts: in Central Florida, with a fixation on craft and no real reason to think a hobby would become anything more. Glen and Jaclyn Turchin started roasting at home in 2017, a single 1-kilo machine and the conviction that the bean, the sourcing, and the roast profile all matter.
They lived three doors down from Jeff and Danielle, though the couples didn’t know each other yet. Then Jaclyn spotted a new pin on Google Maps: a bagel shop, right down the street. Bagels and coffee belong together. She told Glen to reach out.
From there, Otus was the partner. The Jeff’s Coffee Run blend was built together before Jeff’s Bagel Run had a second location. The coffee program grew store by store, cold brew at the first shop, espresso unlocked at store three, the Otus name on the menu the moment it earned its place.
In 2024, Jeff’s Bagel Run acquired Otus. Glen called it a natural step after years of working side by side. He and Jaclyn didn’t just sell and walk away, they joined the team. Glen runs coffee. Jaclyn moved into training and development.
Otus beans are roasted in-house and served at every Jeff's Bagel Run location. The bagel and the coffee come from the same hands now.
“It was a natural step after years of close collaboration.”
— Glen Turchin, Otus Coffee
Same bagel. Same hands.
Same bagel. Same hands.
Jeff’s Bagel Run isn’t one kitchen in Ocoee anymore. But the bagel hasn’t changed, and neither has who’s making the calls. Every shop makes the same bagel the same way, scratch-made, boiled, baked fresh all day. None of the shortcuts that usually creep in when something gets bigger.
Jeff and Danielle still lead it. They’re hands-on with every new shop that opens. It’s founder-led, and it’s staying that way because the point was never to build a chain. It was to make a great bagel and hand it to somebody. That part doesn’t scale away.