Three months into its new ownership, The Bagel Bakery is making waves in supporting Gainesville Area Rowing’s (GAR) nationally performing program.
From June 12-15, GAR teams, consisting of middle and high schoolers, capped off a record-breaking season at the 2025 USRowing Youth National Championships in Sarasota with their strongest showing ever.
According to a press release, three GAR boats qualified for the event.
Sophie Goldstein and Addy Mathews in the Womens Youth 2 (Pair) rowed over the top of an alligator to clinch the club’s first silver medal.
Katharine Carodine, Natalie Jones, Sadie Parker and Eva Bailey secured a top-22 national ranking in the Womens U17 Quad, while Eli Wells, Mason Turek, Branan Andreu and Miles Loyd produced a top-nine finish in the Mens Youth 4- (Straight Four).
Part of the team’s funding to travel to nationals came from The Bagel Bakery’s new owner, Jason Cole, who pledged to annually donate 1% of the restaurant’s gross sales to the program.
Since starting the partnership in May, The Bagel Bakery has raised around $1,500 for GAR.
On Saturday, GAR head coach Garrett Bauer and more than 30 program members gave the 25-year-old Bagel Bakery a new coat of paint inside as a “thank you” to Cole in return, snacking on plenty of bagels in between strokes.
“Jason, through the time that I’ve been at GAR, he’s given a ton to us,” Bauer told Mainstreet. “Apart from him having this business and giving us this kind of helping hand, [painting was] saying thank you for that and for what he’s going to do for us in the future.”
In March, Cole purchased The Bagel Bakery from Buchholz High School and University of Florida graduate Ken Rembert. Rembert founded the restaurant, located at 4113 NW 16th Blvd. in Gainesville, in 2000, after a career in forestry and retail.
Cole, a former sports reporter of over 30 years, said he’d already been in contact with Rembert for a few years when the deal to buy the restaurant came together. He said the timing was right and that Rembert wanted to move on to pursue other things.
“As far as the food goes, it’s going to be the same bagel it’s been for [25] years,” Cole said. “We’re making an in-house Bundt cake because we believe in the power of holes in food. But other than that, it’s really just kind of updating the store because we’ve got a great clientele that has been there for a long, long time.”
To help with the store updates, Cole didn’t have just any crew in mind.
After his two sons and nephew rowed for GAR, Cole said supporting the program is his passion and the annual donation is his “little contribution.”
Founded in 1998, GAR runs middle school, high school and Masters (adults 22 years old and up) rowing programs, aiming to cultivate teamwork, excellence and discipline on and off the water.
Bauer has served as GAR’s head coach for one-and-a-half seasons after starting in the program himself as a middle schooler.
Bauer said Cole contacted him about pursuing a partnership with GAR shortly after assuming ownership of The Bagel Bakery. With rowing equipment, like boats, ranging from $20,000 to $60,000, Bauer said the financial boost from the restaurant will allow GAR to buy a new boat about every three years without having to raise regular dues.
One of the old boats will be recycled as part of The Bagel Bakery’s remodel.
“We’re going to cut a boat in half long-ways, put it up on the wall, put some pictures up. It’ll be pretty cool,” Bauer said.
Even though the margins at nationals were tight and knocked the GAR teams down a few notches, Bauer said he’s proud of his team.
He said he plans to build on this year’s success by not changing anything as long as the members are staying motivated to do the work outside of practice to stay focused and happy.
“Don’t fix what isn’t broken,” he said. “Just keep all that motivation going and keep them happy, keep them excited to be out there.”
