After originally getting their start in Centralia as tattoo artists at Black Pearl Tattoo, Adrian and “Pigpen” Spear are now more than half a year into an entirely new endeavor: opening and running Rainy City Bagel Shop.
And while Pigpen may not be his actual name, it’s what everybody in the community knows him as.
“Even my mom calls me that,” Pigpen said.
Located at 1735 Kresky Ave. in Centralia, Rainy City Bagel Shop is open Monday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features freshly made bagels. The couple spent nearly a year renovating the space the shop now occupies prior to opening.
“We moved walls around, painted, did plumbing, all that work … This place had been vacant for like ten years before we got here,” Pigpen said.
The decision to open a bagel shop came after they moved back from Hawaii a couple years ago.
“We were going to Thorbeckes all the time and thinking, ‘Man, this place doesn’t have anything in the way of health food or good breakfast and lunch food,’” Adrian said.
“Every day we were going home from there and making bagels and smoothies,” added Pigpen.
It was also a dream of Adrian’s father, who died about five years ago. He wanted to open a “eggy-bakey place,” focusing mainly on breakfast foods, and moved to Centralia in the 90s.
“That’s why we’re open pretty early in the morning and closed in the afternoon, and you can have eggs and bacon at any time,” Adrian added.
Aside from being able to get an egg, bacon and cheese bagel sandwich or a bagel with your choice of flavored cream cheese, there are a variety of bagel sandwiches available on the menu.
They range from classic sandwiches such as a cubano bagel sandwich and a chicken parmesan bagel sandwich to a Thanksgiving bagel sandwich.
“We also have bagel-dogs,” Pigpen said.
All of the meats available on the menu are prepared in house, from roasting pork shoulders for the cubano’s pulled pork to pounding out chicken breast for chicken parmesan, to making meatballs, Pigpen added.
And while some ingredients are sourced locally, not all are, including the bagel dough, which Adrian has flown in all the way from the bagel’s birthplace, New York City.
Adrian spent a stint living in Manhattan and developed a taste for New York-style bagels while living there.
“I knew that was the best bagel,” she added.
According to Pigpen, the New York style bagel has already been a hit, and business has been driven off of customer reviews and word-of-mouth alone since opening.
Customers are enjoying the imported dough and many, including visitors from the East Coast, can’t believe they’re able to buy a New York-style bagel in Centralia of all places.
“We’ve been getting a lot of people who are just dropping in off of the highway, looking us up on Google and coming from Portland and Seattle,” Adrian said.
While they do have regulars already, she added they see on average at least half a dozen new customers every day.
Bagel dough isn’t the only imported item on Rainy City Bagel Shop’s menu, either. When it comes to coffee, the Spears import espresso roast coffee beans all the way from Italy.
“We try to focus on the actual coffee aspect, rather than those ‘milkshake’ coffees, super sweet with all those syrups,” said Adrian. “… I have super fancy beans. I figured if everybody around here has the local coffee, so I wanted to offer a little something different.”
So whether you’re looking for a basic bagel with cream cheese and a cup of espresso in the morning to get the day started, or want a lunch or breakfast bagel sandwich paired with a freshly blended smoothie to refuel after a workout, Rainy City Bagel Shop has what you’re looking for.
For more information, visit https://www.rainycitybagel.com/ or call 360-669-5935.
