howbowda.com

Our website will be launching in the next couple of weeks.  For now on, please refer to howbowda.com.  Thanks for all the support!

Creating a Buzz...

The cover story for the August 7th edition of the "Buzz" can be seen here.

Check out our menu!

Open for Business

Howbowda Bagel Co. will open for business Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 8 am.

Check out another published article here!

An Updated Logo!

We've tweaked the logo for our store! We began with the excellent design made for us by Kyung Hoon Hyun and, with the help of the good people at Marsh Inc., have improved it further! Feel free to drop us a line and tell us what you think!

"Spreading" the word...

The local Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette cites the new Howbowda Bagel Company soon to open.  Check out the link here.

The Importance of Going Green.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
- Anne Frank

Every wave of action must begin somewhere. That is to say, that great things, invariably, have nearly always been achieved through a series of smaller steps, of individual efforts, of baby steps. We've decided to take our own- and we're starting with bamboo floors.

Our store, Howbowda Bagel, which is now only a month away from being ready to open will be, as will the rest of our company, a green operation.

This is no new trend in business. In fact, being "green" is effectively becoming a requisite for staying in the good graces of the American people. That is not to mention the increasing necessity of green power in maintaining a practical, affordable business model. Green alternatives are being sought by big business in an attempt to combat the seemingly uncontrollable rise in fueling their industries. As oil prices surge past unprecedented benchmarks, and consumers are complaining about the strain on their wallets at the pumps, it has become blazingly apparent that something has got to give. However, the culture of being green, the rising concern for environmental issues, goes beyond just the prices at the local BP.


The environment, unlike 25 years ago, is no longer the sole concern of some long-haired, liberal sub-culture. The well-being of our planet and the methods by which we extract, use, and recycle her resources, have become the lifeblood of serious political dialogue. According to Harvard Business School professor, Forest L. Reinhardt, "people are more attuned to the knowledge that geopolitical strife is influenced by environmental issues, such as how American dependence on Persian Gulf oil colors its behavior in that volatile region". How we treat our land is quite literally becoming the grounds on which we wage battles of political ideology.

The American citizen is also becoming more accutely aware of the effects he, as an individual, has on the environment and the effect the environment has on him. Again referring to Mr. Reinhardt, "high environmental standards are not just desirable but [what the American public considers to be] a birthright". As Americans live longer and longer, we can see the effects of the environment on us, and watch with horror as we see images of melting glaciers and mowed down tropics. We desire a world for our children that will still have the natural wonders we had the privilege to witness. We also are retracting from the industrialized standards that created so many of our environmental transgressions. Awareness campaigns from The Jungle, to Silent Spring, to Gore's now famous An Inconvenient Truth, have firmly implemented a desire in the American people to have goods provided in a clean and unobtrustive way. Even despite the threats of a recession, people are willing to pay to know the foods they eat, the clothes they wear, and the fuel that drives their car, will not be some kind of environmental sin. No one seems to want the blood of the earth on their hands.

Of course, it is my opinion, that the new green trends are not completely self-interested, nor are they completely altruistic. I propose that the Milennials, particularly, are shaping up a generational mindset that is highly informed by the postmodern interconnected-ness that is a result of the defining technologies of our age (the internet, and now Web 2.0, of course being the shining examples). Environmental destruction which once was an abstraction, an exotic demi-truth to our parents and grandparents, is now a very real theat to the millions of people that we are connected to. Mass media and direct and indirect interactions we have with people around the globe underscore how the destruction of the planet somewhere is synonymous with destruction of the planet at home.

So our store, though perhaps a drop in the proverbial well, will be taking baby steps of its own to take part in the green effort. We will use only recyclable packaging, we will use bamboo flooring, and will focus on using food product that is organic and free-range. We've gone almost completely paperless and we are currently looking into other ways to donate to the cause.