Slinging bagels in downtown Raleigh since 2019

Our Locations

Right now, we have two locations:

  1. Inside Transfer Co. Food Hall at 500 E. Davie Street

    Open Tues-Fri 7-2, Sat & Sun 8-2, and 5-8 pm on Thurs, Fri, & Sat for pizza

  2. In the Rockway Building next to Dix Park at 1015 S. Saunders Street

    Open Tues-Fri 7-4, Sat & Sun 8-4

Our third location will open very soon, at 505 Hardimont Road in North Hills!

Our Team

Benchwarmers is part of a family of shops, all in Raleigh, including:

It’s owned by Head Baker Josh Bellamy, Coffee Kingpin Andrew Cash, Super Utility Sam Kirkpatrick, and Head Chef John Knox. It’s also led by General Manager Emily Sielatycki. But its success comes from a small team of valuable players who build every bagel, beverage, and pizza with care.

As a team, we are committed to three fundamentals:

  • do your best;

  • take your work—but not yourself—seriously; and

  • try to enjoy the ride.

Our Ingredients

We like to think our food reflects where we come from, where we’ve been, and what we’ve enjoyed along the way.

We do our best to source things locally and, whenever possible, we make things ourselves. Right now, in-house, we’re making:

  • Our lox, smoked fish, fried chicken, pork sausage, duck rillette, hickory-smoked bacon, and mole-roasted pork shoulder;

  • Our farm cheese, crema Oaxaca, and queso fresco;

  • Our cream cheeses, cashew spread, compound butters, marshmallow fluff, and jams and jellies;

  • All our pickles and sauces, including pizza sauce and dressings;

  • Our juices, our chai mix, and our syrups for coffee;

  • Our overnight oats and granolas;

  • And of course, all our bagels, bagel chips, buns, cookies, brownies, and pizza dough.

Our Friends

We’re proud to partner with some of the best farmers, millers, roasters, cheesemakers, artists, and artisans in the state, including:

FAQs
A large bundle of cut firewood stacked on a flatbed cart with wheels, set outdoors with the Raleigh city skyline in the background.
Our wood-fired oven, flames ablaze, with several bagels cooking inside.
Close-up of our wood-fired, heirloom-grain, long-fermented bagels, known for how dark, airy, and sometimes blistered they are.