Beach Bites: Benjamin’s Bakery & Café
SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — It all started with a father, a son and a love for bagels.
Lee Zulanch and his father moved to the Grand Strand from Long Island and wanted to bring a piece of “home” with them.
“They found that the area was ‘a little under baggled’, as he says,” Marketing DIrector Tayler Porter said. “There weren’t any bagels in the area that were like home and they made them as close as home as they could.”
Opening in 1994 as “Benjamin’s Bagel Bakery” named after Zulanch’s son, they quickly had immediate success within the community, allowing them to move to a larger building, rebranding into what they’re known by now, as “Benjamin’s Bakery and Café.”
“Right now, you can find Benjamin’s over a hundred restaurants and businesses up the Grand Strand,” Porter said. “He’s very proud about his community involvement. Everything that he does, he does locally,”
Benjamin’s bagels are homemade daily, paired with a variety of cream cheeses that are made in house with fresh ingredients.
While bagels are the most popular items, there are other options customers love.
“Our dossants definitely have a local following,” Porter said. “People come in for the dossant and are very upset when we’re sold out.”
The dossant is a mixture between a donut and a croissant. The light, flaky, buttery pastry is fried and glazed like a donut and melts in your mouth, and it’s only right to pair these pastries with a fresh cup of coffee.
In 2018, Zulanch began making and roasting his own coffee. Now, Benjamin’s is the largest coffee roaster on the Grand Strand.
“We have a 24 hour process for a cold brew that really pulls out all of the oils,” Porter said. “So it takes away that bitter taste but keeps all of the flavor of the coffee.”
When you step inside Benjamin’s, expect to start your day just right.
“Everything we do, we do fresh. We are down to earth, we are a community business,” Porter said. “If everybody could be like Mr. Lee, we would have a very, very beautiful community.”
Benjamin’s Bakery and Café is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year!
You can visit them just off of Highway 17 on Third Avenue South in Surfside Beach.
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Gracie is a multimedia journalist at News 13 and is from Cleveland, Ohio. Gracie joined the team in June 2023 after graduating from the University of Alabama in May. Follow Gracie on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter, & read more of her work here.
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