To make the bagels, Milena used kitchen space at the Hope & Main food business incubator in Warren. Since November 2016, Milena has been moving at a “breakneck pace,” since January hosting regular pop-ups at the Hope Street Farmers’ Market, Stock Culinary Goods, Federal Hill Pizza and several other Providence food establishments. Over bagels and pastries each morning, enthusiastic bagel eaters quickly connected Milena with local entrepreneurs from Borealis Coffee Roasters and Revival Brewing to PVDonuts. Milena’s first test group was at her local hair salon. With the numbers put together and a recipe that worked, she quit her corporate job on November 7, 2016, to begin spreading the word about her ultimate Rhode Island bagels. Milena taught herself to make bagels at home, managing to refine a recipe within three months (with a little help from her chemistry background). “I figured I could probably do it really well, and then when I did, that was, like, ‘OK! I’ll keep going.’”Ĭhatting with Milena over coffee on Benefit Street, I am struck by the Rebelle founder’s determination and passion for this emerging project. “I really, really like bagels … and it’s something that was missing in Rhode Island,” Milena says. Under pressure to “study a ‘career,’” however, Milena left her native Puerto Rico for the Massachusetts Institute for Technology to pursue her undergraduate degree, and she has only recently come back around to her love for crafting food.

A Rhode Island resident since 2013, Milena never had formal training as a baker, though in early high school her love for cooking led her to consider culinary school.

Milena Pagan is a chemical engineer with a vision for a new business in Providence: Rebelle Artisan Bagels.

Rebelle bagel