Conversations with Erika Durham

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erika Durham

Hi Erika, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I went off to college with a double major of Music Performance (saxophone) and Business Management. In my dreamy teenage world, I imagined myself working at Severance Hall in Cleveland, or Carnegie Hall in NYC. I quickly dropped the business track after a terrible experience in Economy 101 and laser focused on playing my instrument. I spent my summers working as a camp counselor at Interlochen, an international arts camp and boarding school. When I graduated, I continued on to grad school, still majoring in Music Performance. I woke up one day and realized that not only would I never have a career in music, but that my heart really wasn’t in it.

I waned for awhile, but eventually landed back in Cleveland in the service industry. The years I spent in the practice room with my instrument had taught me diligence and work ethic. I was independently driven and had developed valuable organizational skills. My time as a counselor over the years had taught me leadership and empathy.

My work career has been an interesting path of trial and error. I have owned businesses, operated many other people’s businesses, had many successes and failures along the way. All along I was seeking something I couldn’t yet identify, until one day, all of the puzzle pieces started to fit together and I could see at least a blurry picture of what my future could be.

I spent many years on and off working for Cleveland Bagel, starting as one of the first employees when the company was essentially just the owner, Dan Herbst, working on his own every morning at 4am. As the years passed and we, along with Dan’s business partner, Geoff Hardman, continued to grow the company, it became more and more clear that I had found where I belong. I am now the operating partner of our location in Lakewood, Ohio, and wake up every morning feeling the sturdiness of the foundation I have built. I am surrounded by truly incredible people who I feel extremely fortunate to be working with every day.

Our company is about great food, but it’s just as much about our people.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I have failed often in my life, and not always gracefully. Now that I have the benefit of perspective, the common factor in all of my failures was that I didn’t know myself yet and didn’t know how to trust my gut. The irony of it all is that all of the failure was necessary in order for me to learn those things on a deep level.

Growing older is such a beautiful thing to me because, if you’re open to it, you begin to see how trivial most problems really are. Addressing issues swiftly and without ego goes a long way to eliminating stress and chaos in life. The ability to learn from the moments where we falter, and to recognize when things are out of our control are priceless skills.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Cleveland Bagel is known and loved for making really great food; hand rolled bagels, unique to Cleveland, and a variety of creative and delicious schmears to compliment. We also serve sandwiches for breakfast and lunch, and locally roasted coffee. It has always been important to us that we serve real food to our customers, everything made from scratch. While the concept is simple on the surface, it’s easy to taste the difference.

The magic behind all of this is the people who are rolling the bagels, mixing the schmears, and cooking your breakfast and lunch. Our community is strong and our connections to each other are important.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We’re always open to new fun ways others can use our product! Some have used the bagels to make pizza bagels at late night spots, for busy brunch specials, and as a substitute for a burger bun. We have also seen amazing crocheted bagels, holiday bagel ornaments, and many other artistic interpretations. We love the spirit our customer base brings to the table and love to encourage our staff to flex their creative muscles.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.clebagelcafe.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clebagelcafe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clebagellakewood/

Image Credits
All image credits go to Josh Dobay Productions.