Fair Haven will get a new from-scratch bakery, café and deli when Old School Bagels Bakery and Café opens on October 29 at 73 Main Street in the former Ruby’s Bistro & Bakery space. Seasoned restaurateur Bob Workman and his wife, Kate, decided to open the business six years after moving from Florida to Fair Haven. The 25-seat café will serve breakfast and lunch Wednesday through Sunday and offer a wide range of bread and baked goods.
Workman, 73, said his hand-formed bagels, which are kettle-boiled and then baked, are modeled on a classic New York City bagel. The bakery will also offer loaves of white, wheat, cinnamon-raisin and deli rye bread, plus baguettes and New York hard rolls. All will be made with organic flour, organic sweeteners and no seed oils, Workman said.
The hard rolls will star in the café’s signature breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese and New Jersey-sourced Taylor pork roll. Workman promised he will offer “a kickass hot pastrami on rye” and other deli faves. He will make pizza bread — panuozzo in Italian — for panini sandwiches. The lunch menu will include hot soup and chili, salads, and daily specials.
Among the baked goods will be croissants, cinnamon rolls, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, brownies and a New York cheesecake, which Workman described as “rich, fairly dense and creamy on a graham cracker crust.”
The delicacy is called Kate’s Cheesecake after his wife of 50 years. A business by that name is among the many Workman has owned or run over a five-decade career in Florida, upstate New York and Nashua, N.H.
When the couple first moved to Fair Haven, Workman took a job baking for area schools, then he started his own home-based bakery. “I’ve been retired 10 times,” he said with a laugh.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4 2025.
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