NY Bagel Deli & Pizza announces its closing in downtown Winter Garden

Yet another business has shuttered its doors in downtown Winter Garden. 

NY Bagel Deli & Pizza took to social media to announce its closing Thursday, Sept. 14.

"To all our friends, it's with a heavy heart we post our Winter Garden location has closed due to rent going to a rate we just can't afford to pay," the post reads.

A sign on the restaurant's door reads "permanently closed."

Ny Bagel Deli & Pizza opened at 126 W. Plant St., the space formerly occupied by Eggs & Oats, in 2020. 

The restaurant was co-owned by father-daughter duo Lonny and Kayla McDougal.

The business served up an array of iconic eats from New York City, and many of the products sold were brought in straight from the Big Apple. 

Menu items included signature deli sandwiches, house-made pizzas, bagels and breakfast sandwiches, calzones, salads, wings, pastas, and desserts. 

Sonja Oelker, who started at the establishment in March, worked nights during the week at the restaurant. 

"I thought it was a nice little mom-and-pop shop in a great location in downtown Winter Garden to work for," she said. "I thought the pizza was good, and I thought the bagels were even better. I tried to come in, clean it up and make the customer service a little better. I went out of my way to make sure everyone enjoyed what they had."

She said every employee working at the eatery also worked at other locations or were related to the owners in some way. There were only about eight employees at the Winter Garden location. 

Although she had an overall positive experience working at Ny Bagel Deli & Pizza, Oelker said there were a couple of "red flag" observances she made.

"They had some coffee machines ... when I got there they had just gotten them, and I know they came and had them repoed out in the middle of a shift a couple months later for non-payment," she said. "I know there were a couple issues with utilities where the water company said, 'Hey, we're about to come in and turn off your water.' So, there were tiny little things like that, but I was like, 'It's downtown Winter Garden so they're probably having money issues because of how expensive it is here.' I knew there were some bounced check issues, but I never had that happen to me personally."

Oelker said the employees received their checks on the 10th and 25th every month. 

This month, the 10th fell on a Sunday, a day of the week she does not typically work. Instead, she decided to pick up her check the next day she worked on Tuesday, Sept. 12. 

"I was waiting to go in and grab my check on Tuesday, and I got a text earlier that morning from one of my co-workers, the nephew of the owners, saying the restaurant would be closed for the evening," she said. "We were having some issues with our walk-in coolers so I thought it may have been related to that. ... I texted the manager to see if it was OK for me to come and get my check Tuesday morning, but I never heard anything back. ... I pulled up to two ginormous trucks pulled up to the back door and them loading all of the dessert cases into the back. The nephew saw me, and his face made me think something was up because he was very surprised to see me. I walked in ... and they were just kind of weird about me being there. I looked around and realized this wasn't normal. All the dessert cases were pulled out, everything was empty, all the cabinets were open and everything was in boxes."

Oelker said a gentleman helping move items told her things were changing and she could move locations.

"He said they upped the rent from whatever it was, and they just couldn't afford to stay there anymore," she said. "Nobody would answer any of my questions or tell me what was going on. They pretended they didn't know what was happening. I haven't heard anything since. They haven't texted me. ... If I hadn't shown up when I did and surprised them then I would have shown up to my shift the next day to an empty restaurant. I'm not sure if it was rent-related, because I think if it was rent-related they wouldn't have done that. There might have been something else entailed. I think they might have been evicted."

The news from NY Bagel Deli & Pizza comes less than three months after fellow Plant Street business Winter Garden Pizza Company unexpectedly closed.

Residents were left with unanswered questions after the restaurant, located at 42 W. Plant St., appears to have closed unexpectedly as early as Friday, July 7. 

Locals first took to social media to inquire about the closure, citing instances of the restaurant’s doors being locked, as well as orders being placed but not being completed. 

WGPC’s website page no longer can be found, and the company’s phone number is disconnected. 

The Observer contacted the restaurant’s owners, Frank and Grace Echevarria, multiple times for comment, with no response. 

NY Bagel Deli & Pizza said it's looking for a new location to open in soon.

The eatery did not respond to multiple phone call attempts asking for comment.

For more information on the business, click here, or follow its Facebook page here.