Murat Akyus and his co-owner Jaafar are doing the latter, one bagel at a time. Since opening TOASTED. Bagels & Coffee in Seattle’s U-District in July 2024, the two University of Washington alums have been serving up Mediterranean-influenced bagel sandwiches, specialty coffee, and a whole lot of community. We sat down with Murat to talk halal menus, Ramadan Nights, and why spending like it matters is more than just a tagline.
Tell us a bit about TOASTED. Bagels & Coffee!
TOASTED started July 27th of 2024. Me and Jaafar had met at University of Washington, our junior year of college, studying entrepreneurship. He would always pitch me the idea of opening a cafe near our home. I had restaurant industry experience from helping my parents with their first restaurant during high school. They didn’t know any English, so I would help them set up everything. Jaafar also had experience opening a bubble waffle and bubble tea shop in Linwood. So when we met, it all kind of clicked. Same cultural backgrounds, and we decided to open a business together.
Would you mind sharing a little about your cultural background?
I was born in Istanbul, Turkey. My parents were raised in a village in the very southeast side of Turkey. They basically grew up around sheep and cows, then moved to Istanbul. The culture of Turkey is very similar to many Middle Eastern countries. Very family oriented, very neighborhood oriented, a lot of food, a lot of good time spending with the people you love.
Why bagels?
We saw that the bagel would be like a vessel for whatever we would want to expand into. We thought we could build a community around bagels because we saw it was kind of on the rise in Seattle, and bagels can go well with anything. You can make your own sandwich, make it vegan, vegetarian, halal, depending on the ingredients.
What are some of your most popular menu items?
The turkey bacon, egg and cheese is a classic and it’s all halal. Sultan’s roast beef is super popular, also one of my favorites. The toasted lox is an open face sandwich similar to the NYC style. And a sweet one that’s super popular is the Date and Labneh. We infused what we eat back at home onto a bagel. At first we didn’t think it would taste that good, but after a lot of experimentation I think we nailed it. When people try it for the first time, they really like it, although it seems a little weird at first.
What can a first time customer expect?
They can expect Mediterranean-influenced bagel sandwiches and ingredients. In our bigger locations we have a lot of seating, a lot of plants, a lot of Mediterranean-influenced decor. At our U-District location, on the walls you’ll see Middle Eastern houseware items that Jaafar’s parents have been collecting for a long time or brought over from Iraq. We try to infuse that as much as we can, while still keeping it cozy and simple.
Ramadan is coming up. Can you tell us what you do around that?
Ramadan Nights at TOASTED started last year when Jaafar really wanted to create a third place after people broke their fast, after Iftar, since a lot of cafes aren’t open after 7 or 8pm. It was super hard to pull off because of staffing and figuring out what to serve after people had already had dinner. We ended up working the majority of the shifts ourselves. On top of fasting, on top of working mornings, we had to also work at night. But the response was amazing. After the first week we had lines out the door until 12am. We’re super excited to do it again this year, with different menu items, more baked goods, and more Middle Eastern-influenced drinks that we don’t have on the regular TOASTED menu. It starts this Friday, 7pm to 1am on weekends and 7pm to 12am on weekdays, five days a week.
Intentionalist’s tagline is “spend like it matters.” What does that mean to you?
When I go buy something, it’s more than just a transaction. I like to look at what is this small business supporting, doing for the community? I try to support small businesses around me that are very small, mom and pop, Black-owned, woman-owned. I want my money to go back into things that are going to support the community at the end of the day. Small businesses are usually the ones that step up and help when things hit the fan.
Any small businesses you want to shout out, including halal favorites?
I just came across a place called The Managers, right over by 50th. It’s a very small pizza shop. The owner was there working with their employees, and you can tell it’s kind of off the beaten path. Not a lot of foot traffic, but they put so much time and effort into their food. I’ve been loving going back. And on the Ave, I love supporting Shorma King. Their fries, the Greek gyros, the wraps are all delicious. I used to go there almost twice a week when I was at UW.
Tell us about Jaded Bagels. I see it on your shirt.
Jaded Bagels is one of our sister shops in Lake City. In the past we wholesaled our bagels from another bakery, but we really wanted to create our own product. The only way to do that was to open our own bakery, since we can’t fit one in any of our locations. So we took over an old space in Lake City, converted it to a bagel bakery, and now we serve just bagels, cream cheese, and some baked goods like cookies depending on what the head baker is feeling that day. It supplies bagels to all of the TOASTED locations.
Tell us about your coffee!
I’m actually not a big coffee drinker because it makes me sleepy, funny enough, but I still indulge as much as I can. Our roaster is Cafe D’Arte and they’ve been an amazing partner since day one from helping us get equipment to serving what we think is one of the best espressos in Seattle. Our most popular coffee items are the house specials: the lavender honey latte, cardamom honey latte, and the Spanish latte. And in the next few months we’re going to be releasing a lot more house specials.
What are you most proud of?
I think what I get the most kick out of is being able to step up when other people or communities don’t have a voice. Making videos, talking about issues, bringing awareness, raising funds. For every shop we open, we partner with a non-profit or food pantry. At U-District, we partnered with Street Youth Ministries right down the block, which helps unhoused students with food and clothing. We give them 100 bagel sandwiches a month and I think we’ve donated over 15,000 bagels over the last year. We make sure every bagel gets donated at the end of the day. And beyond that, wherever there’s an immigrant fundraiser or something like when SNAP benefits were cut in November, we try to see how TOASTED can help further the mission. A couple of weeks ago, a student at a Seattle public school had their parent taken to an ICE facility. We used our platform to raise money for the family and in 48 hours we raised $3,000. Even if it’s small, hopefully it helps.
You could just serve great food and call it a day. Why is community such a central part of what you do?
It just comes naturally from how me and Jaafar were raised. From our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, you just help each other when you need help. There’s no debt, no “I owe you.” You just do it because it feels good. We could just serve bagels and coffee, but there comes a point where that becomes a regular daily thing and it’s not as rewarding. What feels best is every quarter asking, what can we do to help someone, further a mission? Even though it’s usually the hardest thing. In November when we raised $55,000, we had to serve eight to ten thousand meals with that money. Double or triple what we’d normally do in a month. But somehow everybody worked overtime and volunteered to make it happen.
What did you learn growing up helping with your family’s restaurant?
My dad worked 60 to 80 hour weeks for eight years straight just to get food on the table. After eight years, he got an opportunity to become a partner at a restaurant, and I remember the day he came home and said, “We need everybody’s help to make it happen.” I was 15 or 16, the oldest, and the one who knew the most English, so I naturally stepped up. Helping with the website, Google Maps, Apple Maps, getting them attention. It was also when I was super into making videos and technology, so I was really proud of what I was able to do for them. I learned a lot about how to serve customers, how to treat team members, and how to react when things go downhill.
What is the “why” that keeps you going when things get hard?
After college I worked for another company for a year. Even though the team was great and the owner was awesome, it’s super hard to feel fulfilled when the company has its own mission and direction. A lot of people graduating from business school go into big tech or consulting. Very mentally draining. I figured, instead of searching for a company I’d feel proud to work for, I might have an easier time building it myself. Which I’m not sure is still true, because it’s super hard, but at least I have more control over that.
Is there anything you’d like to say to the Seattle community?
Thank you so much for always being there for our community, for TOASTED. Ever since we opened on day one, it hasn’t been easy. Small business is super hard. But the reason why we get up every morning is to go back and connect with more of you, serve our bagels, serve our coffee. We would love to meet more and more of you at all of our locations. And if you ever need anything, you can always reach out.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
