[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7908-S7910]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO LLOYD SQUIRES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, small business are at the heart of many 
communities around the country, but in a small State like Vermont, 
local businesses and their owners truly bring people together. Lloyd 
Squires and his bustling Burlington bagel business, Myer's Bagels, is 
one example. For the past 22 years, Lloyd has dedicated his life to 
running this Vermont establishment, making more than 3,000 hand-rolled 
bagels every day.
  Lloyd grew up in Montreal and struggled with homelessness as a 
teenager. However, his life turned around at age 15 when Myer 
Lewkowicz, the owner of the Montreal-famous St-Viateur Bagel, offered 
Lloyd a job that allowed him to finish school, put a roof over his 
head, and learn from Myer's teaching. Myer had moved to Montreal and 
started his bagel business in the 1950s, having survived the Buchenwald 
concentration camp. Lloyd worked side-by-side with Myer for 15 years 
until Myer passed away. To honor his mentor, Lloyd opened up Myer's 
Bagels in Burlington, VT, in 1996.
  Lloyd has worked tirelessly over the last two decades to develop his 
growing business. Before Lloyd received his green card, he would drive 
the 4-hour roundtrip from his home in Montreal to Burlington, VT, each 
day. Lloyd lives much closer now, but still drives 4 hours each day to 
deliver bagels around the region. Lloyd gives 1,200 bagels away each 
week to local charities. When asked, Lloyd will tell you that his 
favorite part about running his business and working incredibly long 
hours is being able to talk to his customers and develop close 
relationships with the community.
  I am proud to recognize the business and community that Lloyd Squires 
has helped create in Vermont over the past 20 years.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a Burlington 
Free Press article titled, ``A day in the life of Lloyd Squires, 
Vermont's `best' bagel maker.'' It shares Lloyd's hard work and the 
story of how he has gone from being homeless as a teenager to a 
cornerstone of our community.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

            [From the Burlington Free Press, Nov. 23, 2018]

                    Day in the Life of a Bagel Maker

                            (By Evan Weiss)

       Lloyd Squires, 54, wakes up in his South Burlington home as 
     he does every day: without an alarm. He puts on a layer of 
     Under Armour, a Montreal Canadiens T-shirt and a matching 
     Canadiens hat.
       He likes hockey. He'd fallen asleep around 9:30 the night 
     before, watching his team lose to the Sabres.
       He rarely gets four hours of sleep.
       2:00 a.m.
       Lloyd, the founder and co-owner of Myer's Bagels, drives to 
     a gas station and picks up a cup of coffee.
       In Burlington, Kountry Kart Deli is busy making sandwiches 
     for a less-thansober crowd. It is late for them, early for 
     Lloyd.
       2:10 a.m.
       He turns off Pine Street and arrives at Myer's, backing 
     into a spot that directly faces the shop. I tell him I think 
     that says something about him, that most people would pull 
     straight in. He says he likes to shine his headlights on the 
     bakery because it's been broken into three times this year. 
     If there's ever danger, he says later, there's a machete 
     hidden inside.
       He unlocks the door and a large banner welcomes us in 
     cursive: Myer's Bagels. A Taste of Old Montreal.
       Myer Lewkowicz, the namesake for the shop, was a survivor 
     of Buchenwald concentration camp. He moved to Mile End, 
     Montreal's historically Jewish neighborhood, in 1953 and 
     cofounded the famous St-Viateur Bagel in 1957.
       In 1980, Lloyd was 15 and homeless, sleeping in a park for 
     five days. He took an overnight factory job and went to 
     schoolduring the day. After his third shift, walking by St-
     Viateur at 3 a.m., Myer asked what he was doing out so early 
     every morning. He offered Lloyd a job on the spot, a job 
     Lloyd credits with saving his life: 13-hour days, Friday, 
     Saturday and Sunday, so he could stay in school.
       Later, Myer would offer Lloyd the day shift, which he 
     happily accepted. He'd soon discover that the ``day shift'' 
     was 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. six days a week.
       2:11 a.m.

[[Page S7909]]

       ``First thing I do is put on the radio. First person gets 
     to choose the station for the day.'' Lloyd chooses country 
     music.
       2:12 a.m.
       He turns the faucet to fill the kettle. Bagels are 
     traditionally made by boiling before baking (though some 
     commercial bakers will use steam to save time and money).
       2:14 a.m.
       He re-activates the fire with paper and Middlebury-sourced 
     wood.
       New York-style bagels, the most common variety, are usually 
     machinerolled, boiled in tap water and baked in a gas oven.
       Montreal-style bagels are traditionally hand-rolled, boiled 
     in honey water and baked in a wood-fired oven.
       2:15 a.m.
       He mixes Red Star yeast with a bucket of water and gets the 
     flour ready.
       2:25 a.m.
       He throws all of the ingredients into a 50-year-old 
     Canadian mixer. He says he has a new $20,000 model waiting in 
     the wings, but he likes the old one better--it's the same 
     kind he learned on at St-Viateur.
       He likes reminiscing about his time there. Myer, he says, 
     once bought football tickets for six employees. They all 
     showed up to St-Viateur, excited, and stuffed into Myer's 
     car. He drove two blocks, parked and told them they were all 
     taking the subway: ``I'm not paying for parking.'' Myer later 
     helped Lloyd buy his first house.
       Lloyd worked at St-Viateur for 15 years, half of his life 
     at that point, and only left after Myer died of cancer.
       2:32 a.m.
       Lloyd makes coffee, so some will be ready when the shop 
     opens at 4 a.m.
       The fire is already roaring.
       3:06 a.m.
       He pours the requisite honey into the kettle.
       3:27 a.m.
       The gluten-free bagels are ``dropped'' first. Lloyd created 
     his own GF flour mix and is the only one who makes it in the 
     bakery. In total, he has 42 bagel recipes.
       His favorite is ``Montreal Spice Whole Wheat . . . which we 
     don't sell. I make them just for me.''
       3:30 a.m.
       The first batch of dough is ready. On a normal day, the 
     bakery will go through four of these 140-pound masses.
       3:32 a.m.
       The rolling begins.
       The room already smells of honey and toasted sesame seeds.
       3:40 a.m.
       The boiling begins.
       As Lloyd drops the first gluten-full bagels, he says he 
     sees money differently. ``When I bought a car, I went, 
     `That's 15,000 bagels. I have to make those!' ''
       3:52 a.m.
       Baker Matt Audette, 25, covers the boiled bagels in 
     rosemary. They go in the oven immediately. Matt was born and 
     raised in Vermont, but came from a pretzel-baking job in 
     Washington, D.C. He likes the early hours.
       4:02 a.m.
       17-year-old Kyle McGuire has worked at Myer's for two 
     months, and Lloyd is by his side, training him to roll. When 
     Kyle is done with his shift, he'll go home to shower and head 
     to Colchester High School, where he's a senior.
       Lloyd says he trained 100 bakers at St-Viateur; 75 are 
     still there.
       4:08 a.m.
       The shop has been open for eight minutes.
       Everyone is working quickly before the morning rush.
       4:09 a.m.
       The second batch of dough goes in the mixer.
       4:16 a.m.
       The ready bagels are tossed into a long metal tray called 
     the chute.
       Lloyd organizes them.
       4:34 a.m.
       Matt ensures the boiled bagels are fully covered. The honey 
     in the water helps make everything stick.
       4:58 a.m.
       The first customers arrive, tired and hungry.
       5:06 a.m.
       Lloyd moves to the station where his team slices bagels 
     headed for bags. He explains that each bagel has to be cut 
     with a knife because the hand-rolling process results in 
     varying shapes unfit for a standard slicer. There were three 
     main jobs at St-Viateur, he says: bagging, rolling and 
     baking. Myer had told Lloyd that as he worked his way up, 
     he'd make more money. Lloyd retold this story, laughing, 
     because he learned that the increased pay didn't come from a 
     better hourly rate, but from the longer hours required: 
     baggers worked 20, rollers worked 40 and bakers worked 75.
       5:18 a.m.
       Batch two is ready for rolling. There are five ingredients 
     in the dough:
       -King Arthur's Sir Lancelot High-GlutenFlour
       -Malted Barley Flour ? Sugar
       -Water
       -Yeast Lloyd estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of King 
     Arthur flour and 400 pounds of Green Mountain Creamery cream 
     cheese are consumed during an average week.
       5:30 a.m.
       Lloyd finally sits down for breakfast: a plain bagel with 
     lox, scallion cream cheese and tomatoes. He washes it down 
     with a Natalie's orange juice and is done by 5:35 a.m. It's 
     the only non-bathroom break he takes during his 8.5 hours in 
     the bakery.
       5:38 a.m.
       The chute is already littered with seeds beneath the wire 
     baskets. Over the course of the day, three to five pounds of 
     seeds will end up there. They'll be collected and thrown in 
     the fire because they still have oil.
       ``It flavors the oven,'' Lloyd says.
       5:39 a.m.
       He mans the oven, which he built with three friends over 
     five 18-hour days, using 3,700 fire bricks. He'll 
     occasionally make pizza with his dough, adding crushed 
     tomato, garlic and 15-year-aged provolone, which he'll top 
     with his Montreal spice mix. It's not on the menu, but he'll 
     make it for party-sized orders.
       6:36 a.m.
       Dough number three is thrown in the mixer.
       It's clear that the machine is old: a clamp and bag of 
     flour keep it closed.
       6:40 a.m.
       A rush of customers begins.
       6:47 a.m.
       Lloyd rolls with Kyle again.
       Matt and Kyle explain how Lloyd can roll a bagel and throw 
     it perfectly into place anywhere across the table, or even 
     into the oven.
       6:55 a.m.
       Lloyd rolls alone again.
       I clock him at roughly a baker's dozen per minute. He says 
     he could get up to 38, if needed, though he's recovering from 
     an eye injury. He's worked with people who could do 40 to 45, 
     no problem.
       7:32 a.m.
       Matt calls out, ``Fresh rosemary!''
       Two customers grin and peer over to see the bagels lobbed 
     into the chute.
       The bagels are flipped and flung using a long wooden paddle 
     called a shebah. The spelling of this word varies. When asked 
     why it's called a shebah, Lloyd says, ``That's what he called 
     it.''
       ``He'' means Myer.
       Lloyd used to buy the paddles in Montreal, but now 
     commissions them from Sterling Furniture Works across the 
     street. They start as blonde, unvarnished wood. Over time, 
     they develop a dark patina in the oven, the far edge turning 
     black.
       7:36 a.m.
       Kyle asks Lloyd, ``How's it going?''
       Lloyd replies, ``Living the dream.''
       He always responds, ``Living the dream'' or ``Rolling in 
     the dough,'' Kyle says.
       They both laugh.
       7:50 a.m.
       The rolling continues. Lloyd estimates they've made 110 
     dozen bagels thus far.
       They bake between 250 and 300 dozen on an average day, he 
     says, which is 3,000 to 3,600 bagels for those of us who 
     don't think in dozens.
       8:08 a.m.
       One burnt bagel comes out of the oven. It goes into the 
     fire next to the seeds.
       Lloyd says Myer couldn't stand seeing anything wasted 
     because of his time in the Holocaust. According to the St-
     Viateur website, Myer once spoke to a high school class and 
     said, ``At Buchenwald, all I dreamt of was a piece of 
     bread.''
       8:10 a.m.
       Kyle leaves, but before he does, out of earshot of Lloyd, 
     he says, ``He's a really awesome boss.''
       8:16 a.m.
       Lloyd takes the last sip of his gas station coffee, over 
     six hours after he bought it.
       A group of visiting Austrians, who stopped by the day 
     before, say hi. One takes a picture, and Lloyd gives her a 
     free bagel.
       8:20 a.m.
       Lloyd hands a bag to someone from a local non-profit. He 
     estimates that on an average week, he donates 100 dozen to 
     local charities, including the Flynn Center for the 
     Performing Arts and Resource's YouthBuild.
       8:23 a.m.
       A police officer arrives for breakfast.
       8:24 a.m.
       There's a line, and the tables are full. Lloyd won't tell 
     you, but Myer's has been named best bagel shop in Vermont by 
     Epicurious, among others.
       Why? It could be because people love Lloyd; he prefers 
     phone orders to web orders because he likes talking to his 
     customers and seeing how they're doing. It could be because 
     he learned from Myer Lewkowicz, one of the Montreal-style 
     originators. It could be because St-Viateur has greatly 
     expanded its bagel production while Myer's is still only made 
     in one bakery, one batch at a time. It could be all three.
       8:34 a.m.
       The third batch of dough is ready. Lloyd cuts into it and 
     it looks like a sushi chef cutting into a side of tuna.
       8:50 a.m.
       An ex-Montrealer, who now owns a business in Winooski, 
     greets Lloyd in French. Lloyd later says that the man, 
     Marcel, was his first-ever customer in 1996.
       9:00 a.m.
       A group of people watch Lloyd roll his bagels. I ask what 
     it's like to always be watched. He says, ``I like to talk to 
     people.''
       9:05 a.m.
       Trisha Ubermuth, 25, stands on a milk crate to organize the 
     bagels.
       In the past, Lloyd has told the story that she once came in 
     as a child and declared she'd work there one day. It's not 
     true, but Lloyd tells me that bagels are, in fact, a family 
     business.
       His sister, mother and nephew still work at St-Viateur. His 
     daughter works for his cousin who runs his own bagel shop, 
     Brossard Bagel, just outside of Montreal.
       9:07 a.m.

[[Page S7910]]

       Lloyd gives a free, hot poppy seed bagel to Marcel, knowing 
     it's his favorite.
       9:31 a.m.
       The rush slows. Everyone works at the same pace.
       10:31 a.m.
       Lloyd finally leaves, but he's not done. Ahead of him, he's 
     got over four hours of driving through Northern Vermont with 
     seven bagel drop-offs on the way. He doesn't dread it though, 
     it's a pretty drive. And, ``I love getting out and meeting 
     people.''
       He's got another bagel inhand for lunch. ``My car is 
     covered in sesame seeds,'' he says.
       7:15 p.m.
       He finally gets home after only stopping for a break at 
     Piecasso in Stowe. He's used to long drives.
       When he first opened Myer's in 1996, he commuted from 
     Montreal, leaving at midnight every ``morning.'' He got his 
     green card in 1997. After three years of the 100-mile 
     commute, and a car accident caused by sleeping at the wheel, 
     he moved to Vermont. He then worked 15-hour days, seven days 
     a week for seven years.
       ``I've never worked less than 65 hours a week,'' he says.
       He's barely gotten outside of Vermont and Montreal because 
     of the schedule. Now, fortunately, he gets a day off on the 
     weekend. He's recently been to both Connecticut and Boston.
       He hopes one day to retire in Nova Scotia. But, first, he's 
     going to open a new take-and-bake bagel business with his 
     friend Sid Berkson in Enosburg Falls.
       And, he's still got a bakery to run.
       9:30 p.m.
       He drinks chamomile tea and falls asleep, again, to hockey. 
     The next morning, he wakes up without an alarm at 1:15 a.m. 
     It's Saturday, and there will be twice as many customers. He 
     looks forward to meeting them.

                          ____________________