Project Overview

Bella's Bagels is a Colorado Springs original — hand-rolled, authentic NJ/NY bagels made from scratch every morning, and the kind of place that earns a line out the door. Named Best of the Springs 2026 by The Gazette and a Yelp Top 100 Local Business, Bella's was ready to grow: one brand about to run two very different rooms — Bella North, the flagship bagel shop, and Bella South, a fuller bistro experience with its own menu, hours, and personality. Born came on as their creative and digital partner to make sure the brand stayed singular while the operation split — starting with a complete digital ecosystem strategy and carrying it through to a launched website, unified online ordering, food photography, video, and the content that put the bagels front and center. Local business, big-brand thinking.

Objectives

• Let the Bagels Do the Talking
  Every page leads with the food. Big, beautiful bagel photography sells the shop before a single word is read — words just close the deal.
• One Brand, Two Experiences
  Keep every review, search, and social mention compounding on one domain while North and South each get their own menu, personality, and ordering — split where the business is split, shared where the brand is shared.
• Make Ordering Ambient
  Two Toast systems, one customer brain. Regulars should never have to know how the back end works — one order control asks one question (which Bella's?) and hands off to the right system.
• Turn Freshness into Urgency
  Afternoon sellouts used to read as failure. The Live Bagel Meter and announcement ribbon make scarcity honest — a sellout becomes a 6am return visit.
• Build for the Owner, Not the Developer
  Announcements, specialty drops, hours, and slider reorders are five-minute CMS edits Jason publishes from his phone — never a developer ticket.

Scope of Work

Born delivered a comprehensive creative and digital solution spanning:

Digital Ecosystem Strategy

• Authored the full Digital Ecosystem Strategy: site map, information architecture, content hierarchy, navigation system, growth map, and risk register — architecture first, aesthetics second, always bagels
• Mapped four user journeys (the new customer, the local regular, the tourist, the catering buyer) so every page sits one step from an action and one scroll from a beautiful bagel
• Made the five-year call: one site, one domain — getbellasbagels.com — so authority compounds and North's reputation launches South on day one
• Defined a 90-day measurement baseline: order handoffs by location, menu downloads, catering conversations, loyalty signups, Meter-to-order rate, and social-to-site referrals

Website Design & Development

• Designed and built the site on a modern visual CMS — hero, logo, signature slider: orientation, appetite, and brand in one scroll
• Two sticky touchpoints and nothing else — the logo opens a full-page nav, the Order pill splits into North / South and routes straight into that location's Toast
• Signature Bagels & Sandwiches slider named after Jason & Michelle's dogs — The Bella, The Shana, The Cooper — each with a close-up popup and Order North / Order South, curated in the CMS
• Live Bagel Meter, specialty drops page, and a CMS announcement ribbon for sellouts, holiday hours, and the countdown to Bella South's opening
• Location pages for both venues, Holy Schmear catering with a conversation-first CTA, and a /south page that activates as a full experience the day the bistro opens
• Homepage that carries the SEO so the print-fidelity PDF menus don't have to; local structured data for "bagels Colorado Springs"

Ordering & Systems Integration

• Unified ordering across two Toast systems — mirrored, never merged; the site routes, Toast transacts
• Delivery routed to Toast Delivery first, then DoorDash and UberEats; Bella's Bucks loyalty layered onto every ordering path
• Footer utilities wired to Toast recruiting for hiring, plus Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok

Photography, Video & Content

• Directed the food photography program — the signature lineup, the Bella Box, catering spreads, and the product library that also powers DoorDash and UberEats listings
• Produced the hero video and launch content — the bagels hook them first, the story seals the trust
• Built the announcement, specialty-drop, and social content system so every Instagram post, review, and news mention points at one domain

Growth Map

• Drew the map with empty seats — merchandise, events and pop-ups, seasonal menus, expanded loyalty tiers, employment, and a resort-guest landing page each have a place to land without moving the doors
• Two phases keyed to the business: Foundation now (Bella North in full), Two Experiences when South opens — no rebuild required