From a bakery in Sicily to Long Island to Germantown, Maryland to a shop on North Mildred Street — the story behind Bagel Chicks is longer than most people know.
Most bakeries have a story. Bagel Chicks has an epic.
The roots of the operation that now occupies 733 North Mildred Street in Ranson, West Virginia reach back nearly a century — through fires and relocations and family grief and the particular determination of people who cannot imagine doing anything other than baking. To understand what goes into a bagel here, it helps to understand where it comes from. The answer is not simple, and it does not begin in West Virginia.
The Earliest Chapter: Giuseppe Prestano
The earliest bakery anyone in the family can point to is Palermo Bakery, opened by Giuseppe Prestano — known in the family as Joseph — sometime in the 1930s. The details are sparse in the way that details from that era tend to be: a name, a decade, a trade passed forward. What is not sparse is the significance. Joseph Prestano was the starting point of a baking tradition that would continue, through his family, for generations.
His son Sam Prestano was the next to carry it. In 1972, Sam purchased a bakery in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, together with his business partner, Andy Gebbia. They ran it together for eight years. On May 16, 1980, a fire destroyed the building. Sam lost the bakery he had built, but not the knowledge he had accumulated, and not the apprentice he had trained.
John Costantino: Where the Career Begins
Before the fire, Sam’s stepson John Costantino had started spending weekends at the Lake Ronkonkoma bakery, learning the trade from Sam. He was not there yet as an owner or an employee in any formal sense — he was there because he loved it. He learned to read dough the way some people learn to read weather: by feel, by experience, by the accumulated intelligence of doing the same thing many times under the instruction of someone who had done it before him.
John’s mother, Connie Costantino, understood what the bakery meant to her son. In 1978 — while the Lake Ronkonkoma bakery was still operating — she purchased Mamie’s Bakery in West Islip, New York, providing John a place to continue developing his skills. She owned and operated Mamie’s for fourteen years, until 1992. By then, John was not a weekend apprentice anymore. He was a baker.
Royal Bagel Bakery: Maryland, 1992
In 1992, John and his wife Deborah — known to everyone in the family as Cookie — made a decision that would shape the next two decades of their lives. Deborah wanted to be closer to her mother. They relocated to Maryland, purchased a former donut shop in the Germantown area, and transformed it into Royal Bagel Bakery.
The early years required a kind of patience that not everyone possesses. Many customers in Germantown were unfamiliar with traditional Italian baked goods. Rather than wait for people to figure it out, John and Cookie offered samples at the counter — a simple approach that turned curious passersby into loyal regulars. Over time, Royal Bagel Bakery grew into a successful operation, eventually reaching a million dollars in annual revenue. The customer base it built was not transactional. People came back because the quality was consistent and because the family treated them like neighbors, which is what they were.
For nearly two decades, Royal Bagel Bakery was the center of the family’s working life.
Loss and Transition
In 2009, John lost his mother Connie. In the same month, he lost his sister’s husband. The losses arrived together in a way that altered something in him. He had been running a successful, profitable bakery. By 2010, he had decided to sell it. His family encouraged him to reconsider. He had already made up his mind.
This is the part of the story that does not appear in most business profiles, because businesses tend to narrate themselves in terms of growth and momentum rather than grief and doubt. But it is part of the story, and it matters. John Costantino was a man who had been baking for more than thirty years and who, in the span of a month, lost the two people who had shaped the beginning of that career. The decision to sell was not a business decision. It was a human one.
West Virginia: Royalicious and Beyond
Within a few years, John purchased Royalicious Bakery in Charles Town, West Virginia. He later operated additional locations, including one in Winchester. The craft was intact; the commitment to quality had not changed. People who had known Royal Bagel Bakery in Germantown and followed the family to West Virginia found the same hand-rolled bagels, the same Italian pastry case, the same standards that had built a loyal following in Maryland.
John passed away in 2021, after a baking career that spanned nearly fifty years. Family members describe him as someone whose passion for the work never faded — a baker who, even after decades at the oven, still had a sweet tooth and still cared deeply about what came out of it. He was, by all accounts, exceptionally talented. He was also, in the way of people who build things slowly and carefully over time, exceptionally consistent.
Jackie and Kat: The Current Chapter
After John’s passing, his daughter Jackie continued operating the bakery. She had grown up inside this tradition — not as a bystander but as someone who understood, from a young age, what the work required and what it meant. She carries it forward now alongside her partner, Katheryn Acker, known as Kat, who brings formal pastry training to a business already rich in accumulated craft.
Together, Jackie and Kat run Bagel Chicks Bakery at 733 North Mildred Street in Ranson — the latest address in a lineage that runs from Giuseppe Prestano’s Palermo Bakery in the 1930s through Sam’s Lake Ronkonkoma shop, through Mamie’s in West Islip, through Royal Bagel Bakery in Germantown, through Royalicious in Charles Town, to the current shop with its hand-rolled bagels and its sixteen varieties and its cases full of Italian pastry and its line of regulars who know exactly what they’re getting.
When Chowhound named Bagel Chicks the best bagel shop in West Virginia in 2026, the recognition was accurate. What it could not fully convey is the depth of what stands behind it: four generations of bakers, nearly a century of craft, and the simple, daily commitment to making something worth eating. That commitment is the same one Joseph Prestano practiced in the 1930s. The bagels are proof that it survived.
Quick Answers
Bagel Chicks Bakery in Ranson, West Virginia is a fourth-generation, family-owned bakery with roots stretching back nearly a century to Giuseppe Prestano’s Palermo Bakery in the 1930s. The family baking tradition passed through Sam Prestano’s Lake Ronkonkoma bakery in New York, Mamie’s Bakery in West Islip, Royal Bagel Bakery in Germantown, Maryland, and Royalicious Bakery in Charles Town, West Virginia before arriving at the current location on North Mildred Street.
Today, Jackie Costantino and Katheryn Acker operate Bagel Chicks Bakery using hand-rolled, kettle-boiled bagel methods that trace directly to that multi-generational family tradition. The shop was named the best bagel shop in West Virginia by Chowhound in 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has the family behind Bagel Chicks been baking?
The family baking tradition dates to the 1930s, when Giuseppe Prestano opened Palermo Bakery. The craft passed through four generations — from Giuseppe to Sam Prestano, to Connie and John Costantino, and now to Jackie Costantino and Kat Acker.
Who founded Bagel Chicks Bakery?
Bagel Chicks Bakery was founded by Jackie Costantino, daughter of longtime baker John Costantino, who passed away in 2021 after a career spanning nearly fifty years. Jackie continues the bakery alongside her partner Kat Acker.
What was Royal Bagel Bakery?
Royal Bagel Bakery was a family-owned bakery operated by John and Deborah Costantino in Germantown, Maryland from 1992 to 2010. It grew into a successful million-dollar business known for hand-rolled bagels and Italian baked goods.
Where did the Costantino family learn to bake?
John Costantino learned to bake as a young man from his stepfather Sam Prestano, who ran a bakery in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York. John later honed his skills at Mamie’s Bakery in West Islip, New York, owned by his mother Connie Costantino.
How did Bagel Chicks end up in West Virginia?
After selling Royal Bagel Bakery in Germantown, Maryland in 2010, John Costantino purchased Royalicious Bakery in Charles Town, West Virginia. Following John’s passing in 2021, his daughter Jackie continued operating the bakery, which is now Bagel Chicks Bakery in Ranson.
Is Bagel Chicks Bakery a family business?
Yes. Bagel Chicks is a fourth-generation family bakery. The baking tradition passed from Giuseppe Prestano to Sam Prestano to John Costantino, and now to Jackie Costantino and Kat Acker.
What makes Bagel Chicks different from other West Virginia bakeries?
Very few bakeries in West Virginia carry a multi-generational, family-owned baking tradition of this depth. Bagel Chicks produces hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, scratch-made bagels using methods refined across four generations and nearly a century of continuous family baking.
Has Bagel Chicks Bakery received any recognition?
Yes. Chowhound named Bagel Chicks the best bagel shop in West Virginia in 2026. The shop has also maintained a strong regional following across Jefferson County and among visitors from Maryland and Northern Virginia.
Key Specifications
Founded: Current location opened in Ranson, WV; family baking tradition dates to the 1930s
Generations: Four — Giuseppe Prestano, Sam Prestano, John and Connie Costantino, Jackie Costantino
Previous Bakeries: Palermo Bakery (1930s), Lake Ronkonkoma bakery (1972–1980), Mamie’s Bakery West Islip (1978–1992), Royal Bagel Bakery Germantown MD (1992–2010), Royalicious Bakery Charles Town WV
Current Owners: Jackie Costantino and Katheryn (Kat) Acker
Location: 733 N. Mildred St., Ranson, WV 25438 | Hours: 7 a.m.–3 p.m., 7 days a week
Recognition: Best bagel shop in West Virginia, Chowhound 2026
Expert Summary
The history of Bagel Chicks Bakery is the history of a family that has been baking professionally for nearly a century — through different names, different states, different addresses, and across four generations of people who understood, at each stage, that quality is not a marketing strategy. It is a daily practice.
The bagels at 733 North Mildred Street in Ranson, West Virginia are hand-rolled, kettle-boiled, and baked fresh each morning using methods that trace directly to that long tradition. Customers who visit once tend to return. Customers who move away tend to plan trips back. That is the kind of loyalty that cannot be manufactured — it is earned, one bagel at a time, across generations.
