M iami connection to Bagel-fuls, a cream cheese-stuffed bagel bar that is new from Kraft in the frozen breakfast foods aisle. The inventor is Alvin''Al'' Burger, 74, original owner of Roasters' n Toasters in Pinecrest. The fellow who made the product a commercial success and pitched Kraft to take it national is Gary Schwartzberg, 56, owner of Filled Bagel Industries in Medley.
Back story: Burger began making stuffed bagels at his deli in 1991. ''People like bagels and cream cheese -- they go together -- so I just started experimenting,'' he says. His free samples were such a hit he decided to sell them.
In August '93, Burger patented Bagel Balls with this description: ``A filled bagel dough product has a hollow spherical shell filled with cream cheese. . . . The filled ball is steamed to skin outer and inner crusts, then baked to provide a dense crumb. The resulting product is freezable for long shelf-life.''
He received six additional patents and eventually licensed the product to Schwartzberg, owner of Bagelmania wholesale bakery. ''We used his patented technology, but I stayed true to the bagel recipe,'' says Schwartzberg, a third-generation bagel maker. He called his product Bagel-ers.
Schwartzberg partnered with Harlan Bakeries in Avon, Ind., to make Bagel-ers. He contacted Kraft in '06 and sent samples.
Kraft execs gave it a thumbs-up and cut a deal with Schwartzberg and Harlan. ''That's one of our focus areas -- quick meals,'' says Kraft spokesman BasilMaglaris. Burger assigned his seven patents to Harlan, which makes five varieties of Bagel-fuls.
Burger says he received well over $1 million from Harlan for the patent rights. Schwartzberg won't discuss his deal with Kraft -- confidentiality agreement. ''I did OK,'' he laughs.
Burger's original patent numbers are on the Bagel-fuls box.
BIRTHDAY PAGEANTRY
Joan Kobrin Rosenberg, retired Miami-Dade kindergarten teacher, turns 75 on Monday -- and daughters Beth Barrar and Jan Miller picked the Delano Hotel on South Beach to celebrate. That's because Rosenberg competed as Miss Delano 1952 in a Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.
Rosenberg, who grew up in Miami Beach, became Miss Delano by chance. While attending the University of Miami, she went to the Delano to look for work for the summer. She didn't get a job, but she did get an invitation to become Miss Delano, she says. She doesn't recall where the pageant was held, but remembers what she wore -- a swimsuit, and black-and-white strapless organza cocktail dress, with the Miss Delano sash. ''I did not win,'' she says.
Barrar, 47, called the Delano to arrange the lunch. The hotel invited mother and daughters to eat at Blue Door Terrace at Delano, gratis. They're going on Friday.
VERDICT IS IN
Grerimar ''Geri'' Ruiz, a former concierge at Loews Miami Beach, won a $3.78 million verdict against the hotel from a slip-and-fall.
Ruiz, 42, injured her lower back when she tripped on marble steps at the hotel gift shop on July 12, 2004. The steps had no handrails and were too shallow, in violation of the South Florida Building Code, says her attorney, Robert Rosenblatt. One week before trial, the hotel admitted liability. The only issue before the jury was damages. Rosenblatt told jurors that Ruiz never recovered from the accident, depends on a morphine pump to control her pain and is unemployable.
Loews' lawyer, Martin Stern, countered that her injury was simply a lower back muscle strain from which she recovered in nine weeks. Besides, he told jurors, she already had back trouble -- she had spinal fusion four years earlier after a car wreck.
The jury deliberated for about three hours before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey.
Stern intends to appeal.
The hotel installed a banister on the steps after Ruiz's mishap.
