- December 4, 2025
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Lakewood Ranch resident Chris Matras has built four Jeff’s Bagel Run locations across the country and is currently in the process of building four more — including one in Lakewood Ranch.
This time around, Matras will do more than build it. He will own and operate it alongside his wife Megan Matras.
“The first time he brought it to me, I was like, ‘No, are you crazy?’” Megan Matras said. “You're nuts, you're not doing this.”
As she thought more about the idea, her interest grew stronger. Since 2008, Megan Matras has been a self-described “professional mother” who kept busy through groups in the community as well as her children’s schedules.
Her children Christopher, 17, and Marleigh, 15, are inching closer to leaving the nest. Megan said she is too restless to sit at home doing nothing, especially because Chris travels a lot for work.
Megan Matras said that her kids initially worried about losing time with her if she ran the bakery. She wants to show them it’s never too late to pursue something new.
Jeff's Bagel Run opens Aug. 23.
Megan Matras wanted to make sure people understand that Jeff's Bagel Run is not a restaurant, but a bakery. There will be some tables within the building, but the main goal is it will be grab-and-go business.
“You're always going to get a hot bagel,” Megan Matras said. “One of our slogans is ‘always boiled, never toasted.’ We roll out our bagels, boil our bagels and bake our bagels. Everything is made fresh in-house, day of and served hot throughout the day.”
Every Sunday evening the bagel of the days for the week are announced. The flavors include pizza, banana bread, funnel cake and blueberry pancake. Chris Matras said he tends to go for savory flavors and his No. 1 choice is the everything asiago bagel.
He also enjoys the hot sauce cream cheese.
He said initially the cream cheese "mellows everything out."
“Then you get a little after-kick with the hot sauce at the end.”
Megan Matras said there are two ways to eat cream cheese on the bagels. You can spread it, or do it Jeff's way.
“At Jeff’s, we believe in rip it and dip it, Megan Matras said. “Your bagel is going to be nice and hot and you're going to get your little cup of cream cheese. Rip your bagel and then dip it right into the cream cheese and eat it like that.”
Megan Matras emphasized that no matter what bagel you order, they are all the same price — $2.25 for a single bagel, $11 for a half dozen and $19 for a dozen.
“Our Asiago Everything and our Halapeno Cheddar, they have cheese on them,” Megan Matras said. “We don't overcharge for that. A bagel is a bagel.”
Megan Matras recommended customers download and use the app. Customers get 300 points which equals a free bagel right off the bat. That is also where customers can find the bagel of the day.
Chris Matras said he is both excited and nervous about the opening. When he visited an Orlando location, it was quite busy.
“I could not believe the amount of people that came in on the weekends,” Chris Matras said. “They were open for a year and a half, and they still had a line out the door.”
Lakewood Ranch resident Della Eldridge will be the general manager. When Megan Matras asked Eldridge why she wanted to work, she was impressed.
“Most people would say, I need a job and I need the money,” Megan Matras said. “She said ‘I just love bagels, I love cream cheese, and I love people’ and that was all I needed to hear.”
Eldridge said she is passionate about leadership and creating a welcoming environment for customers.
“I’m most excited about connecting with the team and making every guest feel like they’re part of something special when they walk through our doors,” Eldridge said.
Megan and Chris Matras and Eldridge went to a training in Orlando from June 15-25 where they learned everything they need to know.
“We got up at 4 a.m. and we baked every day, and we made the cream cheese,” Megan Matras said. “We rolled dough, we learned how to bake the dough.”
Megan and Chris Matras bought the rights to two locations so they are actively looking around at a potential second location. Megan Matras said it might be in the Lakewood Ranch area as well.
Jeff’s Bagel Run in Lakewood Ranch is actively hiring bakers, baristas and other workers. Megan hopes to hire at least 25 employees that will be trained in all areas.
