Jeremy Rhodes picked up baking during the pandemic, and on New Year’s Eve 2020 he was prepping bagels for a New Year’s Day brunch. He was also making pizza for dinner, and the extra sauce got him thinking.
So he stuffed the sauce into the bagels.
Almost six years later, that experiment has landed Rhodes and his wife, Ali Chetkof, on national television. The Hurley couple will pitch their business, Moonrise Bagels, to investors on ABC’s “Shark Tank” at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11. The episode has been taped; the couple wouldn’t disclose the outcome yet.
Tinker Street Tavern in Woodstock will host a watch party.
“It’s kind of an out-of-body experience,” Chetkof, 34, said. “Jeremy and I are private people. To be on national TV, talking about our business, it’s a little frightening.”
The couple moved to Woodstock, where Chetkof grew up, from New York City during the pandemic and later settled in Hurley.
“We started posting photos on social media,” Chetkof said. “People wanted to buy them.”
The couple began selling the bagels out of their Tinker Street apartment and opened their first shop in Woodstock in 2021. Rhodes’ first try at the stuffed bagels didn’t quite work so he kept refining the recipe. The lineup grew to include buffalo chicken, bacon, egg, and cheese, Reuben, and cheese pizza. A second location opened across from Marist University in Poughkeepsie in July 2024, and their first New York City shop, at 58 W. 8th St. in Greenwich Village, opened Dec. 5, 2025.
“I definitely feel proud and excited,” Chetkof said. “It’s surprising that we started five years ago and we’re on ‘Shark Tank’ today.”
Rhodes, 34, said being picked for the show was validating.
“You definitely have to pinch yourself about going from the Hudson Valley, to selling bagels out of our apartment, to being on the little screen,” he said. “We’re incredibly proud.”
The path to “Shark Tank” began with an unsolicited email from the show, which arrived a couple of months after the Greenwich Village shop opened. It asked whether the couple wanted to apply for the show’s 18th season.
“We both just kind of laughed,” Rhodes said.
Chetkof said the email was “shocking and flattering and exciting.” What followed was a long slog.
“Once we decide to do something, we always go full speed ahead,” she said.
Rhodes said Moonrise competed against thousands of applicants. He and Chetkof had to complete “a week’s worth of applications” and answer questions about the business and its future, followed by a thorough vetting by the show.
“We got the green light,” he said. “And it was amazing.”
John W. Barry is a reporter for The Overlook. Reach him at john@theoverlooknews.com.
