She had her first bagel at Bodo’s. Years later, this Hoo runs her own bagel shop

Isabella Artiles’ first impression of the University of Virginia suggested her future could look a bit different from her upbringing in Guatemala. 

Her initial visit to Grounds came shortly after the 2009 blizzard that dumped nearly two feet of snow on Charlottesville, creating the aptly named “Mount Chipotle” in the Barracks Road Shopping Center. 

“I remember seeing that,” Artiles said, “and being like, ‘Oh my god, is this where I’m going to come to school? What if I freeze?’”

Artiles eventually warmed up to the idea of becoming a Wahoo. And once she enrolled in the fall of 2010, she began embracing other new possibilities.

She didn’t know anything about rowing, but she walked on to the Cavalier varsity team as a coxswain after being recruited at a club fair. 

She had never tried a bagel, but she soon became a regular at Bodo’s.

“I loved it just like everybody else,” Artiles said. “My parents loved it when they came to visit. We’re like, ‘Bodo’s is amazing.’”

Artiles smiles at various UVA events over her time as a Wahoo, including a football game, Final Exercises and a regatta as a member of the Cavalier rowing team. (Contributed photos)

Artiles now lives in Mexico City, where it rarely snows, and her rowing career ended after the Wahoos’ 2012 national championship. But one thing from her UVA days remains a constant in her life. 

Bagels.

Artiles, a 2014 global development studies graduate, is the owner of Migo Bagels, a 150-square-foot bagel shop in the heart of Mexico City’s vibrant Roma Norte neighborhood. It opened in March, and there are already plans to open three additional locations by the end of 2026.

The name, Artiles said, is an adaptation of Spanish terms, “conmigo” (“with me” in English) and “amigo” (“friend” in English). Artiles set out to create not just an eatery, but a community. 

“We just want you to come and grab your bagel,” she said. “If you want to sit down, you can sit down and eat it with a friend. Or you could go home or go to a park or do whatever you want.

“We have some really loyal customers.”

Bodo’s, a staple of the UVA community for decades, was part of Artiles’ routine – her go-to order was a plain bagel with egg, cheese and ham – while she attended the University, and as a young alumna living in Washington who often had to drive to Charlottesville for work.

“When I went back to UVA for recruiting,” said Artiles, a former Accenture consultant, “I used to get bagels to freeze at home.”

While the love for Bodo’s was real, at no point, Artiles admits, did she have an epiphany about wanting to own a bagel shop someday. That idea came years later, after graduating from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and working for Endeavor, a nonprofit organization that supports entrepreneurs.

She caught a startup bug.

“We love food,” Artiles said of her and her husband, Samuel Beracasa, “but I didn’t want to do a restaurant. Restaurants are way too hard. And one day, (Beracasa) was like, ‘What if we do bagels? I haven’t seen a lot of bagels around Mexico City. How hard could it be?’”

With the help of Beracasa, a fellow Kellogg School alumnus, Artiles attacked the untapped bagel market in North America’s most populous city with a business-first mindset. 

Artiles stands alongside her husband, Samuel Beracasa, at Migo Bagels in Mexico City. The idea for the shop began with a suggestion from Beracasa. “What if we do bagels?” he asked her more than a year ago. (Contributed photo)

“We’re not chefs with a dream to have a bagel shop,” Artiles said. “We’re businesspeople who believe there’s an opportunity to have an interesting business in the specific white space that happens to be bagels.”

Brand identity is a priority for Migo. Their Instagram account is updated daily with engaging content, and they have an online store with branded merchandise.

And while Artiles said Mexico City has become a haven for stylish influencers posting photos from upscale restaurants, Migo has established a different vibe. 

“I wanted to create a spot where you could show up in your pajamas and order a bagel,” Artiles said. “You could also dress up, but no one’s going to judge you here.”

The approach, combined with good food, has worked.

“The business has been breaking even since month two, which is very rare for the industry,” Artiles said. “And we were like, ‘OK, clearly there’s something here.’ That’s when we started thinking about potentially franchising the business to continue growing without having to pour in personal capital.”

A second Migo Bagels is scheduled to open this month, not long after National Bagel Day in the United States – the country where a Guatemalan teenager was first introduced to a food that would eventually shape her career.

It’s a connection Artiles hadn’t considered until recently.

“Maybe I do owe a lot to Bodo’s,” she said.