WAYNESBORO, Pa. — He claims to be “Off the Rails,” but Jeff Widom seems to be right on track.
The proprietor of Off the Rails Bagels in Waynesboro and his nine-person staff have successfully transitioned the shop from its former location in Rouzerville to a new site at the Boro Plaza – 114 Walnut St., Suite 6.
“We’re ready for the challenge,” added Widom as he related the story behind the name. “My wife Bethany and I were having a discussion, and she said everything from our plan – what we were going to do with our lives and where we were living – has gone ‘Off the Rails.’” Formerly of Leesburg, Virginia, the couple now live 100 yards from train tracks in Greencastle.
Widom also was quick to clarify that he does not own Off the Rails. “It belongs to my mom and stepdad, Renee Salamon-Klein and Barry Klein. They saw that I was miserable after 35 years in IT (information technology). My career was coming to an end, and I used to make a joke about opening a bagel shop. They said they would help get it going and made an investment in equipment and me,” he said.
Widom said the journey started in 2024, when he “put something on Facebook and asked if there was a restaurant interested in helping me to make bagels. I just needed an oven. Tony’s Pizza Shop in Greencastle responded. I thought bagels would sell, and they did. Within two weeks we had a line out the door. Tony’s was a ‘proof of concept.’”
The next move was to Antrim Honda for a brief stint and then Off the Rails opened in Lenca Coffee Roasters in Rouzerville, where it operated from April 2025 to July 2026. “The owner, Emilio Garcia, made us an offer to host our bagel shop there. We proved ourselves, that we could run a full coffee shop, and here we are today,” Widom added.
“Walnut Street is a good location for foot traffic, with WBO Health and Fitness and other businesses here, and we have a chance to build more.” The shop also will be the site for Bethany’s art studio to display her oil paintings.
Widom, who calls himself “just the caretaker” of Off the Rails, said he first conceived the idea when he was aboard the USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51) in 1996.
“With the permission of the ship’s mess cooks and a bagel recipe from the chaplain, I decided to bake fresh bagels during the wee hours of the morning. After mixing, forming, boiling and baking, I produced a few dozen inconsistently cooked, odd-shaped and extremely bland bagels that were passed around to the sailors working the mid-watch. None of the flaws in the bagels made a difference. They were a huge success.
“I spent 10 years perfecting the recipe, and today our baking techniques follow in the tradition of the great bagel bakeries of New Jersey and New York City,” Widom added.
“Now we’re making 400 in a day and almost 1,000 bagels in one weekend. Folks are excited and eating the food. That’s what foot traffic has done for us. ‘Terrific, amazing, well crafted, delicious and authentic’ are some of the adjectives reviewers have used to describe the bagels.”
Starting Oct. 26, the shop will be open from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday and Thursday, 6 a.m. to noon Friday and Saturday and 8 a.m. to noon Sunday. A formal grand opening is set for Sunday, Nov. 15.
“Our shop doesn’t make any food we don’t eat ourselves. Everything is handmade. We’re different. It’s as much an attitude as good food. We use meat sourced from a local butcher shop and are still serving Lenca’s coffee, that also is available packaged. We make all the fancy coffee drinks and keep our prices reasonable,” added Widom.
Available are offerings such as The Beast, with ham, bacon, sausage, capicola, egg and cheese, as well as The Artist, a quarter-pound burger with egg, bacon, cheese and syrup and Really! French Toast!, an egg bagel with French toast seasoning and topped with powdered sugar, syrup and cinnamon.
Off the Rails plans to “slowly add hours as we are able.” Readers can pre-order through the website at otr-bagels.com.
