It's another morning behind the griddle for Saeed Sha, making that morning magic happen one bagel at a time.

"[My family and I] have operated a few different food establishments here in the area, and we wanted to try something different," he said. "So, we tried bagels."

Sha's family opened Horseman Bagels with one goal: to bring a traditional, authentic New York bagel to Sleepy Hollow.

"We hand-roll our bagels, first and foremost," Sha explained. "I'm very proud of our recipe and how our bagels taste...We have [someone] who comes at night who's been hand-rolling bagels for 30 years, probably longer than that. So, he mixes the dough, puts ingredients in, puts his special little touch on it and then he'll bake. He will roll like a hundred pounds of dough at a time. After he rolls it, he leaves it out to let the yeast activate."

According to Sha, the hand-rolling process has become less frequent in bagel shops throughout the country.

"It's a dying art," he said. "It's hard to even find the hand rollers at this point, let alone ones that will come out here to Westchester. Westchester probably has only a handful of places that actually hand-roll bagels. So, I know that gives us one up on everywhere around here."

Another twist Horseman Bagels is known for is how Sha's family incorporates some of their Middle Eastern heritage into their recipes.

"We make a za'atar flagel, which is a Middle Eastern spice," Sha explained. "It's made up of thyme, cumin, sumac, black pepper, sesame seeds and olive oil. It's something very unique. We also have harissa cream cheese [and] just a variety of things a little bit outside the box that you don't normally see in bagel shops."

Since the shop opened three years ago, Sha said those unique, personal touches have kept customers coming from near and far.

"I'm guessing about two-thirds of the people are not from the tri-state, so they're not from areas where they're familiar with bagel or New York-style bagels," he explained. "I'd say about a third of people who are coming from Manhattan or New Jersey. They come up and say the bagels are on par with anything [from] where they're from. So, I'm proud of that...We've really gotten to know everybody [and] built relationships with the families, kids and parents. We see a lot of the same faces, which is a good feeling."

Horseman Bagels is located at 276A N. Broadway in Sleepy Hollow.