Two Family Recipes Came South to Cornelius This Fall

Before Hunter's Bagels opened, Brandon Kurz and Andrew Roth brought family members down from New York for a taste test. The Lake Norman Beacon reported what the family told them. With their eyes closed, they said, it felt like being back in New York City.

The shop opened on Monday, Oct. 12, at 19905 W. Catawba Ave. Five weeks earlier, on Sept. 7, Little Mama's Italian opened its third location at 9623 Bailey Road. The two places share an origin story. Each one serves food the owner grew up eating somewhere north of here, made the way his family made it. Kurz's comes from Brooklyn, and Frank Scibelli's comes from New England. Put the two together and Cornelius now has a Northeastern-style day, starting with a 6:30 a.m. bagel on West Catawba and ending with a plate of pasta on Bailey Road.

A Brooklyn Recipe on West Catawba

Cornelius Today introduced Hunter's Bagels as a shop for the Northeastern transplants around Lake Norman who still miss the bagels they grew up with. Three details from that coverage set out what the owners are building:

• The recipe. The bagels come from Kurz's 60-year-old family recipe, which started in a Brooklyn kitchen. Roth's parents ran a bagel shop for nearly two decades.
• The kitchen. The shop has no microwave, and everything is made from scratch, breakfast-sandwich eggs included.
• The water. It's the one piece of a New York bagel that can't be brought south, and as the paper put it, not much anyone can do about that.

Kurz and Roth spent six figures on bagel-making equipment. That includes an Empire oven about the size of a stand-up shower, built to give a bagel a chewy inside and a crisp shell. The Beacon reported that both owners call themselves second-generation bagel makers. They moved to North Carolina from South Florida this year after Kurz sold his custom golf cart dealership. For a few months they weighed a bar and grill or a deli before settling on bagels.

What's on the counter

The Hunter's Bagels menu lists 10 bagel varieties, including plain, everything, jalapeño cheddar and Asiago. Schmears include scallion, lox spread and maple bacon. At lunch the deli side does sandwiches with turkey, roast beef, salami and ham, along with a turkey club, a BLT and Nova lox. Cookies, muffins and cinnamon rolls fill out the case. Wraps and salads are on the menu too, but the kitchen was designed to turn out fresh bagels consistently at any hour.

The owners left out laptop outlets on purpose, according to the Beacon. They wanted the feel of an old-school deli, with both of them working behind the counter alongside their staff. Kurz's mother designed the interior in a lodge style. The logo has deer antlers, and menu items are named the Hunter, the Buck and the Doe.

The shop is in the fully renovated former Coffee Republic & Bakery space on West Catawba Avenue, near Goodwill. It's open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

On Bailey Road, the Same Idea at Dinner

Frank Scibelli describes Little Mama's in nearly the same terms Kurz uses for his bagels. "Little Mama's is a heartfelt project for me, built on the simple yet delicious flavors of my childhood in New England," Scibelli said in a news release quoted by the Charlotte Observer's CharlotteFive. "These are the foods I grew up with and love to share."

The restaurant belongs to Scibelli's Charlotte-based FS Food Group. It started as a sister to Mama Ricotta's and takes its cues from the Italian-American restaurants of the 1960s and '70s. Cornelius Today reported that Little Mama's was recommended by Michelin in 2025. CharlotteFive noted that the recommendation singled out the house-made mozzarella and pastas.

The Cornelius location is 4,300 square feet with 140 seats spread across a dining room, a bar and a sunroom. Its brick-oven pizza program is modeled on the Little Mama's at Rea Farms. Besides traditional and specialty pizzas, the menu includes the Mozzarella Presentation, penne alla vodka, lasagna, chicken Parmesan and giant homemade prime beef meatballs with spaghetti, plus wine and craft cocktails. Reservations go through OpenTable from the Little Mama's website.

The restaurant took over the space last held by G.O.A.T. Pizza, a sports-themed concept. G.O.A.T. opened in April 2024, closed for the summer in July 2025, and was confirmed permanently closed in September 2025. That means the Bailey Road address sat empty for about a year before Little Mama's opened. Pulp Juice is listed at the same street address in Suite 101.

The Two Side by Side

Hunter's handles the morning and closes by mid-afternoon. Little Mama's is the evening stop. Opening coverage put its Cornelius hours at 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, but the Little Mama's website lists the Cornelius location at 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Check the site before planning a lunch there.

Planning a Day Around Both

One place is built around mornings and the other around evenings, so both fit into the same day easily.

1. Early. Hunter's opens at 6:30 a.m. every day, weekends included. The breakfast sandwich is the obvious test of the no-microwave promise.
2. Midday. For a deli lunch, the Nova lox sandwich or the turkey club is the move, and the counter takes orders until 2:30 p.m.
3. Evening. Book Little Mama's on OpenTable, especially for a larger table, and try the brick-oven pizza or the penne alla vodka.
4. Hosting. With the holidays coming, a dozen bagels and schmears from West Catawba make an easy brunch for houseguests. Little Mama's sunroom and 140 seats were planned with larger gatherings in mind.

A Pattern With Names Attached

Hunter's and Little Mama's are the newest entries on a list that has been building around the lake. Visit Lake Norman's roundup of what's new for 2026 includes Fat Guy & A Pie of New York at 610 Jetton Street in Davidson. It also lists Corner Crust Pizza & Brew, which opened March 29, 2025, at 21726 Catawba Avenue in Cornelius, and City Boy Pizza, which opened Sept. 22, 2025, at 9000 Hambright Road in Huntersville.

Both of this fall's Cornelius openings go back to family kitchens. One shop is named for its owner's family and runs on his family's recipe. The other menu is the food its founder says he grew up with. Scibelli told Cornelius Today he was eager "to bring that tradition to Cornelius and Lake Norman," and both restaurants have now done that. Hunter's Bagels opens at 6:30 a.m. every day at 19905 W. Catawba Ave.

Rachel Mangiapane has lived in Davidson since 2008 and keeps track of what opens, what moves and what fills an empty storefront across Lake Norman. If you're new to Cornelius and want help finding your own morning stop and dinner spot along with the right home, Rachel Mangiapane would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.