The man behind the bagel lottery

CHICAGO (CBS)-- For this week's Foodie Friday, you're going to need a bit of luck. 

That's because Jonathan Sessa is only selling his homemade bagels by lottery every couple of weeks. He's running a one-man operation, so they are limited in quantity.

Jonathan Sessa is a New York transplant who moved to the city shortly before the beginning of the pandemic. He even landed a job at Second City, but once COVID came around there was no comedy. 

During a brief mid-pandemic stint back east he said he was eating bagels every day. 

He returned to Chicago, looking to get his bagel fix.

"I was shocked by, like, some of the things that were being referred, I saw had passed off as bagels," He said. 

So, he just started making them himself to fill the "void." 

After posting a few pictures of his bagels on Instagram, a friend offered to buy one.  

Sessa started selling to friends, just a few days a week.

"I had nothing else to do, you know, and it was a first come, first serve," He said. 

Word gradually got out that the product was delicious and more and more people started wanting bagels.

To such an extent that the first-come first-serve setup wasn't working. 

That's where the lottery came into play. 

"Based on how many times people enter, they have better odds, which is insane for bagels," He Sessa said. 

He's got an Excel sheet that helps him randomize the entries and pick 15 -16 winners each round.

Everybody gets to pick two, since he's making them all by hand and he can only produce about 30 at a time.

Despite the demand, he's just barely breaking even.

"I  haven't, like, sat down and crunched the numbers because I feel like I'd get bummed out," he said. 

But money clearly isn't the objective.

"I'm really just trying to figure out more ways to have more of a sense of community with it because," Sessa said. 

From the brown paper bags with the winners' handwritten names, to the personal hand-off on the sidewalk in front of his home. 

"I've made, you know, some of my closest friends doing this, I got to rebuild my world. I got to rebuild my community," He said/