Photo by Sarah Owens
Tommy and Lizzie Hiltz officially became the new owners of Mountain Brook's beloved Crestline Bagel chain on April 15, 2025. Crestline Bagel specializes in handmade bagels and other baked goods.
Tax Day might usually be a mundane occasion, but for Tommy and Lizzie Hiltz, this April 15 was full of excitement as they officially became the new owners of Crestline Bagel.
“That was not intentional,” Lizzie said with a laugh. Though unexpected, the date marked the beginning of a heartfelt new chapter in Mountain Brook’s culinary story.
Lizzie, a Birmingham native, holds decades of fond memories tied to the community staple. “I grew up here. I’m from Birmingham, and spent my whole life coming to Crestline Bagel, I have really fond and important memories coming with my family, and particularly my dad on the way to school in the morning, and we’ve always loved this place,” she said. “Tommy and I lived in Boston for five years, and prior to that, this was the very last place that we ate. We had the moving truck that we parked over by the tot-lot so we wouldn’t get towed and came here as our very last spot.”
Photo by Sarah Owens
Billy Luu makes fresh bagel dough at Crestline Bagel.
Despite both working outside the restaurant industry — Tommy in finance and Lizzie as a physician — the opportunity was one they couldn’t ignore. “I remember so vividly Tommy calling me and said, ‘There’s a restaurant that I want to buy.’ And my first thought was, you have always said that you would never buy a restaurant. And he said, ‘Well, when you hear what it is,’ he told me it was Crestline Bagel. And my first instinct was, ‘You absolutely have to buy this,’ because I don’t want anyone to change it or sell it off for parts.”
“The fact that it’s such a heritage business for us, you know, it’s a fixture in the community … I think Birmingham has a small and diminishing number of what I would consider sort of heritage, especially restaurants,” Tommy said. “The opportunity to be able to be part of one of those was really compelling for both of us.”
Their respect for the legacy of Crestline Bagel is matched by their commitment to its people. “One thing that I think makes Crestline feel so special is the amount of retention and longevity that a lot of our staff members have,” Lizzie said. “If you come into any of our stores, you’ll probably recognize familiar faces, for people that you’ve seen, not only for months, but years.”
The couple has kept all existing staff. “So far, knock on wood, we had no turnover during the transition, which was very exciting,” Tommy said.
Photo by Sarah Owens
Jermichal Buckhannon takes a customer's order at Crestline Bagel.
Though they’re not planning any major changes, small enhancements are in the works. “We’re doing some revamps like that, you know, we’re looking at our online stuff. We’re looking at how we order through the app, and whether there’s going to be delivery options,” Tommy noted. “All these things that I think can make it better without fundamentally changing anything that’s been great.”
For Lizzie, she wants the community to know it’s personal. “I think just general reassurance that we love and care about this brand too,” she said. “We feel a great sense of responsibility and stewardship to maintain the integrity of the brand … and we’re just excited to meet people.”
“Stewardship is really what we feel about it … we don’t want to change everything,” Tommy said. “It’s not a museum, we’re going to try to update here and there. But the metric that we’ve been using when we sit and talk about what changes we might do is like, is it going to enhance the customer experience?”
