ALTAMONT — After 11 years of providing the village with daily fresh-baked bagels and a place to gather, Jean Conklin is leaving her Hungerford Market.

“What I’ll miss most is the friendships,” she says on Tuesday. “The best thing about this business is all the people I meet.”

Conklin goes on, “I’m going to tear up.” But, she waves away her solemnity and flashes her bright, trademark smile.

“We sat here every morning, our 7 a.m. sessions,” Conklin says, calling out the regulars by their first names — Maureen, Kevin, Bob, Rick, Artie, Ed, John, and Charlie.

Conklin sits at the table in front of the counter, her back to the cash register, and pats the window-seat cushion where Maureen Driscoll had sat each day before she moved to North Carolina after the death of her husband.

“We solved many crises at this table,” says Conklin. “We had a lot of laughs.”

Chris Connors, one of the many police officers who frequents Hungerford Market, was there on Tuesday, wearing his Altamont uniform. “I’m a lieutenant in Cohoes. I need the coffee here in the morning to keep me going,” he says as he helps himself to a cup from the row of dispensers.

He also comes for his favorite sandwich — chicken salad, he says. “And the people,” Connors adds. “It’s a quaint village and you get to know everybody here.”

Conklin has a background in business management and medical billing. She credits her mother and grandmother with teaching her to cook and bake well. “All you girls can cook,” her mother said of Conklin and her two sisters.

Conklin had been a regular customer of the original Hungerford Market, located in the old A&P on Main Street, which is now Veronica’s Culinary Tavern.

Sue McGaughnea used to own and run the Main Street Hungerford Market, and Conklin stopped by every morning for a blueberry scone and a cup of coffee. “I was running a store in Berne with a two-year lease. When I left, I didn’t know what I wanted to do….I talked with Sue and decided this would be my next venture,” Conklin recalls.

McGaughnea trained Conklin. “I remember thinking, ‘She is a great cook. She is going to be a tough act to follow.’”

Conklin started in the Main Street location and liked “seeing everything going on there” but then, when that space became a restaurant, she moved Hungerford Market around the corner to Maple Avenue.

“The parking is perfect,” she said, gesturing out the window to the village lot next door. “The space is quaint, thanks to Troy Miller and his decorating team,” she says, referring to the owner of CM Fox Real Estate.

Over the years, all three of Conklin’s daughters — Sarah, Casey, and Brittany — have worked at the market.

“It was great; they were always here to help,” says Conklin. “When I bought Hungerford Market, my first grandchild was born. That’s what they’ve known all their lives,” she says of her grandchildren.

“I’ve been running my own business for 15 years. You get tired,” says Conklin, who is 56, of her reason for  selling. “You know when the time is right to pass the baton.”

Looking ahead

She is passing the baton to Connie Rue and James Miller, who is familiar to Altamont residents as he once had Desolation Road Studios on the village’s Main Street.

Her last day will be Thursday, Aug. 31. On Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 5 to 8 p.m, she’ll host a farewell open house for the public.

“They’ll continue to do bagels and breakfast things but have some ideas to make it their own,” Conklin says of Rue and Miller. They have publicized the slogan, “The food you crave and the quality you deserve.”

“This opportunity just fell in our lap and we’re going to run with it,” said Miller.

They are changing the name to the Hungerford Café and will close for two weeks, from Sept. 1 to 16, for renovations, he said. They plan to host a grand opening on Sept. 30.

Asked about changes in hours or in the menu, Miller said  “Right off the rip, it’ll be the same fare Jean’s been providing.” The breakfast menu may be expanded to include items like burritos, Miller said.

“It will all depend on what we can do in the kitchen. It’s in need of an upgrade,” Miller said, noting he is “working out the details with zoning.”

If all goes well with kitchen upgrades, the café may “make lunch more of a focus,” he said, and may offer take-out dinners.

One thing is for sure, Miller said: His artwork will grace the café walls.

When asked about low points in running her business, Conklin can’t think of any. “It’s all been good. One of my customers said, it’s the end of the Seinfeld era,” says Conklin.

Conklin is not sure what she’ll do next. “I’ll take a little down time and then may get into catering or event planning,” she says. “It’s time to be a worker bee and not a boss lady.”

She thinks for a moment, and then continues, “I was never a boss lady. I had great relationships with the people who work here. I’ve watched some of my kids come in at 15 and stay till college. Everybody thought I had a ton of daughters,” she says with a smile.

She added, “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without a great staff.”

One part of her future Conklin is sure of: “I’ll be up at 20 after five. That’s how my internal clock is set — all those years of baking bagels for breakfast.”

Updated on Aug. 15, 2017: Comments from James Miller were added as was the name of another Hungerford Market regular. And “blueberry muffin” was changed to “blueberry scone” as that is what Jean Conklin ate every day with her coffee at the old market.