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Seen all over social media and by many considered to be home to some of the best bagels in NYC despite its out-of-the-ordinary business model (more on that later), PopUp Bagels has officially opened its second NYC location, this time invading the Upper West Side at 338 Columbus Avenue near 76th Street by the American Museum of Natural History.
In addition to its address by the West Village at 177 Thompson Street, PopUp Bagels has garnered a local fanbase through a slew of collaborations that it has set up around the city in the past year or so, including one with Dominique Ansel, another involving caviar and a third in association with iconic brand Cup Noodles.
The sentiment seems to be the same no matter what form PopUp Bagel takes: some people absolutely love the baked goods it sells, even though the business started off as a pandemic project by one Adam Goldberg in his Connecticut backyard, while others consider them too far from what an "authentic" New York bagel should look, taste and feel like.
Those critics aren't exactly wrong: PopUp Bagels' creations are smaller than what New Yorkers are used to. They are also crisper and feel more like a French baguette than the sort of more dense local creations that everyone is used to. There's more, though: the bagels here are sold unsliced and meant to be "ripped and dipped" in whatever schmear you choose to order them with, which sounds like actual blasphemy.
To make matters even odder, customers here need to abide to a three-bagel order minimum. You read that right: you cannot order a single bagel with cream cheese, but have to grab at least a trio on your way out.
Although all the particularities would lead average New Yorkers to just wave off PopUp Bagels as a fleeting trend, the lines outside the new Upper West Side location this weekend prove the opposite: the bagel shop clearly knows what it is doing.
That isn't a surprise for owner Goldberg, who owns up to every business decision he's come up with.
“We are PopUp Bagels,” Goldberg said to West Side Rag recently. “This is what we think is a great bagel. We make it size appropriate with enough chew and no lead in the belly.”
To drive the point further, the company is also gearing up for the opening of yet another location, this one on the Upper East Side. PopUp Bagels is here to stay.