New York City: home to the Empire State Building, Times Square, delicious cheesy pizza, and of course the most incredible bagels you will ever try. As those who have had the privilege to indulge in these delicacies know, New York bagels are superior to their competition in every way imaginable. Maybe it’s the water, maybe it’s the flour, maybe it’s the New York attitude. And, while there are a number of different bagel shops to swoon over, the newest up and coming place is PopUp Bagels.
What is PopUp Bagels?
If you live in the tristate area, you may have seen PopUp Bagels on your FYP. Everyone from Jack's Dining Room to Tinx has tried and raved about them. PopUp Bagels was started by Adam Goldberg in 2020 as a pickup window in his backyard. As the pandemic swept through New York City, he wanted to find a way to share his groundbreaking recipe with friends, family, and strangers alike. “Our goal is simple: to make you the best, freshest bagels. No frills, plainly perfect: crispy crust and soft crumb center, just the right size and with a perfect proportion of seeds,” he writes on the website.
How do I order from PopUp Bagels?
Lucky for us, PopUp Bagels has a number of locations in the tristate area, including Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. Their locations page is linked so you can find the specific address of the store closest to you. But you can’t just roll up to any one of their brick and mortar spots. Like we said, these bagels are coveted, and therefore, a little tricky to get your hands on.
Unlike your typical bagel shop, PopUp Bagels runs more like a, well, pop-up. You have to place your order days, if not a whole week, ahead of time and pick up your order at the location you selected during a specified date and time.
PopUp Bagels also requires a minimum of 12 bagels (any flavor you want) and two spreads. Additionally, you can opt in to add fish, like smoked salmon or whitefish salad, to your order as well as extra bagels and spreads, but this is not required.
One of the other unique aspects of this bagel shop is that they don’t cut your bagels. Many customers choose to instead take hunks of bagel and dip it into their spread of choice rather than cutting and spreading it on.
Menu + flavors
PopUp Bagels has all the classic flavors we love, including everything bagels, sesame bagels, salt bagels, plain bagels, and poppy seed bagels. No rainbow bagels, no blueberry bagels, just your traditional flavors. Their spreads include plain cream cheese, scallion cream cheese, cacio e pepe butter, and roasted red pepper cream cheese.