BAGEL REVIEW in New York: Pop Up Bagels

I imagine I am a real pain in the ass. I never like to play by the rules set down by restaurants.

I was very excited to try Pop Up Bagels, which is a Connecticut-based bagel company that has expanded form a backyard “pop-up” where people could buy fresh homemade bagels to having six locations around New York State and Connecticut.

After winning the Best Bagel award from the Brooklyn Bagel Fest (two years in a row), they have finally opened a permanent storefront in the city. And lucky for me, it is steps away from where I meet one of my tour groups.

With its viral press on Tik Tok and elsewhere, I was expecting to see a line early on a Saturday morning, but was also happy it was just a few people deep.

To move the line along, the owner came by to take everybody’s order. My first question at a bagel shop is always “What just came out of the oven?” and he assured me everything. So I ordered an everything bagel with a schmear of cream cheese.

But that is not how it works here. You can’t get anything on your bagel, you can’t get your bagel sliced, oh, and you can’t just get one bagel.

I soon learned the rules. The minimum order is three bagels (for $12) and they come with a small tub of cream cheese.

But that doesn’t make sense to me here in New York and goes very much against the city’s culture where we walk to our corner bagel shop before work, grab a bagel with a schmear of our choice, and eat it as we head down the street.

The owner told me I would be able to eat all three bagels right away or freeze the rest. Sure, the bagels would make it a few hours before I got home, but the cream cheese was ultimately going to be thrown out, which is a terrible shame and a waste of good food.

This might work in Connecticut or Long Island, where everybody drives and can get to their refrigerator and freezer shortly to store the remaining two bagels. But it really is not how bagels are done in this city.

And besides, I also didn’t want to spend 12 dollars on my breakfast when all I wanted was one single bagel. Seems crazy!

But in the interest of science (and food blogging), I forked over the 12 bones and took the three bagels and tub of cream cheese.

Then we came to the next problem. I tried to pay in cash. Well, that caused somewhat of an uproar because they said they did not take cash. Which I hate to say, is actually illegal in New York City. There are many people in this city who can’t afford to use a credit card or prefer not to get involved with debt and not allowing them to eat at your establishment poses a real classist issue if you ask me.

I think the owner knew this because he swiftly told me to take the bagels and not worry about it. So now I was both wasting food and stealing from a small business!! Great! I am a total jerk!

I attempted to leave a large cash tip, but they wouldn’t accept that either, which is kind of another issue. I would have happily at least contributed to the staff’s well-being.

Ok, rant over. I don’t mean to be so negative because I have to say these bagels were really really good.

Clearly, these is a level of craft here. The small bagels were hot and compact giving a tremendous crunch on each bite and a nice appropriate pull. The everything seasoning was plentiful and covered most of the bagel. I appreciated that, although it did seem the little chunks of garlic were almost burnt, which is not a good flavor for garlic.

The puffy interior also was reminiscent of a loaf of high-quality bread with a nice crumb – not something you often encounter with your every day bagel.

They certainly could have been fully enjoyed by themselves without anything else, but I find it hard to enjoy a bagel without its best friend named cream cheese. However, the way it is served makes this more like hummus and pita and let’s face it, a bagel is not pita. It’s very hard to dip the bagel and get the right amount of cream cheese. Seems like if this is an experiment to change the way we eat bagels, it doesn’t quite work.

Perhaps I have turned into the cranky old man who is trying to keep New York traditional. No cash? No schmear? No solo bagel? What is this city coming to? But also like that cranky old man, I can identify a good bagel when I find one. And this, my friends, is a good bagel.

Does Pop Up Bagels have the best bagels in NY? My feelings about this place are complicated, but aside from some seasonings that are little too well-done, this is a phenomenal bagel. So for the bagel alone, I do have to rate them a 9 out of 10.