A visit to PopUp Bagels, very viral and now open in Boston

Boston Globe

05-02-2025

PopUp offers a streamlined menu of plain, everything, poppy, salt, and sesame bagels, sold in packs of three ($15), six ($22), or 12 ($42). The price includes one of PopUp's schmears (or, in the case of the 12-pack, two), a.k.a. cream cheese. Here, things get more trend-driven and fanciful, with plain, scallion, vegan, and limited edition flavors such as spicy vodka sauce, truffle, pumpkin spice, and Grillo's Pickles Pickle de Gallo, a collab with the local company. There are also rotating butters, from pesto to cacio e pepe to brown sugar cinnamon.
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But PopUp's real signature is how the bagels are served: piping hot and whole. The bagel shop's tagline is 'Not Famous But Known.' Its catch phrase is 'Grip, Rip, and Dip.' Both are trademarked. There will be no slicing at PopUp Bagels. There will be no toasting. There will be no schmearing of the schmears. There will be gripping, ripping, and dipping. And probably waiting. Because due to all those viral videos, there is often a line snaking out of the shop and around the building.
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PopUp Bagels features traditional bagel varieties including everything, sesame, poppy, salt, and plain. Creativity comes into play with limited edition schmears such as spicy vodka sauce, pumpkin spice, and Grillo's Pickles Pickle de Gallo.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff/Erin Clark
I show up to try the bagels on a cold and rainy day, when the Seaport shop is packed but the line to get inside is short and fast-moving. Suits me. I'm line-skeptical, as in my experience the wait is equally likely to lead to something amazing or deeply mediocre. I'm also bagel-opinionated, because I grew up in New York, where all bagels were New York bagels, with density, form, and flavor that became my benchmark for what bagels should be. I do not want to eat cottony round bread with a hole in the middle that claims the title. I love a Montreal bagel — when I'm in Montreal. Does a shop sell rainbow-hued bagels, or bagels in flavors like sundried-tomato-gochujang-kalamata-kelp-asiago-ube-chocolate-chip? I'm going to have to pass.
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I appreciate the traditional bagel flavors on offer at PopUp. I order six, one of each plus a second everything, because everything bagels are my favorite. (I do not recall them even being an option during my childhood, when my choice was either onion or bialy, but I'm adaptable within reason.) Of course, I get the limited edition schmear, currently spicy scallion. On
Customers wait in line to order at PopUp Bagels in the Seaport. The viral bagel shop plans to expand nationally.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff/Erin Clark
Every single customer is wearing Uggs. Gwyneth Paltrow smiles from the collage that covers the walls. 'They don't have the Pickle de Gallo anymore,' someone laments, and her friend wails, 'Noooo!' (I am also sad about this.) There is a small table to perch at, and a few people are sitting on the floor. I'm taking my bagels to go. 'Appreciate you,' says the staff member handing me the bag. This is what staff members say to everyone when concluding a transaction.
But inside my paper bag is real, genuine, unquestionable warmth. Steam wafts from the opening, and in the cold wet of the Seaport, it seems magical. The bagels are small, plump, generously festooned with seeds. Back in Ye Olde Subaru, I rip off a piece of an everything, and more steam wafts forth. The bagels are crisp outside, airy and bouncy inside, so moist they are a step away from underbaked. When I bite in, they
squish
, visibly compressing. There's a slight sweetness to the dough. It is enjoyable, if not my Platonic ideal. When I try the poppy seed bagel, it's tougher and chewier than the rest. Is the flavor less popular, and thus a little less fresh? Is this a preview of what the bagels might taste like a few hours after they've cooled? Because not that I won't try, but I can't eat six bagels in one go.
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I have gripped, and I have ripped. What am I missing here? Into the schmear the bagel goes, and with a giant glob of spicy scallion cream cheese in the mix, bagel subtleties matter less. This dipping system is fun, but also filling, because cream cheese isn't really a dip. Within a few bites I've eaten a normal bagel's worth. I'll stick to schmearing my schmears in the future.
The menu board at PopUp Bagels in the Seaport, featuring limited edition spicy scallion schmear and pesto butter.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff/Erin Clark
A few hours later, back in my kitchen, I pull a room-temperature bagel from the bag and take a bite. It's tough already. PopUp Bagels offers reheating instructions: Toast the bagel or run it quickly under water and place directly on the rack of a 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes. I try the latter and it works like a charm. But most bagels don't require this treatment until the next day. The truly special thing here may be receiving this warmth, watching steam curl into cold air, even waiting in line to experience something communal, a longing quickly and easily satisfied, a moment shared.
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I'm not so cynical as to dismiss this. But I wouldn't call it the best bagel in New York, as some have, or Boston either. Among others, we have
Stand in line for a bagel, why not! But don't forget your local favorites.
PopUp Bagels, 70 Pier 4 Boulevard, Suite 330, Seaport, Boston, 617-982-6783,
Fresh trays of plain and everything bagels await at PopUp Bagels' new Seaport location in Boston.
Erin Clark/Globe Staff/Erin Clark
Devra First can be reached at