Latest news with #bagels
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PopUp Bagels to open 300 new outlets in US
Bagel chain PopUp Bagels has finalised agreements for 300 additional franchise outlets throughout the US. The expansion has been secured with fewer than 15 franchise partners. PopUp Bagels founder Adam Goldberg stated: 'When we started baking bagels in my backyard, I never imagined we'd turn it into a national brand. 'We weren't trying to start a business - we just wanted to make something great and share it with friends. The idea of hitting 300 stores is surreal, but the real achievement is building a company that still feels like that: small, connected and full of energy.' The new locations will span ten US states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The company plans to have 100 of these outlets operational by the end of 2027. To ensure uniformity in quality, PopUp Bagels is setting up regional production facilities for its bagels and spreads. The franchise states that its bagels are crafted with carefully selected ingredients to achieve their distinct texture and taste. PopUp Bagels CEO Tory Bartlett stated: 'We're not just opening stores - we're redefining what it means to franchise. 'We're partnering with some of the most accomplished operators in the industry, and together we're building a model rooted in connection, quality and long-term success. This isn't just scale - it's a smarter way to grow.' In November 2024, PopUp Bagels unveiled its nationwide expansion plans through franchising. "PopUp Bagels to open 300 new outlets in US" was originally created and published by Verdict Food Service, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
You're about to see PopUp Bagels everywhere
Bright and early on a recent Saturday morning, a line snaked around the block in Boston's trendy Seaport District. People were patiently waiting to get their hands on PopUp Bagels—soft, steaming hot bagels designed to be torn and dipped directly into tubs of cream cheese or butter. PopUp Bagels wants to help Americans reimagine our relationship with this beloved breakfast food, and it's well on its way to doing so. Today, it announces an ambitious expansion from its 13 stores on the East Coast to a fleet of 300 stores from coast to coast with a focus on hubs like Atlanta; Nashville; and Orlando, Florida. 'We're bringing our stores to places where people don't necessarily think of themselves as 'bagel people',' says Adam Goldberg, PopUp Bagels' founder. 'We're introducing bagels into their routines.' The company began as a pandemic hobby for Goldberg, a flood mitigation expert from Connecticut. In lockdown, Goldberg started baking. After trying his hand at sourdough bread, he moved on to bagels. With much tinkering, he developed a recipe for a bagel that had a softer, lighter texture than the dense bagels you find in New York. The bagels were so delicious friends and neighbors wanted to buy them by the dozen. Two years later, Goldberg began opening pop-up shops around New York City that attracted large crowds. To many people, PopUp Bagels offers a fun new take on bagels. Most bagel shops bake their goods in the morning, then toast them for customers. But PopUp Bagels are meant to be served fresh from the oven. They're satisfying to rip apart, with a crisp exterior that provides contrast with the soft interior. At the Seaport District, people were scattered at picnic tables and benches, dipping their bagels directly into different flavored schmears. They can also be eaten cold in a more traditional way, by slicing them and slathering them with cream cheese and lox. Goldberg points out that the New York bagel has evolved over the years to become what it is. His bagels are actually reminiscent of those in New York shops from decades ago. 'I've had so many New Yorkers tell me these bagels remind them of their childhood,' he says. 'Back then, people lined up for hot bagels straight out of the oven, when they were at their peak performance.' Part of the reason bagels stopped being served this way is that it is logistically challenging to serve them hot at scale. Each store needs to predict demand, then bake them at steady rate that keeps pace with the line. PopUp has turned this process into an art with the help of Tory Bartlett, whom Goldberg appointed as CEO last November. Bartlett, who previously saw the expansion of Moe's Southwest Grill to 600 locations, is familiar with scaling food businesses. Bartlett says that PopUp Bagels has streamlined its operations by exclusively selling bagels and coffee; it doesn't make sandwiches. It also sells bagels in bundles of three, six, or a dozen, rather than one at a time. (Prices vary from $13 to $15 for a three pack and a schmear, depending on the market.) This allows them to better predict demand and generate revenue. 'The unit economics of a business needs to be competitive as you scale,' says Bartlett. 'It's hard to make money by selling one or two bagels at $3 a pop. But selling a three pack protects the transaction.' Another reason the shops are profitable is that they don't require a very large footprint. They just need a couple of ovens and a counter. Employees focus on quickly packing bags of bagels and schmears for customers. 'We don't need a lot of workers,' Bartlett says. 'It's a very streamlined operation.' The efficiency of the business convinced Bartlett that it was possible to quickly scale PopUp. In 2023, the company received an infusion of $8 million Series A funding, and last year, it took a Series B round, both of which were led by Stripes, a growth equity firm. They then began the process of franchising PopUp. Bartlett says they were extremely judicious about their partners. They're only working with 15 franchisees, who will each run dozens of shops. 'Thousands of people reached out to work with us, but we were extremely selective about whom we partnered with,' says Bartlett. 'We picked people who are very passionate about this business.' To keep the taste of the bagels consistent, PopUp will make the dough and disseminate regionally. This will allow the franchisees to focus on the operations of delivering hot bagels quickly. If the other locations are any guide, there are likely to be long lines at all of these new stores, as people experience the novelty of the PopUp experience. But can the company keep up this level of interest? Goldberg has high hopes. 'Conveniently, we've landed on a product that has been a staple for many people throughout their entire lives,' he says. 'The fact that we're making something that people love anyway gives us a head start. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is tonight, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
New York Times
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
These Lemon-Poppy Seed Bars Are the Stuff of Dreams
Growing up with poppy seed bagels, hamantaschen and muffins, I never realized that those little specks stuck in my teeth had anything to do with the louche haze of opium dens or the soporific scarlet fields of Oz. I figured there must be different poppies — one the stuff of muffins and cake, the other for trapping little girls like Dorothy in morphine oblivion. But they are one and the same. Recipe: Lemon Poppy Seed Bars It's one of nature's clever little metaphors that the seed pods of Papaver somniferum, as the opium poppy is known scientifically, ooze a sticky, intoxicating latex when young and green, yet shed their narcotic properties entirely as they ripen and mature. That's when the tiny blue-black seeds are harvested, without so much as a hint of their younger, dreamier selves. I'd sometimes wonder about Dorothy's poppies when my grandmother and I made hamantaschen for Purim, grinding the seeds into an inky, oily paste. Stuffed into tricorn cookies, they were hard to tell apart from the similarly black prune-filled ones. I'd nibble a tiny smudge of filling before committing to a whole cookie, hoping for the seeds' dusky, bittersweet flavor. transcript Lemon Poppy Seed Bars 'So I'm going to use my little offset spatula and the bench press, and I'm going to show you a trick for getting it in there.' 'Bench scraper?' 'What did I say?' 'Bench press.' 'Oh, bench scraper.' [LAUGHS] [MUSIC PLAYING] 'Hi, I'm Melissa Clark. I'm a food reporter for 'The New York Times,' and we're here at the NYT Cooking Kitchen Studio, because I'm going to make you a recipe for lemon poppy seed bars. It takes the best of lemon bars, like a lemon curd bard, and crosses it with a lemon poppy seed poundcake, and you get this wonderful bar cookie that is chewy, it's citrusy, it's flecked with nutty poppy seeds, and it's really easy to make. I love these bars for picnics. They're like the perfect picnic snack. Another great thing about these, you can make them in advance. They keep really, really well, and they freeze well, too. Not that you're going to have any leftover, but just in case. First thing we're going to do is we're going to make the dough. I have the zest of two lemons. It's a lot of lemon zest. I mean, look at that. But that's what gives it its intense citrusy flavor. And then this is just sugar, and just regular salt. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm actually going to mix the lemon zest into the sugar. I'm releasing the oils, the lemon oils, that are in the zest. So if you skip this step, you're going to be losing some of that lemon flavor. This just brings it out. You can also do this with your hands and just, like, kind of rub the zest into the sugar. And it's aromatherapy, and it is fabulous. Although this is also aromatherapy if you just breathe deep. And you see, it just looks like sand, looks like yellow sand. And now, you want to add your butter. This is basically making a shortbread. Most lemon bars have a shortbread crust. So we're going to beat the butter in until it's all combined. Save these guys. Fold them over, because look at all that butter, and then pop them in the freezer, and then use these to grease your pan. No waste. And then once that looks nice and smooth, you want to just add your flour — all-purpose flour — and vanilla extract and poppy seeds. So I'm going to mix this until it's a little shy of being a solid brick of dough, because I want to pull some of it out, and that's going to be our streusel topping. So you don't have to make a separate streusel. It's all part of the same recipe, which is very easy and very good. And it's delicious that way. When I was developing this recipe, I was trying to come up with different ways to put the topping on the bars. I was like, should I do a lattice? Should I make it fancy? And I was like, streusel is just easier, and it has such great texture, too, because it's a little bit crumbly. So that's going to be for topping. So I'm going to press the rest of this into the bottom of the pan. This is just an 8-inch pan. Parchment paper — grease the pan, put the parchment paper on, and then this is going to help you lift it out later — help me lift it out later. And you, when you do it at home. It's a little bit sticky, this dough, but that is also what helps keep it tender. And then the trick is, I'm not going to try to use my fingers to press it into the pan, because it would really make a mess. So I'm going to use my little offset spatula and a bench scraper. [LAUGHS] So these bars are incredibly versatile. You can use the same dough, but instead of lemon curd in the middle, you can use jam, which is so good. Raspberry jam is delicious. You can use a caramel, a dulce de leche. Just anything sweet and sticky is going to be really good in these bars. But my favorite is a lemon curd, because the lemon curd just gives it that brightness. And this is already a rich cookie, and so this just cuts a little bit. So I'm trying to get this in an even layer. It doesn't have to be pretty on top, but you do want it even, so that everybody gets the same amount of cookie. Otherwise, somebody's going to get more cookie, and someone's going to get less cookie. So be good to your people and make it nice and even. You don't need to do this, but it makes it really nice. If you just take this, it just helps get it into the corners nicely and onto the sides nicely. I just learned this myself. This is a food stylist trick. O.K., so lemon curd. This lemon curd is a homemade recipe that I have at NYT Cooking. If you want to find it, I think it's called something like, 'The Easiest Lemon Curd' in the world, and you do it in the microwave. It comes together in five minutes, and it is so good. But otherwise, buy lemon curd. You can buy it. You can make whatever recipe you like. So, there's lots of ways to get the lemon curd. By the way, the reason this looks a little bit light in color for lemon curd is because part of the recipe calls for putting it in the blender, which aerates it ever so slightly. It doesn't affect the flavor at all. It's just a slightly fluffier texture, slightly lighter color. And that is it. So, you want to cover most of the surface area, but you still want to leave some gaps so that the lemon curd can bubble through — and then that looks really pretty — and gets a little brown. It's really nice. O.K. Wash my hands. Put in the oven. Really, lick my fingers. Who am I kidding? So I've preheated the oven to 350, and then, this bakes for 40 to 50 minutes.' [BEEPING] 'So what you're looking for — you know these are done — should be golden brown. I mean, you'll just see that the curd looks set. It looks a little bit shiny. It looks set. If you jiggle the pan, it's not moving. And then, you just let it sit for about an hour and a half, at least. You can let it sit for a few hours. It needs to really solidify before you cut it. Otherwise, the curd is just going to run all over the place, so just let it hang out for a few. And the best part of every video is where I get to eat the thing I just made. I love lemon bars so much, and I love poppy seed, so these are just my dream cookie. Pro tip, take one with the brown bit on the edge. That little caramely bit is where the lemon curd hit the pan and got chewy and caramelized, and it is the best bite. It's so good. The whole thing is so good. These are perfect. They're like my perfect cookie. You can find the recipe for these and for all the other recipes that we have at NYT Cooking at NYT Cooking, or click the link below. They're there for you. Cheers.' Muffins came later, in high school, along with slices of glazed lemon poppy seed pound cake. The seeds work differently in these desserts; instead of clumping into a sticky paste, they stay discrete — a crunchy stippling in yellow crumb. They taste different, too, with the lemon's acidity brightening the seed's concentrated earthiness. I considered all of this as I was creating these poppy seed-speckled lemon bars, striving to combine the crispness of hamantaschen with the moistness of cake. It turns out that using the same shortbread dough for the crust and topping does the trick, conveniently yielding cookies that are buttery-crisp on the bottom and soft in the center, where a layer of lemon curd meets the dough. But the best bit is where the curd meets the edges of the pan, caramelizing into puckery candy. If you want to make the curd, I have a very easy recipe that can be done in about 7 minutes in the microwave. But jarred curd works just as well. Or if you like you can substitute jam, which gives these bars a fruity snap, the kind that yields their own very good dreams. Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.
Forbes
01-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Marketing Lessons From NYC's Most Cravable Salmon And Cream Cheese Bagel
Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese From Apollo Bagels in New York City Richard Branson was always on the lookout for "stale" categories lacking in innovation so he could disrupt them by adding something unique or "special" and finding ways to better cater to underserved customers. Liquid Death is another case in point, that took a mature and unimaginative category, bottled water, and added an 'out there', made to go viral brand personality, and managed to achieve a $1.4 billion valuation in under 7 years. For months I passed Apollo Bagel at 7th Avenue and West 11th Street in New York City and wondered why the weekend lines were always so long for what seemed to be just another bagel shop. On a recent weekday when I passed and saw a short line, I thought I'd give it a try. The bagels were utter perfection to my mind, taste buds and insidees, and a spell of satisfaction and euphoria took over. It was not like any bagel I'd had before. The New Products Marketing professor in me wondered how something so tried and true, that had been minimally varied for decades, could have found so many attribute points of difference to excel at, vs. all those that have gone before. Bagels were introduced to America by Eastern European Jews in the late 1800's and went mainstream in the 1960's, 70's and 80's ranging from very mediocre Lender's frozen bagels you could find in a grocery store, to all manner of bagel shops proliferating throughout many large American cities. A number factors make Apollo Bagels unparalleled. It's a great example of how many features, attributes and dimensions go into a great product, that many competitors overlook. It's also a lesson in the importance of doing a few things really, really well, and they don't always need to be overcomplicated. Here are 9 examples of attention to details that make Apollo Bagels so exceptional: The smoked white fish with sliced cucumber and dill is equally beautiful, simple, and delicious. Smoked whitefish on a bagel with cucumbers and dill at Apollo Bagels, NYC The marketing and new product development lessons from Apollo Bagels in New York City are that:
CBS News
10-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Bagel shop inside Dearborn Ford dealership gains cult following
Inside the Village Ford Parts and Service Center in Dearborn, Michigan, you can get more than just new tires and an oil change. Through the doors and to your left is Brazen Bagels. "New York-style delicatessen. All traditional. All correct," said Jacob Anson, co-owner of Brazen Bagels. Brazen Bagels has been operating in this space for two years. "We've done very well, and Dearborn just wrapped their arms around us like they've embraced us entirely," Anson said. Anson says his wife, Megan, is the inspiration behind the business. "My wife, she likes bagels. I was trying to get her a good one," Anson said. After developing the perfect recipe, the couple started selling bagels from home and at a local pop-up. "Everything I didn't sell, I took to businesses all around me. Just try my bagels," Anson said. One of those businesses was Village Ford. "They got a great product, and we needed to get somebody in here for our dealership. And it was just a perfect opportunity," said Jay Sturtz, general sales manager of Village Ford. Word has spread, and now there's a devoted following of regular customers. "I just stumbled in here, and I saw this sign outside and came in and tried it. The best bagels I ever had," said Ahmad Hammoud, owner of Big Red's Barbeque Pit. "Him and his wife are great people, so I will support them forever." In 2024, the shop hosted a fundraiser for humanitarian aid in Lebanon. "They support our community, and we have to make sure that as residents of Dearborn, residents of Metro Detroit, we support any business that is supporting the community," said Amer Zhar, a regular customer. Anson arrives at work at 4 a.m. and says Brazen Bagels focuses on quality. "I start rolling. I'm rolling all day until close. I'm baking and rolling about 120 dozen a week. I just keep it moving, and my team is amazing," Anson said. "Everything's very intentional and simple, no frills, no gimmicks, brown paper bag, like the sandwich is the star. The ingredients are organic, with halal options on the menu. "We're a husband and wife company based on quality, nothing else, and everything's organically grown. You probably heard about us. You probably didn't, you probably didn't see, like, a social media campaign or a big sign or anything, but just believe the hype," Anson said. If you're at Village Ford for an oil change or just hungry for some good food, come check out Brazen Bagels.
