Over 700 people showed up over the course of five hours with lines outside the door to try fresh bagels with live music from the newest PopUp Bagels in Roslyn.
PopUp Bagels, owned by Adam Goldberg, first started out in his own home during COVID-19.
After his 50th birthday he started making bagels in his house, when he grew bored with baking sourdough bread. Goldberg began selling his bagels at the beginning of 2021 out of pop-up kitchens in Westport and the Hamptons.
Today, he has nine stores between Long Island, Connecticut and New York City.
Unlike other bakeries or delis that offer customers individual and customizable bagels, at Goldberg’s it’s always been about picking up fresh pre-made bagels.
“We focus on one thing and one thing only: fresh from the oven bagels,” Goldberg said in an interview with the Roslyn News. The minimum purchase at any PopUp Bagels is three bagels and a cream cheese.
As a child Goldberg said that one of his favorite experiences was heading down to the local bagel store and waiting in line with his mother during the morning for a warm bagel.
“We thought Roslyn was a good place to start off location-wise for our Long Island expansion,” Goldberg said. In addition, he confirmed that the bakery would open up a few more locations on Long Island, although he was unable to confirm where they would be.
Goldberg also pointed to company roots from Roslyn. Darren Rovell, a sports business analyst who previously worked for ESPN, is one of the company’s investors.
“It’s awesome to open another @popupbagels store, but this one is special because it’s my home of Roslyn,” Rovell tweeted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “When they asked what I wanted to put on the wall, I donated my sixth-grade report card (1990) from Roslyn Middle School.”
Goldberg is looking to begin adding hot coffee at his stores. He had wanted to do it sooner, but the majority of his focus last year was opening new stores, not expanding the menu.
“The hardest part of running a business is introducing new things to the business. We opened seven stores last year. We didn’t want to open seven new stores and add coffee,” Goldberg said.
He said it is the baking process, which he would not disclose in the interview, that sets his bagels apart from his competitors’. He said his version creates a lighter interior that is still chewy but a little less heavy in your stomach.
Goldberg encouraged Roslyn residents to try his bagels.
“You never know who you are going to see, so come on down, try our bagels and have a good time,” he said.
