Tampa just got a taste of New York, with the opening of PopUp Bagels, a storefront known for its artisan NYC-style bagels. Popup Bagels, located on 4528 W Kennedy Blvd, is known for its “grip, rip and dip” whole, hot bagels with unique, rotating flavors of cream cheese, and has already announced plans for a second Tampa location in Carollwood.
I was very excited to try these, as I personally am a fan of the “grip, rip and dip” method, as long as the bagel has a good texture and the cream cheese is a good flavor. I was pleasantly surprised by the texture, the bagels were hot and fluffy, perfect for ripping and dipping, and paired with the creamy cream cheese made for a delightful combo.
There are not pre-sliced bagels or sandwiches-truly paying homage to the classic NYC style bagel, however, personally I love bagel sandwiches so they lost a point in my book for choosing to exclude them. The bagel choices themselves are quite simple offering: everything, poppy seed, sesame, salt and plain. However, the lack of variety also causes the options they do offer to have a better quality and focus. They boast a variety of cream cheese flavors including seasonal ones, which are currently caramel apple cream cheese and maple butter.
However, something that is not as enjoyable as the bagels is the prices. While boasting the title of “artisan bagels” they definitely come with artisan prices, with a preorder of a dozen bagels with two spreads coming to a whopping $42. Personally, I’m not always prepared to pay NYC prices in Florida, especially when Einstein Bagels (less than two miles away) is less than half the price, charging $19.19 for a dozen. Paired with the inconvenient opening/closing times, opening at 6:30 a.m. and closing at 3:00 p.m., I would say Popup Bagels is worth a visit for a special occasion or reward, but not on a daily basis.
