Tompkins Square Bagels Is Coming To The Upper East Side

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The East Village is coming to the Upper East Side.

The heralded Tompkins Square Bagels announced last week that they would be opening their fourth location on Third Avenue in Lenox Hill between East 67th and 68th streets. The bagel place will be taking over two vacant storefronts formerly home to Jardino Italian Cafe and America's Cafe & Grill.

Owner Chris Pugliese told Sam Silverman on his bagel industry Instagram account, The Bagel Ambassador, that he spends a lot of time in the Upper East Side already because his wife is a big fan of Alice's Teacup, just under ten blocks from Lenox Hill's other recently announced new bagel spot.

"I spend a lot of time up there getting scones," Pugliese said, who described the Upper East Side as "a real neighborhood," and said that uptown bagel fans already trek down to his shop on the weekends.

The bagel man opened Tompkins Square Bagels near the storied East Village park in 2011, and quickly developed long lines of eager mouths clamoring for not just crisp and chewy bagels but also the store's creative toppings — like cookie dough cream cheese, mac & cheese and other "social-media-friendly (and atrocious) toppings," Grub Street wrote in 2017 — but it still regularly lands on lists of the city's top bagels.

His three downtown shops currently employ 70 workers, and Pugliese says he knows everyones name. He said in the Instagram interview that he is involved with hiring each worker, and according to him, Upper East Siders can expect his workers to be "warm" and "kind."

"I can teach you anything," the Gravesend native told Silverman, "but the one thing I can't teach you is how to be kind."

If Pugliese gets that sense from potential workers, "I hire them and teach them the rest."

One of the last hand-bagel rollers in the city, Celestino García, who the New York Times profiled in May — and can roll 17 bagels in a minute — works at Tompkins Square Bagels in addition to two other bagel spots.

It's not just a promise of friendly workers — Pugliese says that the new shop will fight the trend of new eateries prioritizing delivery over an in-store experience.

"I want my stores to be a big celebration, a big deal," Pugliese said. "I always try to make a New York City jewel every time I open a shop."