Iconic Bagels And Bialys Establishment Opening On The Upper West Side

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Iconic New York City establishments are replacing one another on the Upper West Side as Kossar's Bagels & Bialys will take over the former Pier 72 diner storefront.

Signage recently went up at the corner of West 72nd Street and West End Avenue for the popular bagel place that first opened in New York City in 1936.

Kossar's Bagels & Bialys welcomed customers for the first time on the Lower East Side more than 80 years ago, and calls itself the "oldest operating bialy bakery in the United States."

A bialy has a depressed middle cooked with onions or poppy seeds and is baked, whereas bagels are boiled and then baked.

Kossar's tradition and bialy recipes were born in 1936 in the historically Jewish Lower East Side of Manhattan where many immigrants from Poland arrived and brought their local bread from the town of Bialystock, which they fittingly called bialys.

Over the decades Kossar's also added bagels to its menu.

Recently, Kossar's has begun expanding from its Lower East Side location, opening an outpost in Hudson Yards and another one soon on the Upper East Side.

The new Upper West Side business will be its fourth.

The bagel spot is replacing the Pier 72 diner, which served customers in the neighborhood for 41 years before it shuttered in 2020 due to financial losses from the COVID pandemic.

You can find out more about Kossar's Bagels & Bialys on its website.