Why
it matters:
- The $3.04 billion U.S. bagel market is hot, poised to grow at a compound annual rate of 4.3% from 2025 to 2030 and fueled in part by unique, artisanal offerings.
- Against that backdrop, quick-service startup PopUp Bagels, known for its “grip, rip, and dip” bagels, features a streamlined operating model with a tightly concentrated menu focused on efficiency.
- The food disruptor, led by new CEO and restaurant industry veteran Tory Bartlett, is now turning to franchisees with existing infrastructure and market experience to help grow the brand.
With
its simple operating model and differentiated niche in the bagel café
segment, buzzy startup PopUp Bagels,
known for its “grip,
rip, and dip” bagels, is looking to expand across the country.
Tory
Bartlett, a veteran of multiple restaurant brands, joined the company
as CEO last fall and recently spoke with CO— about his plans to
grow the bagel disruptor without straying from the core principles
that have driven strong sales in its first handful of stores.
PopUp
Bagels was founded by Adam Goldberg, who began selling his bagels
from his home in Connecticut when he came up with the recipe during
the pandemic. The bagel recipe he created using high-quality
ingredients quickly gained a huge local fan base, thanks in part to
some viral social media support.
The
company has since expanded to 15 brick-and-mortar locations in the
Northeast and Florida, bolstered by two rounds of funding that have
included backing from investment firms Stripes,
Tastemaker Capital,
and Habitat Partners.
Several sports and entertainment celebrities have also invested,
including Actor
Paul Rudd
and Athletes J.J. Watt,
T.J. Watt,
Michael Phelps,
and Michael Strahan.
A
less-is-more service model: ‘The great thing about PopUp is that it
has a very simple business model’
PopUp
Bagels has pioneered a distinct service model, which includes a
bare-bones staff and an extremely limited menu. While typical bagel
shops offer an assortment of bagel and cream cheese varieties, along
with various other schmears, sandwiches, salads, and other deli-style
offerings, PopUp offers only five types of bagels (plain, sesame,
poppy, salt, and everything) and two varieties of cream cheese (plain
and scallion), plus limited-time cream cheese and butter schmears
that rotate weekly. Recent schmear varieties have included unique
flavor formulations such as ramp cream cheese and lemon lavender
honey butter to appeal to the palates of today’s adventurous
consumers.
Customers
must order bagels in multiples of three—three, six, or a dozen—and
workers don’t slice them or toast them. The chewy, freshly baked
bagels are designed so customers can “grip, rip, and dip” them in
the cream cheese or butter schmears.
“The
great thing about PopUp is that it has a very simple business model,”
said Bartlett, in an interview with CO—. “We just focus on
providing our customers with some great, hot bagels with some great
schmears.”
[Read more: How 3 Franchise Entrepreneurs Built Multimillion-Dollar Businesses]
Bagels
are booming, thanks in part to unique, artisanal fare
PopUp
Bagels’
expansion push comes as bagels, especially artisanal varieties made
fresh in local bagel shops, are gaining popularity across the United
States.
The
global bagel market size was valued at $5.58 billion in 2024 and is
expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 4.8% from 2025 to 2030,
according to a Grand View Research report.
The growth is being driven by consumer demand for convenient
breakfast options that can be eaten on the go, as well as the growth
of bagel chains offering unique, artisanal, or high-quality
ingredients and formulations, the report concluded.
Chains
including Bruegger’s Bagels,
Einstein Bros. Bagels,
and Panera Bread
have seen success by offering high-quality bagels in a café
environment, according to Grand View.
“Artisanal
bagels, often made using traditional methods and high-quality
ingredients, are perceived as being of superior quality compared to
mass-produced alternatives,” the report said. “The demand for
authenticity and craftsmanship has driven the growth of this segment
of the market.”
Efficiency
is key to quick-service store model
Unlike
chains such as Bruegger’s Bagels and Einstein Bros. Bagels, PopUp
Bagels does not offer anything remotely resembling a café-style
environment and instead focuses on efficiency. Its simple business
model, which only recently began testing the addition of a drip
coffee offering, allows PopUp to operate in locations measuring just
1,100 to 1,800 square feet. Some locations have a few tables outside
where customers can stand and eat their bagels, but otherwise the
concept is takeout-only.
All
bagels are boiled and baked fresh daily on-site, and the company
makes its own schmears at its commissary. Stores generally staff
about 15 workers altogether, compared with 40 to 50 workers at a
typical quick-service chain, Bartlett said. At the same time, the
average customer check is also higher than a typical bagel shop. With
a three-pack and a schmear priced at between $13 and $15, PopUp
Bagels rings up an average order of $22 per check.
“If you sell a bagel for $2 and have a lot of very small [orders], it’s pretty tough to make that work,” said Bartlett. “Our unit economics would dramatically change if we did that.”
The great thing about PopUp is that it has a very simple business model. We just focus on providing our customers with some great, hot bagels with some great schmears.Tory Bartlett, CEO of PopUp Bagels
Offering
bagels in multiples of three also encourages sharing and helps
increase brand awareness, he said.
“You
may not eat three bagels, but you might give one to a coworker, and
you’re going to make it kind of a community event,” he said.
That
“community” ethos is also reflected at the stores, where workers
are encouraged to engage in friendly banter with customers and even
offer the occasional free bagel to a first-time customer who may be
hesitant to buy a three-pack.
New
CEO Bartlett has relevant restaurant and franchise experience
Bartlett
is the former Chief Brand Officer of Moe’s Southwest Grill,
where he helped lead the growth of that 618-unit chain. While there,
he also spearheaded an initiative to streamline the chain’s stores
to optimize growth opportunities by offering franchises flexible
formats for different real estate opportunities. Before joining
Moe’s, Bartlett held
leadership roles at Schlotzsky’s,
which is a franchised sandwich chain, and Southern Proper Hospitality,
which operates a handful of casual-dining concepts.
He
joins PopUp as the company launches a franchised expansion effort
that includes partnerships with two local business groups to expand
in Southern California: James
Marzouk of Sweetzer Capital,
which is planning 25 PopUp Bagels locations across Los Angeles and
Orange County, and Paul Goodman and Griffin Thall of The Bagel Boyz
(the founders of Pura Vida Bracelets),
who plan to open 10 locations in San Diego during the next few years.
Bartlett
said working with experienced, local business operators to operate
its franchised locations in new markets will better position the
company for success in those markets.
“Working
with local partners helps you pick good locations and reduces the
liability of opening up in the wrong spot,” he said. “It provides
the brand with a high chance of being successful right from Day One
as we enter new markets.”
Based
on his own experience managing franchised brands, Bartlett said he is
looking for well-capitalized franchisees that have existing
infrastructure they can leverage, such as real estate departments and
other assets that chain restaurant operators need. It costs up to
about $800,000 to open a location, he said.
[Read more: Remote Work Presents Opportunities (and Challenges) for Suburban Restaurant Growth]
Attractive
to franchisees: ‘You do that by being in the trenches with your
franchise partners’
For
multi-concept franchisees, PopUp Bagels can be an appealing addition
to their portfolio because it has such a differentiated model that it
likely doesn’t compete directly with their existing restaurant
brands, according to Bartlett.
“We
are highly focused on being the premier franchisor out there, and you
don't do that by just having a quality brand,” said Bartlett. “You
do that by being in the trenches with your franchise partners and
understanding what changes you need to make, where we can be
flexible, and where we can’t.”
While
Bartlett said plans call for keeping the model as simple as possible,
he’s open to looking at potential variations in the menu and
service models to meet demands of individual markets.
“To be a good franchisor, you have to understand that that franchisee is taking a risk along with you,” said Bartlett. “You have to do what's best for the brand, and what’s best for the brand is having good franchisees that are making money.”
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