With two locations already open, PopUp Bagels is now looking to open in Midtown, too! Sources familiar with the brand's plans indicate PopUp will next open at 1086 Piedmont Avenue, across from Piedmont Park.
ToNeTo Atlanta reported in August 2025 that the first Atlanta area location of PopUp Bagels was coming to SPX Alley (661 Auburn Avenue), where it replaced Butter & Cream, a local ice cream shop that closed in the roughly 1,200 square foot space in October 2023 after five years in business.
ToNeTo Atlanta was first to report this past December on PopUp Bagel's then upcoming Buckhead unit which opened this past May at Buckhead Landing along Piedmont Road.
PopUp Bagels gets its name from the fact that it did just that - "popped up" - during the pandemic, with bagels sold from the home of founder Adam Goldberg in Westport, Connecticut. The first permanent brick-and-mortar location opened in Connecticut in 2023 and was later followed by additional units in Connecticut and New York.
The company, which proudly claims to be "not famous but known," officially launched franchising in November 2024, and according to a July 2025 release, has signed 300 franchised units with 20 operators and expects to reach 100 locations open and operating by the end of 2027.
The PopUp Bagels website indicates that there are currently 47 units open with expansion this year in new southern markets like Nashville, Birmingham and Charleston.
Investment by New York-based private equity firm Stripes is fueling the company's expansion, but actor Paul Rudd, Olympic champion Michael Phelps, and former NFL stars Michael Strahan and JJ Watt are also investors.
Several things set PopUp Bagels apart (for better or for worse) from other bagel shops. For one, they work primarily off a pre-order system, which likely ensures that they limit overproduction by pre-selling product. Secondly, the eatery does not sell single bagels. Walk-in orders must be a minimum of three bagels plus a schmear for $14. Pre-orders, which the business strongly encourages to ensure preferred availability, must be for a minimum of a dozen bagels plus two schmears. According to the company's website, a dozen bagels plus two schmears is $44, with other options including a greater quantity of bagels and schmears and also larger portions of butter and cream cheese to go, in addition to single-serve drinks.
Also worth noting, PopUp offers just five varieties of bagels: plain, sesame, poppy, everything, and salt. Customers are encouraged to "Grip, rip, and dip" their bagels (neither slicing nor toasting is offered), and while seating is uncommon at the chain's existing locations, this new location seemed primed for more seating than normal.
Have you been to PopUp Bagels? Where else in metro Atlanta would you like to see PopUp Bagels open? Who in Atlanta do you think makes the best bagel?
Please share your thoughts below.
4 comments:
The Birmingham location has been open for a couple of weeks. The bagels are hot no matter the time. The bagels are incredible. I’m not a cream cheese person, but my kids tell me the cream cheese is phenomenal.
Pop-Up shows the power of viral marketing. And to use a word that the kids use, the best way to describe them is - mid. Honestly, the true test of a good bagel is does it taste good when it's not hot. All bread tastes great when it's hot. Pop-up Bagels don't have much flavor aside from the seeds. A good plain bagel still has taste and that taste isn't there. And then the menu. Yawn. 5 bagel options and cream cheese. I want BEC, chicken salad, smoked salmon, etc.
Love this. Emerald City’s reign of mediocrity due to a lack of competition is crumbling.
BEC is not a traditional bagel option. Nor is chicken salad. And if you say “smoked salmon” instead of nova or lox, you sound weird. Clearly, a gentile made this comment.
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