Free Upper East Side News, Delivered To Your Inbox
East Village mainstay Tompkins Square Bagels opened a fourth location on the Upper East Side on Tuesday.
Located at 1159 Third Avenue (between 68th and 67th streets), right by CUNY Hunter College, the long-anticipated grand opening—first announced nearly two years ago—attracted a huge crowd of bagel aficionados. An employee stood outside the entrance giving out free samples as customers patiently waited for their turn to grab a delicious (but pretty pricy) bagel or breakfast sandwich.
Advertisement
This author picked up a classic cinnamon raisin bagel with plain cream cheese and a large iced coffee. While the bagel had that perfect fresh-baked chewiness and the cream cheese was, in a word, excellent, I’ll still never be able to get over paying almost $12 for that combo.
But Tompkins Square has an insane array of different kinds of spreads and schmears; on the sweet side of the aisle, the shop offers sugar-filled options like Oreo and birthday cake cream cheese. On the savory side of things, they offer cool twists on bagel shop classics like lemon lox spread, chipotle avocado cream cheese and cucumber dill cream cheese.
Tompkins Square also offers a vast array of specialty sandwiches, including the Chuck D, which is composed of sirloin, egg and cheese ($12.50); the Leo, which includes lox, caramelized onions and egg ($13.50); and the Weezer, a delicious combination of bacon, chorizo, egg, cheddar and any cream cheese ($13.50). The shop also offers sweets such as muffins and other pastries.
Advertisement
In addition to a large indoor space where customers can eat at the window, the Upper East Side incarnation also has a charming little back patio that was full on Tuesday morning. The Third Avenue location joins Tompkins Square Bagels’ original location at 165 Avenue A in the East Village, as well as its branches on East 12th and East 17th streets.
“Tompkins Square Bagels is truly my love letter to the East Village; a place I now call home. I put extreme love, care, and that same attention to detail, into every aspect of our shop’s build out,” owner and operator Christopher Pugliese wrote on the business’s website. “TSB is first and for most, a neighborhood shop, built by neighborhood craftsmen and artists, to be enjoyed by neighborhood folks.”
Like all of the other shops, the Upper East Side location is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Have a news tip? Send it to us here!
Do any of these many such shops compete on price (lower not higher)?