Photo by Lauren Drewes Daniels
Audio By Carbonatix
The first thing to know about PopUp Bagels — the latest chain to greet Dallas with breathless enthusiasm — is not about the quality of the bagels, but rather that there isn’t any reason to go if you don’t like cream cheese. You also shouldn’t go if you prefer your bagels toasted or sliced. They dabble in neither.
However, every order comes with cream cheese (or salted butter), whether you want it or not. That’s all PopUp sells: bagels and cream cheese. This, as a marketing gimmick, is pretty clever, reducing overhead while allowing the chain’s employees to throw around the word “schmear” as if they grew up down the street from Katz’s on the Lower East Side.
In This Economy?
On the other hand, it also means that three plain bagels and an eight-ounce container of cream cheese cost $15. By comparison, that same $15 will buy, more or less, 10 frozen Davidovich bagels (as good a product as most of the fresh ones in Dallas) plus eight ounces of Philly at Central Market. Or, for the adventurous, $15 is enough for 12.5 pounds of King Arthur bread flour, which will make more than five dozen water-boiled bagels (though you’ll have to make do without the cream cheese).
Photo by Lauren Drewes Daniels
This is not to denigrate the quality of the PopUp bagel, which is surprisingly well done – crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside, with nary a bit of that Wonder Bread texture and sweetness that too many local offerings try to sneak in because they think that’s what their customers want. It’s smaller than most local bagels, so some people – used to the Kong-sized, hole-less bagels sold by so many stores in town – might be annoyed. I’m not as excited that the bagels are sold hot; I’d rather toast it and eat it at home with lox and scrambled eggs than stuff it in my face in the car.
The Scene Is a Scene
However, if my two visits to the first PopUp location in Inwood Village (a second is reportedly set for Henderson Avenue in East Dallas later this year) are any indication, lots and lots of people will appreciate what PopUp has to offer. At mid-morning on opening day, the line was outside the door, stretching to the nearby Inwood Theater, while there was line at the door when I went back at the same time four days later. And the crowd, mostly youngish women with barely an old Jewish man in sight, was grabbing up bagels and cream cheese as if price was no object.
The service was efficient, as well, despite the crowds. Plus, I got a free, fourth bagel on my second visit because, said the woman who handed me my order, “one of the bagels is pretty mangled.”
Sounds like Four Lokos
Interlude from food editor Lauren Drewes Daniels: I visited around 10 a.m. on an overcast Wednesday. About four of us in the store were shell-shocked by the music, which was insanely loud for this small space. We had to scream, “ARE YOU IN LINE?!” It was abrasive. An assault. It sounds like they sell Four Lokos, not humble warm bread. To add to that, every time new hot bagels were added to the baskets, everyone working had to yell, “Hot bagels!” No one needs this energy with their bagel. No one.
Also, they do offer a $4 drip coffee. It’s kept in a self-serve dispenser on a table up front, almost an afterthought, which I’m actually fine with; coffee is super arrogant these days, it needs to spend some time in a corner. I ordered a cup after I placed my initial order, and the server just gave it to me for free. I think they could sense I was a little maxed out from the loud noise.
Back to Jeff…
What it Comes Down To
In the end, though, it all comes down to the cream cheese and whether it’s worth the extra cost. I don’t schmear, so the answer is easy for me. What will be interesting is how Dallas’ bagel-o-philes respond to PopUp once the novelty wears off. Will the idea of less expensive bagels of more or less the same quality seem more appealing?
It’s something to ponder while deciding where to buy my next bagel.
PopUp Bagels 5450 W. Lovers Lane (Inwood Village) Monday – Sunday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
