Photo yesterday by Steven
According to Grub Street's Chris Crowley, who first reported on the EV location, Joey Scalabrino and his business partner Mike Fadem first started making and selling bagels from their Williamsburg pizzeria, Leo, in 2020... before launching Apollo Bagels as a pop-up at Fanelli's in 2022. The two later hosted a series of bagel pop-ups in several cities, including Paris and Montreal.
Here's more about the bagels and the new space via Grub Street:
The bagels are crispy and chewy on the outside, baked to a shade of deep brown, with little blackened patches. And, as one recent fan put it, they've got "a good fluff-to-crunch ration." Made of sourdough, they're less dense than they look, bubbly on the outside with an airy interior.The 800-square-foot storefront is divided by a long counter for ordering. Seating is outside only, and the menu will remain tight: Sandwiches included smoked salmon with capers, red onion, and dill; whitefish salad; and a summertime tomato with olive oil. (Bagels will also be sold by the half-dozen and dozen, straight from the oven, with the standard spreads like cream cheese available, as well.)
Apollo had been teasing an East Village debut since late December...
Apollo will have some competition with Black Seed Bagels not too far away on First Avenue between 10th Street and 11th Street... and the two outposts of Tompkins Square Bagels are close enough.
These are some of the best (and my personal favorites) in the city. Those are spots are no competition. Even though Chris Crowley calls it a popup, it’s a little weird to me, since they’ve been serving them on the weekends at Leo for a few years now and at the beginning of the pandemic, every day.
ReplyDeleteYay! More Instagram food! The city of YES never dissapoints!
ReplyDeleteGood luck to them, but they're basically between two locations of Tompkins Square Bagels (no competition? c'mon, whoever's cousin or PR flack you are, you don't have to get ridiculous), so it may be tough once the initial hype dies down.
ReplyDeleteIf Apollo boils and bakes their bagels then Tompkins is no competition.
DeleteBecause someone says they've had the bagels and in their opinion there is no other local comparison they're a hack? Ok.
ReplyDeleteTSB for life!
ReplyDeleteLOL this is a weird comment section. One dopey comment is about Instagram food (doesn't even make sense). And then lets be honest: Tompkins is super overrated. Literally any small town in NJ or CT has a bagel shop that rivals Tompkins. If this new spot is half decent it'll be packed
ReplyDeleteHopefully this draws the hour long line of NYU students away from TSB on the weekends
ReplyDelete11:12. Yes, outside of NYC there are many great small shops like this. But inside NYC? So hard to get reasonably priced quality food post lockdown and predatory real estate prices. EV used to have so much excellent low priced food and now, hardly any, so I am all for TSB.
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