H&H Bagels recently announced it will open 25 new locations this year as part of a nationwide expansion plan that includes franchise and company-owned restaurants.
The 50-year-old chain, which currently operates five Manhattan-based restaurants, was founded in 1972 on the Upper West Side of New York City. Two years after its first location, the brand opened a second store in the city's Upper East Side, becoming a popular locale that made cameos in a number of TV shows and movies from Seinfeld and Sex and the City to The Office, Entourage, and How I Met Your Mother.
According to H&H Bagels CEO Jay Rushin, the company's franchise plans have been in the works for several years, but the pandemic slowed things down.
"The goal was to make sure we perfected the customer service model and the entire experience. We want it to be different than any other bagel experience out there," Rushin tells New Times.
It was also important that H&H franchise operators were able to deliver the same product you'd find at the brand's original New York City restaurants.
"We're still using our original recipe, and the same water bagel method, for the past 50 years," adds Rushin, who tackled the logistics of supplying stores with fresh bagels by building a 20,000 square-foot bakery in the Queens neighborhood of New York City. The facility will be responsible for distributing the brand’s bagels to out-of-state locations.
H&H Bagels will expand outside New York with new stores that offer a fast-casual dining experience and bagel-centric menu.
H&H Bagels photo
The company's first franchise location is slated to open this fall at 220 Glades Rd. in Boca Raton. In addition, one of the first company-owned H&H Bagels restaurants to be located outside New York City will open on North Railroad Avenue in West Palm Beach as part of the city’s NORA Redevelopment District project.
New franchise locations will also make their way to Tampa, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Stamford, Connecticut, while a second company-owned store is slated to open in Chicago.
Both company-owned and franchise locations have been designed to resemble fast-casual restaurants, explains Rushin. New locations sport a modern, clean layout and offer a concise menu focusing on the brand's top sellers: bagels by the dozen, bagels with smoked salmon, bagel egg sandwiches, and bagels with spreads.
"It's more of a fast-casual experience with a focus on bagels," says Rushin. "If you want a salad, you might go to Sweetgreen. If you want a burger, you go to Shake Shack. And if you want a bagel, now you can go to H&H."
As part of the new store model expansion, two new bagels have been added to the dozen options in H&H's fast-casual menu lineup: an asiago cheese and jalapeño cheddar, both of which spent months in testing to perfect.
For Rushin, the choice to open the company's first franchise location in South Florida was easy.
"I have family in Boca Raton and Tampa, and I'm a Florida State alumni, so between the connection with so many fellow New Yorkers here and my personal ties, it's a no-brainer for us as a brand," sums up Rushin. "It feels like the perfect fit."
H&H Bagels. 220 Glades Rd., Boca Raton; hhbagels.com. Opening fall 2023.
