{"id":763809,"date":"2026-04-30T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/763809\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:27:12","slug":"popup-bagels-dallas-first-look-does-it-pass-the-purist-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/763809\/","title":{"rendered":"PopUp Bagels Dallas First Look: Does It Pass the Purist Test?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"PopUp
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe smallest order is three bagels with a tub of schmear or, in this case, enough salted butter to get you through Thanksgiving. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Photo by Lauren Drewes Daniels<\/p>\n

The first thing to know about PopUp Bagels<\/a> \u2014 the latest chain to greet Dallas with breathless enthusiasm \u2014 is not about the quality of the bagels, but rather that there isn\u2019t any reason to go if you don\u2019t like cream cheese. You also shouldn\u2019t go if you prefer your bagels toasted or sliced. They dabble in neither. <\/p>\n

However, every order comes with cream cheese (or salted butter), whether you want it or not. That\u2019s all PopUp sells: bagels and cream cheese. This, as a marketing gimmick, is pretty clever, reducing overhead while allowing the chain\u2019s employees to throw around the word \u201cschmear\u201d as if they grew up down the street from Katz\u2019s on the Lower East Side.<\/p>\n

In This Economy? <\/p>\n

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<\/a> (though you\u2019ll have to make do without the cream cheese).<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Food Alerts newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n

THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

You’re all set.<\/p>\n

CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"thePopUp Bagels in Inwood Village is all the rage right now. <\/p>\n

Photo by Lauren Drewes Daniels<\/p>\n

This is not to denigrate the quality of the PopUp bagel, which is surprisingly well done \u2013 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\u2019s what their customers want. It\u2019s smaller than most local bagels, so some people \u2013 used to the Kong-sized, hole-less bagels sold by so many stores in town \u2013 might be annoyed. I\u2019m not as excited that the bagels are sold hot; I\u2019d rather toast it and eat it at home with lox and scrambled eggs than stuff it in my face in the car.<\/p>\n

The Scene Is a Scene<\/p>\n

However, if my two visits to the first PopUp location in Inwood Village (a second<\/a> 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. <\/p>\n

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, \u201cone of the bagels is pretty mangled.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sounds like Four Lokos<\/p>\n

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, \u201cARE YOU IN LINE?!\u201d 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, \u201cHot bagels!\u201d No one needs this energy with their bagel. No one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, they do offer a $4 drip coffee. It\u2019s kept in a self-serve dispenser on a table up front, almost an afterthought, which I\u2019m 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. <\/p>\n

Back to Jeff\u2026<\/p>\n

What it Comes Down To<\/p>\n

In the end, though, it all comes down to the cream cheese and whether it\u2019s worth the extra cost. I don\u2019t schmear, so the answer is easy for me. What will be interesting is how Dallas\u2019 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?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something to ponder while deciding where to buy my next bagel.<\/p>\n

PopUp Bagels 5450 W. Lovers Lane (Inwood Village) Monday \u2013 Sunday 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The smallest order is three bagels with a tub of schmear or, in this case, enough salted butter…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":763810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,142149,1596,43314,97044,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-763809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-breakfast-brunch","tag-dallas","tag-first-look","tag-openings-closings","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116494130487972903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}