Ardmore’s newest bagel shop has three simple rules: no slicing, no sandwiches, and, most importantly, no loosies.
Such is the credo of PopUp Bagels, the viral bagel chain that is set to replace the Juice Press in Suburban Square — there’s no opening date just yet — with seven more locations planned for the Philadelphia region.
PopUp Bagel’s concept is simple, if a little peculiar. Bagels are served hot from the oven every eight to 10 minutes and can only be purchased in sets of three, six, or 12 alongside 7-ounce tubs of butter or cream cheese — no exceptions. Patrons are encouraged to rip the bagel apart and dunk it in the schmear, like a hedonist.
Fans of the chain and its rules are legion, lining up outside locations across Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts to film TikToks tearing into pillowy bagels and dipping them into airy cream cheeses with limited-edition flavors, like blueberry crumble or vodka sauce.
Others, however, hate the rules.
A former flood mitigation specialist with no restaurant experience, founder Adam Goldberg started PopUp Bagels in 2021 after he couldn’t stop baking bagels during the pandemic. The business grew rapidly from a series of pop-ups and a back-alley drive-through in Westport, Conn., to 13 locations along the East Coast by summer 2025.
Now the company is aiming to open 300 franchises, backed by seed funding from celebrity investors and Stripes, the venture capital firm that helped grow Levain Bakery and into a nationally recognized brand.
» READ MORE: Fast-rising PopUp Bagels is coming to Ardmore with the first of eight Philly-area stores
So far, Philly’s bagel aficionados are going all in on PopUp.
“PopUp Bagels in Pa.? We won,” said Marina Gonzalez, of Fishtown, in a TikTok that’s been viewed nearly 52,000 times. “I will be driving the 40 minutes to Ardmore. I will rent a car. I don’t care.” Commenters called this the “best news of 2025″ and said they were “foaming out the mouth.”
Gonzalez’s fandom stemmed from a trip to New York City, where she stood in line to buy a bag of plain bagels to dip in a tub PopUp Bagel’s hot pink strawberry-chocolate cream cheese, a collaboration with trendy loungewear brand Boys Lie. The chain’s fresh-out-the oven schtick worked, Gonzalez said: The bagels were ultra-soft and steamy, far fresher and lighter than anything she’d had in Philly.
“When I’m craving a bagel, I have considered taking a train to New York City to get PopUp Bagels instead of something here,” she said. “Having responsibilities holds me back.”
Still, Philly is a town of bagel traditionalists: When “L.A.-style” bagel shop Slice & Smear replaced South Philly’s Korshak Bagels with a menu of scooped, open-faced experiments, the hate was so swift that former owner Aakash Patel reverted to unscooped-by-default bagels before opening.
» READ MORE: From 2024: What is an ‘LA-style’ bagel, and is Philly ready for them?
Goldberg, however, prefers PopUp Bagel’s rules over being a crowd-pleaser.
“There are a lot of bagels in Philly, and there are a lot of bagels in New York. We’re not for everyone,” Goldberg said. “But the people who take a chance on trying us, we tend to be for them.”
A bagel that feels like ‘like winning the lottery’
PopUp Bagels’ fast rise is built off social media as much as it is making really good bagels.
The two-time New York Bagelfest champions rotate out specialty schmears weekly and run frequent cream cheese collaborations with buzzy, Gen-Z approved companies. In September, PopUp bagels worked with Cosmopolitan magazine on a cranberry-lime cream cheese inspired by the namesake cocktail, as well as Sauz, a sleekly branded jarred pasta sauce company, on a schmear infused with marinara.
PopUp Bagels’ success also stems — in part — from Pennsylvania: The brand’s first collaborator was Hanover-based snack brand Utz, which Goldberg said sent him “five pounds of cheeseball powder” to play with for what would ultimately become one of their most asked-for schmears.
There are several schmear collaborations lined up to celebrate Philly, Goldberg said, declining to specify further.
PopUp’s bagel recipe has evolved to include whatever will keep the bagels coming out hot the fastest. The dough is boiled in a stockpot and baked in a convection oven for speed, he said. Staff used to poke holes in the dough for an airier bagel that steams when you pull it apart.
“When you eat a typical bagel store bagel, they’re very heavy. You need a nap after,” Goldberg said. “Ours are lighter.”
Liberty Kitchen culinary director Beau Neidhardt views PopUp Bagels as a much-needed addition to the Philly bagel scene, which he said is dominated by bagels that “are all chew,” unlike the ones he ate as a kid in Staten Island and Tom’s River.
PopUp’s offerings have come the closest. Biting into one of their hot bagels, “feels like winning the lottery in a way,” Neidhardt said. “It’s how it’s supposed to be.”
» READ MORE: Here’s where to find the best bagels in Philly and the suburbs
To slice or not to slice?
Not everyone feels the same.
When Ardmore resident Pamela Martucci heard a new bagel shop was coming to town, she was excited — until she heard about the bagel minimum.
“What am I going to do with three bagels?” Martucci said. To her, the ripping-and-dipping is also a minor disgrace: “That’s not proper etiquette. It’s like you’re eating chips and salsa.”
In reality, the rip-and-dip instructions are more of a strongly worded suggestion than a requirement. Each store will have wooden knives, Goldberg said, and to-go pallets of smoked salmon or containers of whitefish salad. Just don’t ask an employee to slice and assemble for you.
“We don’t say, ‘Don’t slice this,’” Goldberg said. “I even slice our poppy seed bagel to use as a hamburger bun at home.”
The rip-and-dip convention was also born out of necessity, Goldberg said. When he started selling PopUp Bagels in Westport, customers had to navigate a waitlist that could be a “thousand people long,” and drive up to a to-go window next to a dumpster. The anticipation bred impulsivity.
“The first thing they would do is pull over, put the cream cheese in a cupholder, and rip open a hot bagel to dip,” Goldberg said. “We had to embrace it.”
No explanation is enough for Philly transplant Garrett Clayman. He moved to Bella Vista two months ago from Brooklyn, where he first encountered PopUp Bagels and was dismayed that he couldn’t order his usual sliced everything bagel with scallion cream cheese, a sliced tomato, and onion.
“I spent my money on something that disguised itself as a bagel … It’s just fresh bread with a dip,” Clayman said. “I think if they called it PopUp Pastry I wouldn’t have been as angry.”