“New” Absolute Bagels Forced to Change Name After Legal Threat from Old Owners

“New Absolute Bagels” is no more—the name, that is, and not the underlying bagel shop.

New signage went up over the weekend. The shop at 2788 Broadway will now instead be known as 2788 Bagels, after its new owners were threatened with a lawsuit—presumably a trademark infringement one—by Absolute Bagels’s original owner Sam Thongkrieng.

Andy Kimm, the manager of the new operation, told The Spirit : “The previous owner threatened legal action if we continued to use the name. We wanted to keep the name and continued negotiations, but they were not accepted.”

“We want to carry on the tradition and culture of Absolute Bagels. Although the name has changed, we will work with our staff to maintain the same taste,” she added.

It’s worth pointing out that the new Absolute Bagels technically deviated from its original namesake, calling itself “New Absolute Bagels,” with word “New” positioned at an angle above the boldfaced store signage.

While customers can ostensibly still eat much the same food, it’s unclear if the store parting with the locally-famed Absolute Bagels moniker will have any effect on business, which was met with long lines when it reopened at the same site as the original.

It’s also unclear if Throngkrieng is looking to retain the name for any future comeback elsewhere, as had been rumored ever since he was forced to close more than a year ago.

Throngkieng departed the premises in December 2024, due to city inspectors slapping him with a series of code violations that forced an immediate shuttering of the store, including rats and improperly refrigerated foodstuffs.

The bagel shop’s current owner, Kyung Mi Kim, quickly took over the property—and promised that very little would change, including the store’s now-axed name. In one big shift, the kitchen area where the bagels are made has been opened up, to make it visible to customers in the store.

Either way, the reconfigured “Absolute Bagels” brand didn’t have a long reign, as it only reopened under Kim’s stewardship in late December of 2025.

At the time, The Spirit noted that the “revived bagel mecca” had revived some good cheer, with writer Ralph Spielman noting that “all was indeed good again for both the indefatigable local bagel brigade and pilgrims from across the Big Apple’s bagel diaspora.”

Some other genuine changes made by Kim include the conversion of a cash-only payment system to a modernized cash-and-card one, as well as the installation of video monitor menus, rather than paper signage ones. The tiling is now also black-and-white, rather than green.

As The Spirit noted at the time, some changes drew some negative attention online, including the addition of a “fake-grass wall” that many restaurants use to attract selfie-takers.

“The fake grass wall is a bad sign,” Redditor “curiious-cat” wrote. “That sounds like they’re trying to go viral through social media posts. Not sure why they’d want to when they already have lines around the block. But I’m so glad they’re back!”

Over the weekend, the “r/Upperwestside” page quickly lit up after the abrupt retirement of the “Absolute Bagels” moniker became news.

Multiple mathematically-inclined posters quipped that Kim should change the name to “Relative Bagels,” a math play on the eternal tension between absolute and relative numbers. Another user floated the name “Substitute Bagels” as a better spin-off.

“This is a roller coaster ride of emotions,” user “ScienceLongjumping79” wrote.

Another user, perhaps fittingly named “neverwastetheday,” adopted a glass-half-full outlook: “2788 bagels you say? Challenge accepted.”