New Owners of Spot Vacated by Absolute Bagels Will Open “Absolute Bagel”

Absolute Bagels is back, at least sort of.

The beloved Upper West Side staple, which sat on Broadway between West 107th & West 108th streets for three decades, suddenly shut its doors in December, not long after racking up some serious health violations. The new owners of the space are now opening up a shop called “Absolute Bagel” there. It goes without saying that they’ve taken inspiration from the original.

A sign posted up front at 2788 Broadway, complete with a graphic of stacked bagels, simply proclaims that the “new” store will be a “reopening” at an unspecified date in the near future.

The latter claim is technically a misnomer given the fresh ownership, although it certainly looks like the store will share much of the previous tenant’s spirit. So far, the owners have decided to remain anonymous, the broker that oversaw their new lease signing told The Spirit.

The broker, Rafe Evans, wanted to ensure that some sort of bagel business replaced Absolute Bagels. “Releasing vacant space is a routine activity in New York,” Evans said. “This was a little different, as much of the value of the space seemed to be in the intangible goodwill that Absolute Bagels had built up over 30 years—before they mysteriously, suddenly, and unexpectedly disappeared and closed up shop.

“We were only really talking to bagel people. The bagel community seemed to agree, and we got so many offers,” Evans added. “We found a nice little group, where everything seemed to come together. They had their money together, their managing partners, and their bagel van. We were excited to find these guys, or they found us, more accurately. We’re looking forward to getting a brand, spanking-new, code-compliant spot there.”

Absolute Bagels, the original, was started by Thai immigrant Sam Thongkrieng in 1992; he cut his teeth in the trenches of the famed Ess-A-Bagel franchise. It quickly became a popular destination for Upper West Siders, with Thongkrieng adding unique menu flourishes such as Thai iced tea.

According to a report published by Grub Street last year, however, a Dec. 11 health inspection found evidence of “live rats” and “live roaches” (in other words, not “code-compliant”). Dedicated customers were up in arms once the shop abruptly shuttered that week, anyway, with some of them telling Grub Street that they thought a failed inspection couldn’t possibly be the ultimate culprit. It seems that nobody, possibly even Evans, knows what really happened.

Either way, it unsurprisingly appears that many Upper West Side residents are happy to see a bagel shop—any bagel shop—return to 2788 Broadway. Alberto, who said he has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years, said that the original Absolute Bagels was “very good and very busy, too . . . with a line always around the corner.” He predicted that the lines would return.

Michael Wise, who hadn’t been aware of the change in management, took a photo of the “coming soon” sign. He said that Absolute Bagels had made “great bagels,” and that he hoped they would remain that way.

A man who simply referred to himself as Skate said that he’d never been inside Absolute Bagels, but had frequently walked past while visiting his daughter, who lives nearby. “Every weekend the line was wrapped around the corner,” he said, adding that the new lessees sticking with essentially the same name “seems like a great idea to me.”