Because it’s not the same store or bagel you ate as a kid:
…it’s not owned by the same people as the iconic H&H Bagels that closed its location on Broadway and 80th in 2011. This new store is a spinoff from the H&H Midtown Bagels East, a bagel shop at 2nd avenue and 80th street.
H&H Midtown was once connected to the West side store, but a new owner took over after the original company went bankrupt in 1980. Both stores were then named H&H, but the West side owner, Helmer Toro, eventually sued the East side store, forcing it to change its name. Thus, H&H Midtown Bagels East was born.
The name was bought with an expansion plan:
In 2011, H&H Bagels filed for bankruptcy, closed the original Upper West Side shop, followed by Midtown shuttering in 2012. In the aftermath, in 2014, Rushin says he bought the name and the assets, including a lone location on the Upper East Side at 1551 Second Avenue at East 81st Street that’s still open. A former Wall Streeter, Rushin says he wanted to buy a brand that was “an interesting business to acquire,” and unlike Wall Street, “was not cyclical.”
H&H Bagels has locally expanded its presence in recent years with new locations in high traffic areas including JFK Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and most recently, Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station.
Regarding the current bagels:
The new stores will serve bagels that are shipped from a production facility in Woodside, Queens. Two weeks ago, the company opened a 20,000 square-foot bakery that can produce 9,000 bagels an hour. At the new locations, bagels will be kettle-boiled and parbaked, then frozen and shipped to stores, where they’ll be finished in special ovens. The only location of the four currently open that boils and bakes them in house is the Upper East Side shop. (Other currently open locations include the Upper West Side, JFK and LaGuardia airports, as well as Moynihan Hall.)
