Tompkins Square Bagels is Making Their Mark on Union Square
To celebrate National Bagels Day earlier this week, Union Square Partnership visited one of our neighborhood favorites, Tompkins Square Bagels to learn more about the store’s journey so far in Union Square. After two locations in the East Village, owner Chris Pugliese finally opened Tompkins Square Bagels’s Union Square location back in March 2023, on East 17th Street and Broadway. After less than a year, Tompkins Square Bagels’s Union Square location has earned a loyal customer base across the board with students, Greenmarket shoppers, residents, or any New York bagel fanatic. Read on and learn more about Tompkins Square Bagels and their growing impact in the Union Square neighborhood. Make sure to try out an amazing bagel from Tompkins Square Bagels today!
Hi Chris, can you tell us a little about your background and how you got Tompkins Square Bagels off the ground?
My whole working life is restaurants in New York City. I worked in a bagel shop when I was a kid, when I was in high school and then a little bit in college. I came into the city one day and got a job in the West Village and I just fell in love with restaurants, and that was just the end of it. I didn’t think I’d ever do bagels, but I was working in the East Village at the time and there was nothing for bagels. There was nothing from Avenue D to University and from 14th to Houston. My wife lived on 4th [Avenue] over the pool hall, and I was always bringing her bagels [from Brooklyn]. Then I thought, “Wait a minute, I should do this.” And that’s really how Tompkins happened. I feel like bagel shops before Tompkins, were sort of dives and there wasn’t a focus on hospitality and decor.
The hospitality is an experience alone at Tompkins Square Bagels. From getting in line and seeing the choices, then ordering, and going up to pay—you get to interact with a number of staff and you feel very connected.
Thank you, I put a lot of thought into that: community and people getting together. Like on busy days where we have lines looping around, I’d rather have to pay more people to help with getting the orders in [while in line] and making them happy, rather than having them wait to get to the front before ordering. A lot of it is getting back to my youth in Gravesend and getting everyone together here. And I mean getting everyone together: Wall Street guys, teachers, sanitation workers, ConEd workers, farmers’ market [staff], high school kids. When I grew up, you all gathered in the bagel store; it didn’t matter who you were.
Is there something about Tompkins Square Bagels’ Union Square location that stands out to you compared to your other locations?
I never noticed it until I came here [to Union Square] that there’s definitely an older crowd here. Very diverse, but I’m starting to realize why they call it Union Square. You’re coming to a place where you’re also coming from so many different places; you’re coming from the West Village, you’re coming from Gramercy, Flatiron, they’re all coming together and that’s what you really see at this store. Also, the fact that I was a waiter [in the neighborhood] for so long also makes it super special.
How many flavors exist here at Tompkins Square Bagels?
There’s a lot and there’s always more. There’s always more that I’m probably not even aware of—I get really good people and I let them do what they do, but we make it all here. For me, I wanted everything made fresh and in small batches, so if we get a new idea, we’ll do it. So if we have espresso, and we have cream cheese, we’ll make an espresso cream cheese.
Do you have future goals for the Union Square location?
We’re very young, we’re barely a year old, so I’m just still very surprised we’re successful. I was very scared and it was going to be a step up from the East Village, so right now I’m getting to know people—all the business owners, the farmers’ market people, the shop owners. So, we want to do things and hopefully they’re open; I want to do a collaboration with [Caffé] Panna. I was talking to Andrew from Andrew’s Honey [at the Greenmarket] and a maple syrup vendor, and I’d love to sell some of their products in here.