On a frigid Friday morning, a stretch of the Atlanta Beltline adjacent to Krog Street Market buzzed with spectacle as customers waited up to two hours to try Atlanta’s social media darling, a PopUp Bagels location. A line stretched down the block to Hawkers Asian Street Food, then turned the corner.
At the line’s source, customers and influencers alike photographed paper bags loaded with bagels and tubs of cream cheese and butter schmear. Young people ripped up warm bagels and posed with them for their social media followers while Top-40 song remixes blared on loop in the background. Sesame and poppy seeds littered outdoor tables before being brushed to the foot space below. Marketers passed out hats, dog bandanas, and even friendship bracelets.
Ordinarily, a restaurant opening may not be so newsworthy. However, PopUp Bagels comes with a touch of controversy given that it opened yards away from Emerald City Bagels, a local entity with longstanding community ties.
Emerald City’s Beltline location, however, had a good day as well on Friday, Feb. 6, the day PopUp Bagels opened. The mother-daughter operation sold out of bagels by 11 a.m., something they did not expect upon PopUp Bagels’ entry into the market, and after a dip in business from Atlanta’s recent ice storm and the current frigid conditions.
Some PopUp Bagel patrons got fed up with waiting and spent their dollars elsewhere – like Emerald City – while other loyalists braved the Beltline to support an established local business and perhaps, take a stand against the PopUp invasion.
‘What’s up with the bagel shop coming in next door?’
Emerald City Bagel co-founder Jackie Halcrow recalled an experience with a first-time customer that morning: “[A guy] came in just to tell me that he thought it was stupid that a pop-up was opening next door. And he’d never been in, [but] wanted to support us just because he saw what was going on [with PopUp].”
In the days before its opening event, PopUp Bagels’ staff stood outside Emerald City to hand out free samples.
“On Wednesday and Thursday, they had an obscene amount of employees over there passing out bagels,” Emerald City co-founder Deanna Halcrow said.
Patrons of Emerald City had been commenting on the incongruity of having two restaurants offering the same product so close in proximity.
“For months, we’ve had people coming in and asking, ‘What’s up with the bagel shop coming in next door?’ People have generally been really passionately letting us know that they’re not going to let the corporate overlords [ruin our business],” Jackie Halcrow said.
How it happened
It begs the question — why are chain competitors able to open so close to community cornerstones?
Blame the landlords.
Although 661 and 665 Auburn Avenue share a developer, they weren’t built at the same time. Thus, there are different retail landlords. Jackie Halcrow said that 661’s original owner honored the building’s non-compete clause, not even allowing a breakfast restaurant. Then Asana bought the building, leased it to corporations, and sold it again.
The non-compete clauses only apply to each building. “As far as I know, the neighborhood NPU has no clause regarding similar bakery businesses,” Jackie said. “Our non-compete has no bearing on what they do next door.”
Before selling the building, Asana leased open spots to outside businesses, including PopUp Bagel, Eggslut, and Yeti. Simply put, there’s nothing Emerald City Bagel can do.
United community: ‘It’s frustrating to watch’
The controversy has not escaped the attention of other entrepreneurs in the city. King of Pops CEO Steven Carse posted an Instagram Reel calling PopUp Bagels out, which quickly accumulated views and shares.
“They put another bagel place right by the bagel place, and this one paid for social media influencers,” Carse said in the video.
An email from M18 Public Relations, which represents PopUp Bagels, said that the organization “does not pay for influencers.”
“Their team has never paid for a social media post, collaboration, story, or news item,” the statement said. “All collaborations are done in-kind, where we’re happy to give bagels for everyone to try and post their honest reviews.”
Others commented on the state of local business versus corporate entities.
“Tough to fight [venture-capital] backed businesses with a 300-unit growth plan,” Dale Donchey, founder of Spiller Park Coffee, commented on the reel.
“It used to be Goldberg versus Bagel Palace in Toco [Hills]. Or even General Muir versus a Dear Friend, Bagels Pop-up,” Donchey said. “It was fun to talk about bagels, identity, food, and love for the game. But now it’s venture capital and private equity versus small business, and the only win is if instead of beating you down, they buy you.”
Local “competitor” bagel shops like The Bronx Bagel Buggy in Chamblee echoed the pro-local sentiment, as did Atlanta staples like Revolution Doughnuts and So So Fed. Deanna and Jackie Halcrow have also received text messages of support from Armando Celentano (Argosy) and Skip Engelbrecht (Fishmonger).
“I think Asana’s decision to allow Popup Bagels to open so close to Emerald City is not good for the community and could wind up dooming both places. It’s frustrating to watch.”
billy kramer, nfa burger
Billy Kramer of NFA Burger planned to buy 50 bagels for customers at Emerald City’s Beltline location on Thurs., Feb. 12. Kramer met the Halcrows back at Emerald City’s original location before even starting his pop-up operation, Billy’s Burgers, NFA Burger’s progenitor.
“We’ve got so many things to worry about as restaurant owners. We have so many forces pushing pressure on us,” Kramer said. “I think Asana’s decision to allow Popup Bagels to open so close to Emerald City is not good for the community and could wind up dooming both places. It’s frustrating to watch.”
Interestingly, PopUp Bagels opened in the space formerly occupied by Butter & Cream, another local business impacted by a competitor opening within walking distance. The Decatur-based ice cream shop lasted about two years on the Beltline, during which a second Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams location opened in Krog Stoveworks, steps from an existing Jeni’s inside Krog Street Market.
Emerald City Bagels opened on the Eastside Beltline in the summer of 2024, a decade after the Harcrows started selling bagels on the sidewalk in Cabbagetown. Originally starting in the Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts premises, Emerald City quickly expanded to Milltown Arms Tavern and Mary Todd Hairdressing Co. on Carroll Street, as well as JavaVino and Videodrome on Highland Avenue NE, and the Piedmont Park Green Market.
The history of Emerald City
Emerald City Bagels; first brick-and-mortar location opened at 1257 Glenwood Avenue in 2018.
“Everything about our existence has been hyper-local focused,” Jackie Halcrow said. “We started with the support of our friends who owned local businesses by becoming wholesale customers of ours and the other local businesses that let us set up inside and outside their businesses.”
On any given day, Emerald City Bagels sells 13 types of bagels and 11 types of cream cheese, including a vegan variety and a rotating flavor. They also offer peanut butter, local jam, sea-salted butter, an avocado smash, and hummus as spreads, and six varieties of coffee and matcha drinks, and house-made seltzers. It sells wholesale to the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel, San Francisco Coffee, Brash Coffee, and Home Grown.
“We make everything here besides the packaged drinks,” Deanna Halcrow said.
PopUp Bagels: ‘Ours are completely different styles’
Meanwhile, PopUp Bagels debuted in a Connecticut backyard during the pandemic. PopUp Bagels offers five types of bagels and a handful of schmears and flavored butters, many of which are collaborations with larger brands such as WingStop and Ocean Spray.
“We’re very different on the spectrum. [Emerald City] is a basic sandwich where you go in and you can get a bacon, egg, and cheese, or your bagels are sliced,” PopUp franchisee Janvi Patel told Rough Draft. “Ours are completely different styles… But we definitely welcome all bagel shops and think there’s plenty of love to go around.”
PopUp’s signature product has a texture akin to a Publix baguette, making the tactile act of ripping and dipping the bagels in cream cheese or flavored butter enjoyable. Their best cream cheese and butter offerings are ephemeral, since they’re collaborative products.
“There are plenty of great bagel shops in Atlanta,” Jackie Halcrow said. “We’ve all kind of stayed in our own lanes. B-Side’s got Decatur, you’ve got the Brooklyn Bagel [& Deli] over in Ansley, and their original suburban location. Everyone sort of has their neighborhoods.”
The Halcrows also paid their respects to The Bronx Bagel Buggy in Chamblee and Goldbergs Fine Foods, Metro Atlanta’s original bagel purveyor.
The Halcrows and Emerald City’s staff are determined to hold out, even through challenges. ECB will debut a new menu this spring in advance of Atlanta’s hosted FIFA World Cup matches, including new bagel sandwich combinations and an innovative item utilizing extra cheese.
Maybe, as Patel said, there can be room for two bagel shops on the Beltline, a sentiment that Jackie Halcrow shares, with some restraint.
“[Wishing ill will] – that would not be neighborly and just bad karma,” she said. “I just wish that they had done a little more research and realized that they shouldn’t be opening three doors down.”
Clarification: This story was updated to reflect comments from PopUp Bagel representatives regarding social media influencers.