Lox of locations
Austin's buzziest bagel shop rolls out new downtown location
Just three months after the celebrated opening of Rosen’s Bagel Co., a permanent brick-and-mortar shop housing a beloved former pop-up, a second location has opened downtown.
The new location that opened Saturday, April 23 at Republic Square Park. Located inside the park is a tiny lean-to with an order window, an overhang, and white subway tile that makes the walk-up shop look like it was plucked right out of Union Square, Manhattan.
Rosen’s bagels hit the elusive balance of both chewy and fluffy, made in a traditional process that’s described step-by-step on the website. Served with potentially exotic “schmears” like lime roasted poblano scallion and maple almond, they toe the line between prototypal and inventive. This is a grand thing to say about a bagel, but it’s good proof you don’t need to ship water from the Big Apple to do it right.
Rosen’s is not, in fact, from New York at all, despite the Jewish surname and bagel menu lingo. Founder Tom Rosen is originally from Kansas — he passed through Nashville and Phoenix for college and culinary school — and finally landed in Austin in 2013.
In perhaps the most common entrepreneur’s story, Rosen noticed a lack of something (i.e. good bagels) and made them until his friends wanted them (i.e. great bagels). Those friends came to include East Austin coffee shop Wright Bros. Brew and Brew, which sold out of Rosen’s creations every weekend. Eventually, the pop-up operated out of 15 local coffee shops.
Rosen’s first brick-and-mortar opened January 13, 2022, on Burnet Road by The Domain and has earned a nod as a CultureMap Tastemaker Awards nominee for Austin's Best New Restaurant. The bright store wall shelving displays wire baskets full of bagels, including a relatively hard-to-find classic (in Austin, anyway), egg bagels and their “everything” counterparts. If two locations is still not convenient enough at 8 am, Rosen's also makes deliveries.
In honor of its new location, Rosen’s is offering a celebratory 20 percent off online orders for pickup at the Republic Square location until Sunday, May 1, using the code “downtown bagels.” Republic Square is located at 422 W. Fifth St., with paid parking along the south border, and a farmers market Saturdays from 9-11 am.