It’s a sunny weekend morning in May, and a lengthy line stretches down the sidewalk, snaking its way into an orange-accented storefront. Inside the bustling, fragrant interior, fresh, hand-sized bagels sit piled high in baskets, plucked every so often to be cut open and slathered with cream cheese or tucked into bags to take home. It’s a familiar scene, but this isn’t a neighborhood bagelry in New York City; this is Pipsqueak Bagels in Portland, Oregon.
Bagels are big right now. It used to be that, in order to find a “proper” bagel, the only places deemed worth talking about were in New York City — or maybe Noah’s in Berkeley. But in recent years, bagelries have been popping up across the country to challenge NYC’s crown. Dallas’s Starship Bagel was
chosen as the best bagel in America in 2025’s New York BagelFest. LA-based Courage Bagels caused a stir among bagel-fanatics when it opened in 2020. And rip-and-dip outfit Pop Up Bagels has been literally popping up all over with its social media-savvy schmears, expanding to 14 states (including Washington, D.C.) fueled by an $8 million investment from private equity company Stripes.
Suffice it to say, bagel-mania is sweeping the nation, and Portland is not immune. While Portlanders have enjoyed access to quality bagels at spots like Henry Higgins, Bentley’s, Bernstein’s, and Spielman, a number of buzzy new bagelries have entered the scene recently — Pipsqueak Bagels, Sincerely, Bagel, and Red Hen Bagelry, to name a few — that speak to the bagel’s current hype. These bakeries are not only pushing forward a local bagelcraft culture by harnessing Oregon’s quality grains and water, but also fulfilling a desire to recreate a much-missed aspect of East Coast living.
“We decided we wanted to open Sincerely, Bagel during the pandemic in 2020 after missing food we grew up eating — one being bagels,” writes Jin Kim in an email. Kim and business and life partner Jane Park opened the Korean-influenced Kerns bagel shop in 2025. The pair are transplants from the New Jersey and New York area. “For us, it’s a soul food that is comforting and brings back memories from our childhood.”
Deirdre Tipley felt a similar call to her East Coast roots, which compelled her to get into home bagelmaking after moving to Portland about a decade ago. “I couldn’t find a bagel that brought me back to my childhood,” says Tipley, who comes from a New York-area pizzeria family. By early 2025, Tipley had moved into wholesale and pop-ups under the name Red Hen Bagelry. Red Hen is now in residency at Red Sauce Pizza on the weekends.
The result has been a surge of traditionalist NYC-style bagels: hand-rolled, boiled, and baked behemoths with chewy interiors and crispy crusts. Proper procedure is paramount to achieving the right texture and flavor. In craft-obsessed Portland, that dedication to authenticity has a willing audience.
“There’s a love of process here,” says Pipsqueak’s Madilyn Gibbons, a Portland local since 2010 who got into bagelmaking around 2015 while building her food career in restaurants like Olympia Provisions. “There’s such respect for the craft and tradition… people love that and crave it and want to support it.” Saying that bagels chose her, Gibbons started a sensation with farmers market stall bagels back in 2024 and opened Pipsqueak’s first permanent storefront in the Creston-Kenilworth area in April.
“There’s an appreciation for handmaking and putting their whole heart and soul into it,” echoes Tipley.
And of course, Portland is blessed to be right by several major agricultural areas and has a strong farm-to-table and seasonal food scene, which provides bakers all the high-quality, raw materials needed. While it’s NYC’s soft, mineral-infused tap water that’s said to be the secret sauce for that city’s famed bagels, Portland has its own exceptional water, too, as evidenced by our local beer culture; major Japanese ramen chains like Afuri explicitly chose Portland because of the water quality. It may not be an exact New York dupe, but it’s close enough. “You can make a really good bagel anywhere working with what you have,” says Tipley.
While grounded in tradition and nostalgia, Portland’s new-wave bagel shops are also playing to an audience that’s primed for innovations and cross-cultural flavor combinations. This is especially apparent at Sincerely, Bagel, where customers can find za’atar-dusted bagels alongside kimchi cheddar — the shop’s top-seller. “The specialty flavors really come from everyday inspirations. Kimchi is a staple in Korean culture and we really wanted to highlight that,” writes Kim. “It’s fun to see such unique and creative varieties.”
“We wanted to have an opportunity for everyone, purists and none, to enjoy what we have,” says Gibbons, who plays with flavors in bagels and spreads alike from the asiago black pepper bagel to schmears made with Mama Lil’s peppers.
In a city filled with small, independent businesses, Portland’s newest bagel joints are thriving. Since opening in April, Pipsqueak has had long lines and sold-out 1,000-plus batches practically daily. It’s been a “wonderful, warm response,” Gibbons says.
Kim says at Sincerely, they regularly sell out before noon. “We have received so much support from the local community and various businesses. It’s truly been such a rewarding experience,” writes Kim.
“I’ve always said that Portland is a borough city,” says Gibbons, likening NYC’s districts to Portland’s distinct neighborhoods. “If you live in Northwest, you’re going to Bentley’s. If you live in Kerns, you’re going to Sincerely. Your favorite bagel shop is in your neighborhood.”
You can get in on the “bagel Renaissance,” as Gibbons calls it, but don’t forget to show up and support the staple spots that laid the foundation as well.
