\u201cNew Absolute Bagels\u201d is no more\u2014the name, that is, and not the underlying bagel shop.<\/p>\n
New signage went up over the weekend. The shop at 2788 Broadway will now instead be known as 2788 Bagels, after its new owners were threatened with a lawsuit\u2014presumably a trademark infringement one\u2014by Absolute Bagels\u2019s original owner Sam Thongkrieng.<\/p>\n
Andy Kimm, the manager of the new operation, told The Spirit : \u201cThe previous owner threatened legal action if we continued to use the name. We wanted to keep the name and continued negotiations, but they were not accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to carry on the tradition and culture of Absolute Bagels. Although the name has changed, we will work with our staff to maintain the same taste,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth pointing out that the new Absolute Bagels technically deviated from its original namesake, calling itself \u201cNew Absolute Bagels,\u201d with word \u201cNew\u201d positioned at an angle above the boldfaced store signage.<\/p>\n
While customers can ostensibly still eat much the same food, it\u2019s unclear if the store parting with the locally-famed Absolute Bagels moniker will have any effect on business, which was met with long lines when it reopened at the same site as the original.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also unclear if Throngkrieng is looking to retain the name for any future comeback elsewhere, as had been rumored ever since he was forced to close more than a year ago.<\/p>\n
Throngkieng departed the premises in December 2024, due to city inspectors slapping him with a series of code violations that forced an immediate shuttering of the store, including rats and improperly refrigerated foodstuffs.<\/p>\n
The bagel shop\u2019s current owner, Kyung Mi Kim, quickly took over the property\u2014and promised that very little would change, including the store\u2019s now-axed name. In one big shift, the kitchen area where the bagels are made has been opened up, to make it visible to customers in the store.<\/p>\n
Either way, the reconfigured \u201cAbsolute Bagels\u201d brand didn\u2019t have a long reign, as it only reopened under Kim\u2019s stewardship in late December of 2025.<\/p>\n
At the time, The Spirit noted that the \u201crevived bagel mecca\u201d had revived some good cheer, with writer Ralph Spielman noting that \u201call was indeed good again for both the indefatigable local bagel brigade and pilgrims from across the Big Apple\u2019s bagel diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some other genuine changes made by Kim include the conversion of a cash-only payment system to a modernized cash-and-card one, as well as the installation of video monitor menus, rather than paper signage ones. The tiling is now also black-and-white, rather than green.<\/p>\n
As The Spirit noted at the time, some changes drew some negative attention online, including the addition of a \u201cfake-grass wall\u201d that many restaurants use to attract selfie-takers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fake grass wall is a bad sign,\u201d Redditor \u201ccuriious-cat\u201d wrote. \u201cThat sounds like they\u2019re trying to go viral through social media posts. Not sure why they\u2019d want to when they already have lines around the block. But I\u2019m so glad they\u2019re back!\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, the \u201cr\/Upperwestside\u201d page quickly lit up after the abrupt retirement of the \u201cAbsolute Bagels\u201d moniker became news.<\/p>\n
Multiple mathematically-inclined posters quipped that Kim should change the name to \u201cRelative Bagels,\u201d a math play on the eternal tension between absolute and relative numbers. Another user floated the name \u201cSubstitute Bagels\u201d as a better spin-off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a roller coaster ride of emotions,\u201d user \u201cScienceLongjumping79\u201d wrote.<\/p>\n
Another user, perhaps fittingly named \u201cneverwastetheday,\u201d adopted a glass-half-full outlook: \u201c2788 bagels you say? Challenge accepted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNew Absolute Bagels\u201d is no more\u2014the name, that is, and not the underlying bagel shop. New signage went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[62947,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-150479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-bagel-war","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}