After years of anticipation – not to mention multiple delays in the past couple weeks – Kossar’s finally celebrated its grand opening Thursday at 270 West 72nd Street (and West End Ave). The store opened at 7 a.m. and had a line around the block when we visited around 9 a.m., with Upper West Siders anxious to try what Eater has called the best bialy in New York City.
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The store is Kossar’s fourth in New York City. Signage first went up at the space in October 2022 following the closing of Pier 72, a legendary diner that shuttered in 2020 after a more than 40-year run.
Kossar’s is dog friendly. Photo: @prince_in_the_city
In addition to bialys, Kossar’s offers bagels, a number of bakery items, smoothies and sandwiches like the Kossar’s Classic (sliced nova, everything cream cheese, tomato, red onion and capers), Pastrami Cured Salmon (horseradish-pickled cream cheese, Israeli cucumber) and Avocado Toast (diced onion and tomato, crushed red pepper flakes, everything seasoning on an everything bagel). Egg sandwiches will ultimately be available but were not on the menu on opening day.
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Kossar’s was founded in 1936 by Morris Kossar and Isadore Mirsky at 22 Ridge Street on the Lower East Side. Kossar would buy out his partner in 1953 and change the store’s name from Kossar’s Bakery to Kossar’s Bialys. Kossar’s claims to be the oldest operating bialy bakery in the U.S. and states its mission as “to celebrate the time-honored lineage of Jewish ethnic specialty foods.” Bialys first arrived in New York in the 1800s with a wave of Jewish immigrants. The word “bialy” means “little bread from Bialystok” (a town in Poland) in Yiddish.
Aaron Phillips and Morris Unger, who was passing out free bialy samples Thursday morning, purchased Kossar’s in 2018. Since then, locations have popped up in Hudson Yards, on the Upper East Side and now the UWS.
The new Upper West SIde location is open daily from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m. and will soon begin offering online ordering and delivery. For more information, you can view the website here.
That bagel looks burnt. Do they bake on premises or ship everything in from another location?
Dogs aren’t allowed in restaurants. I doubts all 4 of the dogs who showed up at the same time happen to be service animals.
In celebration of Kossars and PopUp bagels opening I went to Absolute yesterday and got four sesame.
All those dogs are a turnoff (not to mention illegal)–won’t be going
No dogs please! I’ll be voting with my feet.