The cult-favorite bagel sensation is bringing its Grip, Rip and Dip philosophy to the Crossroads of the World, complete with exclusive flavors and a Broadway-worthy opening celebration.

New Yorkers have very strong opinions about their bagels. We debate the crust, the chew, the schmear, and whether a proper bagel should ever be toasted. We have elevated the humble combination of flour, water and yeast into something approaching a civic religion. So when a company comes along and suggests that perhaps we’ve been eating our bagels all wrong, it had better have something extraordinary to offer.

Enter PopUp Bagels, the cult-favorite brand that made a name for itself by stripping the traditional New York bagel experience down to its most delicious essentials. Following its successful Greenwich Village debut, the company is bringing its unconventional approach to Times Square, with a grand opening scheduled for Friday, October 16, at 7 a.m.

Forget the towering breakfast sandwiches, elaborate toppings and architectural feats of balancing smoked salmon, tomatoes and onions between two halves of bread. PopUp Bagels has a different philosophy: serve the bagels hot, sell them whole and let the customer do the rest.

Its trademarked Grip, Rip and Dip® approach is as uncomplicated as it sounds. Take a freshly baked bagel, tear off a piece and plunge it into a generously flavored schmear. There are no knives required, no carefully constructed sandwiches and certainly no need to pretend that eating a bagel should be an exercise in restraint.

It’s a clever reinvention of a New York ritual, turning something traditionally eaten on the run into an experience that’s meant to be shared, sampled and savored. The emphasis is on the bagel itself, with its crisp exterior and warm, chewy interior, rather than the mountain of ingredients that so often threatens to overwhelm it.

Naturally, the Times Square location isn’t arriving quietly. PopUp is marking its Broadway-area debut with a pair of flavors that could hardly be more New York if they arrived in a yellow taxi.

First comes the New York Cheesecake Strawberry Schmear, a playful tribute to one of the city’s most enduring desserts. The combination brings the richness of cheesecake and the sweetness of strawberries into PopUp’s signature dipping experience. It’s breakfast flirting rather shamelessly with dessert, and frankly, we see no reason to object.

Then there’s a collaboration that should get the attention of even the most opinionated deli traditionalists. PopUp has joined forces with the legendary Katz’s Delicatessen to introduce Everything but the Pastrami Butter, a distinctly New York creation that brings together two institutions with very different approaches to the city’s culinary traditions.

Katz’s, of course, is practically synonymous with the oversized pastrami sandwich, a Lower East Side institution whose reputation has endured for generations. PopUp, meanwhile, has built its following by rejecting the sandwich altogether. Bringing the two together is a delicious bit of culinary irony, and one that feels particularly appropriate for a city where tradition and reinvention are constantly competing for the last word.

For purists, the regular menu remains reassuringly familiar. Plain, Everything, Poppy, Salt and Sesame bagels provide the foundation, while the schmear selection includes Plain and Scallion Cream Cheese, Salted Butter and Brown Sugar Cinnamon Butter. The choices may sound straightforward, but simplicity is the entire point. When the bagel is good enough, it doesn’t need a supporting cast of fifteen ingredients.

Because this is Times Square, where even breakfast occasionally deserves its own opening-night celebration, PopUp is planning something considerably more festive than simply unlocking the doors.

The October 16 grand opening will feature a live DJ, exclusive New York City merchandise for the first customers in line and complimentary beverages courtesy of Saint James, La Colombe and Natalie’s. Early arrivals will have the advantage, although given the brand’s enthusiastic following, a line seems almost inevitable.

The new shop will also offer something particularly welcome in a neighborhood whose schedule rarely resembles the traditional nine-to-five workday. Open daily from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m., the Times Square location will have the latest closing time of any PopUp Bagels shop in New York City.

That makes it an appealing prospect not only for commuters and breakfast enthusiasts, but also for the theatre crowd. A warm bagel and an inventive schmear before an evening performance, or a quick bite after a matinee, may prove an attractive alternative to the neighborhood’s more predictable dining options.

There is something wonderfully New York about the whole enterprise. PopUp Bagels isn’t trying to replace the city’s beloved bagel institutions. It’s challenging the assumption that there is only one correct way to enjoy a food that New Yorkers have spent generations perfecting.

And while the company may have eliminated the traditional sandwich, it certainly hasn’t eliminated personality. Between its Katz’s collaboration, cheesecake-inspired schmear and celebratory opening, PopUp seems to understand that in Times Square, a little showmanship is practically mandatory.

The real test, naturally, will be in the bagel itself. New Yorkers will forgive a great deal of theatricality, but never a mediocre bagel.

PopUp Bagels opens its Times Square location on Friday, October 16, at 7 a.m., with daily hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. For additional information, visit popupbagels.com.

There may be no television sound more instantly recognizable than dun dun. Now, for two days in October, it could also mean lunch.

NBC’s Law & Order “Dun Dun Diner” is returning to New York City on Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10, transforming Bill’s Bar & Burger at Rockefeller Center into an immersive celebration of one of television’s most enduring—and most thoroughly New York—franchises.

Running from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. both days, the pop-up combines themed food, interactive experiences, photo opportunities and exclusive merchandise with something Law & Order has always understood particularly well: New York itself.

This time, some serious New York food royalty is joining the investigation. Ess-a-Bagel, Katz’s Delicatessen, Magnolia Bakery and Serendipity3 are collaborating on a specially curated menu for the event. NBC hasn’t yet revealed every dish, which means the evidence remains tantalizingly incomplete, but the four institutions bring together some of the city’s most recognizable bagels, deli fare and desserts under one very familiar television umbrella.

Fans have two ways to enter the scene. For $30, the Booth Service Dining Experience offers a seated meal inside the Dun Dun Diner, including the guest’s choice of one featured collaborative dish, dessert, Law & Order-branded merchandise and interactive touches inspired by the series. For those more interested in investigating than eating, the free Grab & Go Experience includes merchandise giveaways and a themed photo opportunity. Both experiences require reservations.

Reservations opened September 18 on a first-come, first-served basis, so anyone planning to report for duty should probably move faster than Detective Benson arriving at a crime scene.

The timing couldn’t be better. The Dun Dun Diner opens one day after the new seasons of Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiere Thursday, October 8 on NBC, with episodes streaming the following day on Peacock. This year’s event also falls during NBC’s centennial celebration, marking 100 years of the network’s television history.

The pop-up itself has become something of a tradition. Last year’s Dun Dun Diner also descended upon Rockefeller Center, complete with memorabilia, themed experiences and plenty of opportunities for fans to insert themselves into the Law & Order universe. For 2026, the diner moves into Bill’s Bar & Burger and expands the culinary component with its lineup of distinctly New York collaborators.

Because two days hardly seems sufficient to interrogate a pastrami sandwich, select dishes from the collaborations will continue at participating partner restaurants on October 12 and 13. Which dishes and locations will participate have yet to be announced.

There is something wonderfully appropriate about Law & Order turning itself into a New York diner. For decades, the city hasn’t merely served as the backdrop for the franchise; it has been one of its principal characters. Courthouses, precincts, sidewalks, brownstones, restaurants and recognizable corners of Manhattan have given the shows a sense of place that no soundstage could quite duplicate.

Now New Yorkers get to step inside that world—with considerably less danger and considerably more cheesecake.

The Law & Order Dun Dun Diner takes over Bill’s Bar & Burger at 16 West 51st Street on October 9 and 10 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Reservations are available through the Dun Dun Diner reservation page.

In the culinary justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: those who secure reservations—and those who wish they had.

Dun dun.

Times Square smelled considerably better than usual Wednesday afternoon as Taste of Times Square returned September 9, turning Broadway and Restaurant Row into one enormous outdoor dining room. More than 30 neighborhood restaurants participated in the annual Times Square Alliance food and music festival, which stretched along 46th Street from Seventh to Ninth Avenues and across the Broadway plazas between 45th and 47th Streets.

For four hours, the neighborhood became a tasting menu of itself. Italian, Mexican, Caribbean, Cuban, Indian and classic American dishes appeared within steps of one another, with longtime Theatre District institutions joining newer arrivals and giving New Yorkers and visitors the chance to graze their way through the neighborhood without committing to a full dinner. Most tastes were priced at $5, with several larger offerings at $10.

Among the participating favorites were Bond 45 NY, Brooklyn Chop House, Ellen’s Stardust Diner, Hard Rock Cafe, Carmine’s, Becco, Havana Central, Le Rivage, Junior’s, Serendipity 3, Toloache, Tony’s Di Napoli and Virgil’s Real Barbecue. It was a rather wonderful reminder of something those of us who actually live and work here already know: Times Square may be famous for its lights and Broadway theatres, but there is an extraordinary amount of food tucked into these blocks.

Toffee Sticky Pudding from The Long Room

We started with dessert—or at least made very certain we didn’t miss it. The Toffee Sticky Pudding from The Long Room proved one of our happiest discoveries of the day. Sweets were surprisingly scarce, particularly compared with the number of savory offerings, making that pudding even more welcome. Between it, Serendipity 3’s Frozen Hot Chocolate and Junior’s cheesecake, the neighborhood’s sweet tooth was represented, but only just.

Toloache’s pork taco

Then came Toloache. Their pork taco was delicious enough to accomplish exactly what an event like Taste of Times Square is supposed to accomplish: it made us want to go back and review the restaurant properly. A few bites can be a far more persuasive advertisement than any press release.

Palermo Argentinian Bistro Steak and cheese bread

We already knew what Palermo Argentinian Bistro could do, having previously reviewed and loved the restaurant, but its steak and cheese bread provided a useful reminder. The steak was quite simply melt-in-your-mouth tender. There is also another Mexican restaurant, Rosa Mexican, preparing to enter the neighborhood, and we are more than ready to see what it brings to the increasingly interesting Theatre District dining scene.

Food, however, was only half the atmosphere. Music spilled through the plazas, including TSQ LIVE + MTA Music performer Bella Breen at Broadway and 47th Street, while the Broadway Dreams Foundation and Ellen’s Stardust Diner’s Stardusters were among the scheduled performers farther downtown. Street musicians filled in the spaces between, and at one point models were being filmed in the middle of it all. It was Times Square doing what Times Square does best: food, theatre, fashion, music and complete visual chaos somehow occupying the same few blocks without asking one another’s permission.

Catherine Russell

One of our favorite encounters was with Catherine Russell, who has spent nearly four decades playing Margaret Thorne Brent in the Off-Broadway thriller Perfect Crime. Russell isn’t simply part of Theatre District history; she is one of those people who actually makes the neighborhood feel like a neighborhood. She owns The Theater Center and Patzeria Perfect Pizza, and there she was Wednesday, not posing beside the booth but serving pasta to the people who stopped by.

That accessibility is part of what made Taste of Times Square work. For one afternoon, the barrier between restaurant and customer, performer and audience, Broadway and sidewalk largely disappeared. Restaurant owners and workers served food in the street while musicians performed a few feet away and thousands of people wandered from table to table deciding what smelled too good to pass up.

New York has an unnerving ability to place celebration and violence almost side by side.

Just a block from Restaurant Row, two people were stabbed Wednesday afternoon inside a West 47th Street building. Early reports differed on the precise address, ages and conditions of the victims, but police confirmed that a man and woman suffered stab wounds in the incident at approximately 2:45 p.m. Later reporting said both victims had been taken to Mount Sinai West and were in stable condition, while police were searching for a suspect. Contrary to some initial information circulating Wednesday, the latest reporting I found does not confirm that the male victim died or that a person of interest was in custody.

The contrast was impossible to ignore. A block away, people were eating tacos, listening to music and celebrating the restaurants that make Hell’s Kitchen and Times Square feel like home. Nearby, police were investigating a bloody act of violence.

That, too, is New York: glorious and maddening, communal and frightening, sometimes within a single city block.

For most of Wednesday, though, Taste of Times Square offered the version of the neighborhood worth fighting to preserve. Restaurants opened themselves to strangers, performers turned sidewalks into stages, Catherine Russell handed out pizza, and thousands of people ate their way through a community that is far richer and more local than the flashing billboards sometimes allow the rest of the world to see.

Somewhere in all of that, we discovered a sticky toffee pudding worth going back for.

Herbed Potato Salad

This potato salad is for last-minute people. This recipe is surprisingly simple and quick to make. This healthy potato salad recipe is mayo-free, easy to make, vegan, egg free and gluten free. Recipe yields 6 side servings.

• 2 pounds small red potatoes, scrubbed and sliced into ¼-inch thick rounds
• 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ⅓ cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, plus about 2 tablespoons more for garnish
• ⅓ cup roughly chopped green onions, plus about 2 tablespoons thinly sliced for garnish
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 stalks celery, chopped

1. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven combine sliced potatoes and salt. Cover with water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook until potatoes are easily pierced by a paring knife and pulled out with little resistance, about 5 to 6 minutes.
2. Reserve ¼ cup cooking water, then drain. Transfer the potatoes to a large mixing bowl.
3. In a small food processor or blender, combine the olive oil, ⅓ cup parsley, ⅓ cup green onions, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic and freshly ground black pepper. Process until the herbs and garlic have been chopped into little pieces. Then, while running the food processor, pour in the reserved cooking water and process just until blended. (If you don’t have a food processor or blender, just finely chop the parsley and onions and whisk the dressing together until the oil is fully incorporated.)
4. Drizzle the potatoes with the herbed olive oil mixture and gently mix to combine. (It will look like you’ve poured in too much dressing, but don’t worry, the potatoes will soak it up!) Let the potatoes rest for ten minutes, gently tossing every few minutes.
5. Add the celery to the bowl, along with a couple tablespoons each of additional chopped parsley and green onions. Toss again. Season generously to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve. This salad is best served within a few hours, but will keep in the refrigerator for about three days.

Elote Corn

Corn season is here! Corn is never better than right now. I love sweet fresh corn on the grill with charred crispy kernels. I especially love the versatility of corn.

• Vegetable oil for brushing
• 6 ears corn, shucked
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream or Mexican crema
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup queso fresco or cojita cheese crumbles
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
• kosher salt
• lime wedges

1. In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, and garlic. Mix until well combined, set aside. Spread cheese crumbles on a plate, set aside. In a small bowl combine chili powder, cayenne paper, and 1 teaspoon salt, set aside.
2. Brush grill grate with vegetable oil. Heat grill to high heat. Place corn directly on the grill. Grill corn, turning occasionally until cooked and lightly charred, about 10 minutes.
3. Immediately brush the corn with mayonnaise mixture. Roll corn in cheese crumbles sprinkles with chili powder mixture and cilantro. Squeeze lime over corn and serve immediately.

GARLIC BROWN SUGAR FLANK STEAK WITH CHIMICHURRI

• 2 pound flank steak, about 1-inch thick
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 garlic cloves, minced

CHIMICHURRI SAUCE

• 1 cup fresh cilantro
• 2/3 cup fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup fresh oregano
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1. Add the flank steak to a large baking dish and season it with the salt and pepper. In a bowl, whisk together the olive oil, brown sugar and garlic cloves, then cover the steak with it and place it in the fridge to marinate. I marinate anywhere from 2 hours to overnight.
2. When you’re ready to cook the steak, you can grill, broil or pan sear it to your liking. I tend to broil it as I find that easiest. Preheat the broiler in your oven and move the oven rack as close as possible. Place the steak on a broiler pan or baking sheet and broil on each side for about 5 minutes. This will result to a medium to medium-well doneness in my oven.
3. Allow the steak to rest for 10 minutes before slicing it thinly against the grain. Serve it immediately with the chimichurri.

EASY RED, WHITE, AND BLUE TRIFLES

• 1 angel food cake About 12 ounces, store bought or homemade
• 2 pounds strawberries
• 12 ounces blueberries
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• Place your bowl and whisk for the whipped cream in the freezer for 20 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
• Remove the tops from the strawberries and dice into cubes.  If you are making the strawberry stars for garnish, make those first so you can use the prettiest parts of the strawberries.  To make the stars, cut a strawberry in half and use a small star shaped cookie cutter to cut out a star shape.  Cut as many as you need.  Scraps can be tossed in with the diced strawberries.  Set the strawberry stars aside.  With the rest of the diced strawberries, toss with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and set aside for 30 minutes to macerate. 
• Cut  or tear the angel food cake into 1/2 inch cubes.  If making the angel food cake stars, use a small star shaped cookie cutter to cut star shapes out of a flat slice of cake.  Scraps can be used in the trifle along with the cubes.
• Make the whipped cream.  Remove bowl and whisk from freezer.  Pour in heavy whipping cream, sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar on top, and add vanilla extract.  Beat until soft peaks form (1–2 minutes in a stand mixer, 6-7 minutes by hand).
• To assemble the trifles, use 6-8 small glass containers such as mason jars, drinking glasses, or wine glasses.  I recommend using smaller sized glasses, about 4-6 ounces.
• Cover the bottom of the glass with a layer of angel food cake cubes.  Top with a layer of the macerated strawberries.  Top that with a layer of whipped cream, then a layer of blueberries.  Repeat until you reach the top of your glass.  Top with more whipped cream and garnish with strawberry and angel food cake stars.