PopUp Bagels, the viral Connecticut-based bagel chain, opened its first Maryland location on the ground floor of the Solaire apartment building at 7607 Old Georgetown Road, adding another competitor to downtown Bethesda's growing bagel cluster.

The shop soft-opened Thursday, Aug. 13, and holds its official grand opening celebration Friday, Aug. 14, from 8 to 11 a.m., according to The MoCo Show. Regular hours Friday run 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. A limited Bethesda-exclusive flavor, the Chesapeake Spiced Schmear, is available during the grand opening event, along with hot bagels and what the company calls "special surprises," Bethesda Magazine reported.

The opening comes after two delays. PopUp Bagels originally planned to open July 24, then pushed to Aug. 7 due to construction issues, before finally landing on Aug. 14. As we reported earlier this week, the brand confirmed the Friday date.

Regional partner Brian Harrington, founder of Seeded Capital Partners, operates six PopUp Bagels locations including the new Bethesda shop and the Georgetown store at 1078 Wisconsin Ave. NW, which opened in April. Harrington told The MoCo Show the company is scouting additional sites throughout the DMV, with a Ballston, Virginia, location already under construction.

Founder Adam Goldberg started PopUp Bagels in his Westport, Connecticut, backyard in 2020. "When we started baking bagels in my backyard, I never imagined we'd turn it into a national brand," Goldberg said in The MoCo Show's first-look report. The chain has since earned a New York Times nod as one of the city's best bagel shops and won Brooklyn Bagelfest's "Best Bagel" award in consecutive years.

The brand is known for bagels with a crisp exterior and soft interior, baked in small batches throughout the day. Rather than slicing, PopUp encourages customers to rip chunks off and dip them into tubs of cream cheese or butter. The Bethesda menu includes everything, plain, poppy, salt and sesame bagels, plus rotating specialty schmears. A tangerine-flavored butter spread is also on the board.

The interior features a celebrity photo wall, previewed on Robert Dyer's Bethesda Row blog on Aug. 6.

PopUp Bagels joins a downtown Bethesda bagel scene that has expanded rapidly this summer. Call Your Mother opened its Woodmont Triangle location at 4828 St. Elmo Ave. on Aug. 3, and longer-running shops Bethesda Bagels, Breads Unlimited and The Red Bandana Bakery (gluten-free, at 8218 Wisconsin Ave.) remain in the mix.

Next up for the brand locally: the Ballston shop, with Harrington indicating more DMV locations are in the pipeline.