When Absolute Bagels closed abruptly in December 2024, the neighborhood reacted with the kind of grief usually reserved for things that can't come back. The longtime owner, Sam Thongkrieng, had failed a health inspection, faced a steep rent increase, and chose to shutter the shop and return to Thailand. Regulars gathered outside the metal gate on Broadway and 107th Street. Local politicians promised to help find a new tenant. The block felt briefly unmoored.
Then it came back. In early 2026, a new owner reopened under a nearly identical name, kept much of the same staff, inherited the same equipment, and, according to the shop's most loyal customers, produces the same bagels. The neighborhood's central debate since has been whether any of that counts. The more revealing question is why the Upper West Side couldn't let it go in the first place, and what that instinct says about the spring that followed.
Why Every Big Opening This Spring Is Someone's Second Act
Look at the roster of what has opened since January, and a pattern appears immediately. Orwashers, the century-old bakery with locations on the Upper East Side and in Midtown, opened its second Upper West Side location this spring, its fourth in New York City. The menu is the same: bagels, babka, black-and-white cookies. Dough Doughnuts had its soft opening at 133 West 72nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues. That is their seventh location, built around the same rotating seasonal flavors alongside permanents like Hibiscus, Passion Fruit, and Blueberry Lemon.
Casa Louie welcomed its first guests at Waterline Square on May 20, a second location for the much-anticipated Italian restaurant. Hinds Hall by Ayat, a new outpost of the popular Palestinian restaurant, brought what the chain calls its greatest hits to the Upper West Side: shawarma, fried halloumi, slow-cooked mansaf. Nan Xiang Express, known for its Michelin-recommended soup dumplings, is now open on the UWS. La Pecora Bianca, the Italian restaurant group, is set to take over a Columbus Avenue storefront. Lucia, one of the more closely watched pizza spots in the city, is bringing a Columbus Avenue location this fall, their fourth in three years.
None of these are first-time bets. Every one is an operator with proof of concept choosing the UWS as their next address. Operators don't bring sequels to neighborhoods they aren't confident in. The pattern this spring is less a wave of discovery than a confirmation: this neighborhood has the purchasing power, the foot traffic, and the appetite for proven quality that makes a second location worth the risk.
The Street Is Getting a New Rhythm
On May 14, Smorgasburg expanded to the Columbus Circle entrance of Central Park. More than 25 vendors now set up Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. through the warmer months. For a market that built its reputation in Williamsburg and Prospect Park, the Columbus Circle run is a meaningful move uptown, and it lands at one of the neighborhood's most trafficked gateways. The schedule runs through the fall.
The city's Open Streets program returned to the Upper West Side this season as well, with multiple stretches closing to cars in favor of pedestrians, cyclists, and outdoor dining through late fall. At 2799 Broadway, Luckin Coffee opened at the corner of West 108th Street, taking over the former Cascabel Taqueria space. The Chinese coffee chain, which has opened more than ten Manhattan locations in the past year, joins recent arrivals NaiSnow on Amsterdam Avenue and Molly Tea as part of a growing cluster of new beverage options in the West 100s near Columbia. The daily routine on that stretch of Broadway is changing in ways that feel cumulative rather than isolated.
Two Openings That Chose Here First
Most of what arrived this spring arrived with a track record attached. Two recent openings did not.
Hashi Market opened at 2780 Broadway, between West 107th and 108th streets, in the former Garden of Eden space. It describes itself as a hybrid: part fresh food supermarket, part mini department store, part catering service, with a focus on East Asian food and design. There is no other Hashi Market to compare it to. The concept is new, and the Upper West Side is where it chose to launch.
Ghemo, a Georgian restaurant and bakery, is opening at 201 West 106th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. Georgian cuisine has been expanding across Manhattan with real momentum this year, but the UWS does not yet have an established Georgian presence. Both of these are first locations making a first-location bet, which reads differently than a Dough Doughnuts or a Casa Louie. They are not coming here because the UWS is a proven expansion market. They are coming because they believe the neighborhood is ready for something it does not already have.
Still On Its Way
For residents tracking what hasn't opened yet, as of late May 2026:
- Gelateria Gentile, a family-run gelato shop, is coming to Amsterdam Avenue at West 84th Street
- Moka & Co., a Yemeni coffee shop, is preparing to open on the Upper West Side
- Canto, the acclaimed Italian restaurant, is finalizing its uptown move to the neighborhood this month
- A new Brooklyn family-owned café has crossed the bridge, according to iLovetheUpperWestSide.com, with details still emerging
June 18 Is Worth Marking
The New York Historical Society's Tang Wing for American Democracy opens to the public on June 18, 2026. The 71,000-square-foot addition to the museum's Central Park West campus between West 76th and 77th streets is the result of a $175 million project that began construction in fall 2023. It adds gallery space, classrooms, conservation facilities, and on-site storage, and it will eventually become the permanent home of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, expected to open in late 2027.
The opening slate is deliberately timed to the United States' approaching 250th anniversary, with exhibitions covering Native American art, women's roles during the Revolutionary era, the evolution of democracy, and New York City during the bicentennial year of 1976. The wing is one of the largest physical investments in the Historical Society's 220-year history. For a neighborhood that already holds the American Museum of Natural History and sits a few blocks from Lincoln Center, the Tang Wing extends what is already one of the most concentrated cultural corridors in the city.
What This Spring Actually Says
The Upper West Side does not market itself as a place where something new is always arriving. It markets itself, implicitly, as a place where what arrives tends to matter and tends to stay. The spring of 2026 is consistent with that reading: a second Orwashers, a second Casa Louie, Smorgasburg choosing Columbus Circle over another Brooklyn expansion, and a museum investing $175 million in its own future here.
The Absolute Bagels story fits the same logic. The neighborhood's instinct was not to move on. It was to reconstruct what was lost as faithfully as possible. Whether the new version is the same as the old one is a question every regular will answer for themselves. That they are all showing up to ask it says something about what this neighborhood expects from the places that belong to it.
That expectation is, in its own way, a form of loyalty. And loyalty, on the Upper West Side, has a long memory.
If you are thinking about what the Upper West Side looks like from the inside of a transaction, The Roya Cohen Team brings the same close attention to this neighborhood that its residents bring to their morning bagel order. Request a complimentary market valuation and let's talk about what the current moment means for your home.
