A veteran-owned bagel shop with hearty breakfast options opened its second location today (Tuesday) in Ballston.
Alexandria-based Bagel Uprising has opened its doors at 901 N. Glebe Road, on the heels of another bagel shop, Call Your Mother, opening at nearby 4000 Wilson Blvd earlier this month. Bagel Uprising seeks to distinguish itself with simple, consistent results on classic bagel and sandwich offerings.
“If something is simple, then you can repeat it and get consistent outcomes,” co-owner Justin Silverman told ARLnow. “We try to keep things focused on a very basic dough and the core flavors of the bagel. It also helps us keep the prices down and, I think, provide a much better value to the customer.”
Co-owner Chad Breckinridge said Bagel Uprising’s everything bagels are the biggest hit, accounting for around half of all sales at the business’s other location on Mount Vernon Avenue in Alexandria. Other options include sesame, salt, onion, cinnamon and plain bagels, plus sandwich options such as a Reuben on the lunch menu and “The Breakfast Spud,” which has egg, ham, hashbrowns and cheese.
Breckinridge started making bagels for farmer’s markets and pop-ups in 2011 before opening his first brick-and-mortar spot in 2019. He says the key to making good bagels is leaving the dough in the fridge overnight.
“Our bagels are five ingredients — flour, brown sugar, malt, yeast and salt,” Breckinridge said. “We boil and make them right here every day. I’m not sure how it happens at other places, but for us, we do this every day with same ingredients, and we got it down.”
Two years ago, Breckinridge met Silverman, an Air Force veteran, and the pair decided to open a second shop built on their philosophy that simplicity breeds success.
When Silverman joined the team, he brought his passion for baking a Jewish dessert called babka — a pastry with layers of dough and filling. Bagel Uprising is planning to sell his plant-based babka at the new location in addition to its bagels.
“The way I roll it, it has 8-12 layers of dough,” Silverman said. “So I get like 8-12 layers of filling in there to get a lot of filling with every bite, which is very important. The most traditional flavors are chocolate and cinnamon. We make lemon. We’ll do seasonal things like apple cider or blueberry pomegranate.”
Bagel Uprising is open daily from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Breckinridge said he hopes to become part of Ballston’s neighborhood fabric.
“We don’t view this as the next outpost in the campaign to take over America,” Breckinridge said. “We’re veteran-owned, veteran-operated — the veteran is actually here shaking people’s hands. We want to be part of the neighborhood. We’re literally like — can we find a Little League team to sponsor? How do we get in touch with the PTA at the local high school? We want to be part of the community.”
