April 25, 2024
Provided Image/Eddy Marenco
The new Bagels & Co. near the Temple campus will feature over a dozen kinds of bagels, including a Fruity Pebbles flavor, and a variety of cream cheeses.
Temple University students will have another breakfast option when Bagels & Co. opens its first location near a college campus.
The bagel and coffee shop at 1431 Cecil. B Moore Ave. will have an exclusive preview Friday for Temple students and faculty who show an ID before its grand opening Monday, April 29. Glu Hospitality, the restaurant group behind Bagels & Co., is opening the shop next to its new bar the Peabody, which is taking over the space of the shuttered Draught Horse pub.
Derek Gibbons, one of the founders of Glu Hospitality, said this has been a long time coming after originally touring the space two years ago. Gibbons said he wanted to add Bagels & Co. to the college landscape because he felt like campuses are often full of national chains but lack good breakfast options. (Temple does have another bagel shop called the Bagel Hut on its campus).
"I think it's a great move, especially for our brand," Gibbons said. "Faculty, students, they're always up early. They're always going to be filling up with caffeine and coffee."
The new location will include over a dozen kinds of Brooklyn-style bagels, including a Fruity Pebbles bagel, and even more cream cheese options. Gibbons said they'll likely have a Temple-themed cream cheese, but he isn't sure yet what that will be. Students, faculty and residents can also stop by for breakfast sandwiches, coffee and specialty drinks like a blueberry chai latte, lavender matcha and nitro cold brew. It will also have more grab-and-go options including overnight oats, pastries and fruit cups.
The 800-square-foot space won't include any seating and is the seventh Bagels & Co. location in the Philadelphia area. Glu Hospitality is also planning locations at Penn State University and Florida State University.
Gibbons said the bagel shop and the Peabody bar, which is slated to open for the fall semester, are both dining concepts missing at Temple.
"That space has been vacant for a couple of years now," Gibbons said. "So to revamp that whole area on Cecil B., which was a big part of the main campus drag — it's important to Temple and important to us to really make it flourish with some cool concepts for them."
Bagels & Co. at Temple will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
