4. H&H Bagels
Joe’s ‘neighborhood bagel place’ was none other than H&H Bagels, the former titleholder of Best Bagels in New York City. The original H&H opened in 1972 on West 80th Street and Broadway, after Midtown Bagels was purchased by Helmer Toro and Hector Hernandez. Toro took control of the business on the Upper West Side, eventually opening up another store in Hell’s Kitchen and beginning to ship the now-famous H&H Bagels worldwide. The bagel shop filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and the last location closed in January 2012. A few years later, however, H&H made a comeback. Under new ownership, there are now five H&H locations in New York City, with a 6th set to open in Penn Station in 2024. There are also plans to extend the franchise to 25 new locations nationwide. Google Maps shows that as of March 2023 the ground-level storefront, which was previously a Verizon Wireless store, is now empty.