It's happening. PopUp Bagels, the brand that turned a Connecticut garage experiment into a nationwide obsession, opens its first South Carolina location July 3 at 83 Mary Street.
Here's why it matters: this isn't a local baker hanging a shingle. It's a viral machine. Founder Adam Goldberg started PopUp in his home in 2020. Five years later it's nearly 50 locations deep, with hundreds of thousands of social followers and a cult that treats bagel drops like sneaker releases.
The Charleston connection is the good part. Braxton and Frances DeCamp were living in New York when Goldberg launched, and they went to the first few pop-ups. When PopUp announced national franchising in 2024, Braxton, now living on James Island, reached out. Eighteen months later, he's opening the first of five SC locations he's committed to building.
Now, the bagels. PopUp doesn't do bagels the way you think bagels get done. They're boiled, heavily seasoned, and baked hot, then served whole. No slicing. You rip off a piece by hand and dunk it into a tub of spread. The company even has a name for the ritual: "Grip, Rip and Dip."
"These are hot bagels," DeCamp told the Post & Courier. "We are cooking them all day long."
The flavors are where it gets loud. Standard rotation covers plain, poppyseed, sesame, salt and everything. But the cream cheeses and butters are the draw, infused, spooned into 7-ounce tubs, and built for social media. Recent limited-edition runs included cacio e pepe butter, elote cream cheese, and a chocolate chip banana bread schmear. That kind of thing is exactly why the brand goes viral, and exactly why DeCamp is betting it has legs here.
Opening weekend leans into the hype: DJs, merch giveaways, the works. Hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, at the corner of King and Mary.
The bigger story is what this signals. Charleston has its bagel loyalists, and the locals-versus-newcomer debate writes itself. But a national brand committing to five Lowcountry locations isn't a one-off test, it's a bet that we'll show up, and keep showing up. July 3 is the first data point.
Grip, rip and dip. We'll see if it sticks.
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