H&H Bagels
Coordinates: 40°46′28″N 73°57′16″W / 40.774433°N 73.95448°W / 40.774433; -73.95448
Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Fate | Original stores bankrupted; successor store on Upper East Side, under different ownership |
| Predecessor | Midtown Bagels |
| Successor | H&H Midtown Bagels East, 1551 2nd Avenue on the Upper East Side, different owners |
| Founded | 1972 (1972) |
| Headquarters | Manhattan, New York City , United States |
Number of locations | 2 (2018) |
| Products | Bagels |
| Website | www.hhbagels.net  |
H&H Bagels is a bagel company in Manhattan, in New York City. The original store has closed but two with the same name remain in business.
Before closing in January 2012, the original store and bakery had been the largest bagel manufacturer in New York City, and one of the largest bagel manufacturers in the world, producing about 80,000 bagels a day.
There is an H&H Midtown Bagels East at 1551 2nd Avenue between East 80th and East 81st streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, with different owners[1][2] , and a location at 526 Columbus Avenue between 85th and 86th streets on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In 1997, it had sales of $2 million.[1][2]
Contents
1 History
2 Retail locations
2.1 Upper East Side (2nd Avenue between East 80th and East 81st))
2.2 Upper West Side (Columbus Avenue between West 85th and West 86th)
2.3 Upper West Side (West 80th St) (Closed)
2.4 Hell's Kitchen (West 46th St) (Closed)
3 References
4 External links
History
View from Broadway
The business was started in 1972 when Puerto Rican Helmer Toro and his brother-in-law Hector Hernandez (hence "H&H") bought Midtown Bagels at Broadway and 80th Street for $5,000 ($30,000 in 2018 dollar terms) in cash and $50,000 ($300,000 in 2018 dollar terms) in a loan. Toro eventually assumed full control of the business.[3] In 1974 Toro opened H&H Midtown Bagels East on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
In 1979 H&H went bankrupt for the first time which resulted in a new group taking over ownership of the Upper East Side H&H location while Toro retained ownership of the Upper West Side location.
In 1993 it moved its bakery to 46th Street at 12th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, although its primary storefront remained on the Upper West Side.
In addition to its retail locations, H&H also shipped bagels worldwide.
H&H Bagels were Hechsher-certified Kosher and Pareve by Star-K.[4] The existing H&H still ships bagels nationwide.
On November 18, 2009, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced the indictment[5] and arrest of Helmer Toro for stealing, withholding taxes and evading unemployment insurance taxes.[6] The indictment alleged that between July 2003 and April 2009, Toro failed to pay $369,000 withheld from H&H employees.[7] In May 2010 he pleaded guilty to grand larceny, and was sentenced to pay restitution of more than $540,000 and to a jail term, which he served over the course of 50 weekends from June 2010 to July 2011.[8]
Toro's portion of H&H filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2011 in an effort to maintain its manufacturing facility in Secaucus, New Jersey,[9] but ultimately that facility was sold at auction in October 2011. The West 46th and West 80th retail locations closed in January 2012.[10] H&H on the Upper East Side continued its normal operations and opened a new retail location on the Upper West Side in 2016.
The final days and collapse of Toro's portion of H&H was chronicled in The Rise and Fall of H&H Bagels, a business memoir, written by Marc Zirogiannis about his experiences as a top advisor to the owner, Helmer Toro.[11]
Retail locations
Upper East Side (2nd Avenue between East 80th and East 81st))
H&H Midtown Bagels East at 1551 2nd Avenue between East 80th and East 81st streets on the Upper East Side is owned by different owners than the original stores.[1][2] In 1997, it had sales of $2 million.[1][2]
Upper West Side (Columbus Avenue between West 85th and West 86th)
In November 2016, H&H Midtown Bagels East opened a second location on the Upper West Side.
Upper West Side (West 80th St) (Closed)
Opened in 1972, this was the original location of H&H Bagels. It was open to the public 24 hours a day. Bagels were produced at the location at nearly all times of the day and night.[12] It was closed by New York City marshals on June 29, 2011.[9][13]
Hell's Kitchen (West 46th St) (Closed)
The H&H location at 639 West 46th Street also held a manufacturing plant. This location was also open 24 hours a day. The property was sold in December 2011, but the company continued operating until they were evicted in January 2012.[10][14]
References
^ abcd "About Us – HH Midtown Bagels East". Hhmidtownbagels.com. Retrieved January 8, 2013..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ abcd CHRISTOPHER DREWPublished: March 10, 2000 (March 10, 2000). "Judge Splits Decision In Bagel Dispute". New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
^ Lawson, Carol (October 10, 1993). "New Yorkers & Co.; The Bagel Maven ... From Puerto Rico". The New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
^ "Star-K – June 21, 2011". Star-k.org. Archived from the original on October 28, 2007. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
^ "Indictment (N.Y. v. Helmer Toro)". FindLaw. November 18, 2009.
^ "News Release". Manhattan District Attorney's Office. November 18, 2009. Archived from the original on June 16, 2010.
^ Italiano, Laura (November 18, 2009). "H&H bagel man may hand over lots of dough in tax cheat case". New York Post. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
^ [1]
^ ab Rebecca Marx, "H&H Bagels Will Close Its Iconic Upper West Side Store", Village Voice, June 21, 2011.
^ ab Sumathi Reddy and Pervaiz Shallwani, "Loxed Out: H&H Bagel Evicted From Last Site", The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2012.
^ Zirogiannis, Marc (November 1, 2015). The Rise and Fall of H&H Bagels (First ed.). Litchfield, Illinois: RWG Books & Publishing. p. 154. ISBN 978-0692542835.
^ Beller, Thomas (March 29, 2004). "Portrait of The Bagel as a Young Man". Mrbellersneighborhood.com. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
^ "The End is Swift for H&H Bagels as Marshals Seize the Store; Now, Reminisce With Us". West Side Rag. June 30, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
^ "DelShah Capital helps settle bankruptcies at two Manhattan properties", The Real Deal, February 21, 2012.
External links
- H&H Midtown Bagels East
