By Gus Saltonstall
In the days following the shock December closure of Absolute Bagels, the immensely popular eatery on Broadway between West 107th and 108th streets, West Side Rag received many followup questions. One was obvious: why had the owner decided to permanently close such a popular (though apparently sanitation-challenged) business?
The other frequent question was: how was the longtime store manager Nick doing?
“How is Nick?” asked Tal Vicario, an Upper West Side native and Absolute Bagels regular, who said he sent his love to Nick during this tough time.
“Does anyone have contact information for Nick, the longtime front of house man?” another reader emailed the Rag. “I believe that he could and would help us reunite the Absolutes, even if just one last time, at a gathering where those of us who loved them — and not just their bagels — could say farewell and thank you.”
The Rag has yet to get a response from owner, Sam Thongkrieng about why he closed the store. But this week, after several queries, the Rag did hear back from Nick, who worked at Absolute Bagels for 17 years, many of them in a managerial position at the front of the business. And though he did not want his last name used, Nick talked candidly about the closure and his current situation.
Here is our conversation:
WSR: How have you been doing since Absolute Bagels closed?
Nick: I’ve been in survival mode. I am trying to find a new job that it is going to feed me, but I don’t think Absolute Bagels is going to reopen. I don’t think the owner is going to do it again.
WSR: Are you looking to work at another bagel shop?
Nick: Any job. I’m trying to figure out what to do next.
WSR: Could you tell us a little bit more about why the owner decided to permanently close Absolute Bagels?
Nick: I respect his decision. I think he was tired. I don’t think his son wanted to take over the business and continue to run it. But maybe there were other problems too.
WSR: Did the decision to close surprise you as much as the locals?
Nick: Yes, it came out of the blue. It was my day off, and somebody told me he [the owner] decided to close and wanted to get rid of everything as soon as possible.
WSR: What did you enjoy the most about working at Absolute Bagels? People have asked about you.
Nick: It was a special 17 years. I had many friends, a lot of customers that I admired. Regulars became my community. Customers come in, kids I get to know and watch them grow up. I’m heartbroken now, you know. It means a lot to hear people are asking about me.
WSR: Do you know if the owner considered any of the offers made to him to keep Absolute Bagels open?
Nick: He had many offers the week after we closed. He went through all the offers. Many good ones. But he doesn’t want to. I don’t know if he has plans next, but there are many offers. I just don’t know the exact reasons he doesn’t want to anymore.
WSR: Any final thoughts on the situation?
Nick: Right now I’m still in survival mode. Trying to find a new job because all of the bills come. I didn’t prepare enough, so it’s been a little crazy. Thank you for talking with me.
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Editor: the last response from Nick includes an editor’s note I think
Thanks!
Just heartbreaking. And infuriating. The owner has always been this silent and surly presence. It’s a shame he has zero compassion for the employees. And to just reject any offer – and immediately close – is ruthless. Shame on him and all the love for Nick who was and will always be part of this community. We need to help him get work.
Maybe this was your favorite bagel place. Maybe it wasn’t. But the bagels were indeed unique. No other bagel place on the UWS, had quite the textures and taste. Other bagels from different shops around town often taste similar. These really didn’t have an analog.
Given the opportunity: Would Nick have purchased the business from the owner?
Long time managers often do that with popular businesses if the owner wants to retire.
Then there’s an incredibly famous example of a store being revived by the owners bringing in a new partner/former manager: That’s Zabar’s. It wouldn’t have lasted past about 1959 if Murray Klein hadn’t taken over running it day to day.
It’s JUST a bagel! Not important in your life!
It’s not just the bagel, as demonstrated here, it’s also the people and community that make NYC so special.
It’s so sad that the owner of Absolute Bagels didn’t see it that way.
Yes, it’s also part of the community fabric.
Blah, blah, blah. Rabble without a cause.
Do you know what a community is? To be a regular patron in a store, or a worker in a store, and see all the regulars? As Nick said, to see children grow up? We knew each other. You don’t get it.
To see rats grow up too! –
1) Evidence of rats or live rats in establishment’s food or non-food areas.
2) Live roaches in facility’s food or non-food area.
3) Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.
4) Cold TCS food item held above 41 °F; smoked or processed fish held above 38 °F; intact raw eggs held above 45 °F; or reduced oxygen packaged (ROP) TCS foods held above required temperatures except during active necessary preparation.
5) Raw, cooked or prepared food is adulterated, contaminated, cross-contaminated, or not discarded in accordance with HACCP plan.
If there’s anyway that we could donate some money to Nick to show our appreciation can you please let us know? Maybe set up a GoFundMe for him?
I just posted on Nextdoor about Nick’s job search. I hope this will get results. https://nextdoor.com/p/D7cQMZd9KTby/
It still doesn’t make any sense to destroy NYC’s best bagel shop. If you want to quit the business then put out the word quietly through some private equity banker and find a buyer. Then announce that you’re retiring and sold it. Then let them franchise it to Newark Airport who cares. That’s the modern capitalist version. Even better he could have sold it to the employees.
this comment is so hilariously out of touch but the most egregious part is the assertion that this place was nyc’s best bagel shop. not by a country mile!!
I can’t imagine a private equity banker buying a single-location bagel store no matter how much the neighborhood obsesses over its demise. The scope of investing that a PE banker does is way beyond what you’re suggesting.
PE firms tend to have very niche interests so I’m shocked if there isn’t already a bagel shop-focused one here in the city. Then again, maybe a good thing, considering the parasitic relationship PE often has with its portfolio companies.
it was a cash cow.
That doesn’t matter to a PE banker who develops and invests in business deals on a much higher-level plateau. If could be that you’re not familiar with the Private Equity sector and are confusing it with the Private Banking department of a commercial bank.
We need a cap on Absolute Bagel stories.
Agree…the obsession is not healthy. Apparently nor were their bagels hygienically.
Def sucks and losing jobs sucks too but why the surprise they were shut down multiple times in the past for unsanitary, infested conditions, ugh and the latest one in December.. Funny timing hmm….
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnewyork.com/manhattan/nyc-absolute-bagels-closes-rat-feces-roaches-dead-rodents-violations/6068776/%3famp=1
A reply to Burman 7020 – Adams didn’t destroy this “once great city in record time”. Check your history and the timeline of the Covid crazies and mask police. Jeff Bezos and masterful convincing of the vast majority of NYers into never leaving their apartments. And the rest who are just living in fear over whatever the 24hour media circus is churning out.
Exactly, you are so right, what the medias do one’s mind. First thing in the morning I’m outside for a few minutes with my pickup stick/grabber and bucket and cleaning up, just to be outside…good for the mind.
I don’t remember Bezos encouraging anybody to do anything.
Over 1 million people in the US have died from COVID so wearing a mask probably is and was a good idea for some people.
I agree with you about the media, it’s all about the money.
Adams is our current Mayor and doesn’t understand how awful the economic and social conditions are for the average hard working NYer.
People afraid to ride the subways.
That being said, I respect your opinion.
Bezos/Amazon have dramatically altered how Americans do commerce thus obliterating the small business culture that populated our once great city. They weren’t the only factor, but the reliance upon delivery that came about during the pandemic was a major factor and something most Americans haven’t been able to shake off.
You are correct that wearing a mask was a good idea for some people.
Blaming a sitting politician for large, systemic issues is problematic. It’s akin to how Trump is about to inherit the most robust economy in decades and will take the credit for it. I’m not a fan of Adam’s, but I don’t think he should be the scapegoat for the many issues going on in our city currently.
The subway will only improve when normal everyday citizens start riding it after 8pm again. We must be safe, yes, but a lot of people need to get out of their bubbles.
I appreciate your response and respect your opinion as well.
The economy and the job market were growing faster in the 4th quarter of 2020 under Trump than the 4th quarter of 2024 under Biden. After the effects of a global pandemic, it would have been really hard for Biden to not have a robust economy when the only way was up. But the way Biden did it introduced massively destructive inflation. that we still suffer from.
I use Amazon, EBay, Home Depot, BJ’s Cost5o, and others on a daily basis.
It the most cost and time efficient way for me to shop.
A bottle Fantastic is $3.22 on Amazon compared to $5.99 at my local hardware store. I could go on and on. I am a very prudent shopper.
Adams is our mayor and bears responsibility for the climate in NYC. Goes with the job. We he starts riding the subway after 8 pm without his security detail I will join in and even buy him dinner.
Once again, I appreciate differing opinions.
Thanks.
One more thing. In the 1980s I was mugged and almost killed in Central Park. I am no longer a risk taker. I am too old.
And thanks to the WSR for providing this forum.
o
Hard to understand why a business owner would prefer closing over selling his business.
Because he’s got enough money, can kick back for a while, and still owns the name which he can monetize at a later date? I haven’t heard of people breaking down his doors to sell to them…have you?
Boris you didn’t read the article, did you? Nick talked about the many good offers the owner got.
Good Humor’s question is a good one and your snarky reply makes no sense. How would anyone outside of the owner and insiders be aware of offers? Nick claims there were some, and short of interviewing the owner, that’s all we know.
Is Nick the tall Asian man who dropped lots of weight (I actually thought he was sick)? I thought he was the owner and had his family working with him. If “Sam” isn’t worried about the business walk away and let it become a worker’s coop, but are we ignoring things like rats stuck on glue traps above the ovens?
If Nick was the manager what was he doing while roaches and rats infested the place and he continued to sell unsafe food to people?
https://a816-health.nyc.gov/ABCEatsRestaurants/#!/Search/40392339
Someone please clean this place up and re open a bagel coffee shop.
What about Broadway Bagel at 101st.
Nice owner, great employees, clean, and good food.
The world is not coming to an end, then again, I’ve been wrong before.
Broadway Bagel has the worst bagels I have ever had. Completely inedible.
Oy Vey.
Gus, any chance that Nick might let us start a gofundme for him or the other employees? I know people have been looking for a way to help the workers affected by the closure.
I would rather give money to the women who are, on a daily basis, pulling out cans and used food out of garbage cans. They are our humble neighbors and fellow humans. They are all over the place.
Go Fund Me, not for me.
These GoFundMe efforts are a terrible idea for run-of-the-mill situations that occur in the normal cycle of business. Businesses open and close regularly. We now have an economic environment in which numerous businesses cannot find enough workers to fill open positions. Yet, many want to support workers with a one-time influx of resources which disincentivizes them to replace the lost work. Once the GoFundMe money runs out, they’re in the same situation. All the contributors have accomplished is delayed the process of their becoming self-sufficient again. It’s not healthy for either them or the community to give them a onetime shot of dependency.
What a hard-hearted thing to say. Believe me, if you’re out of work and bills are piling up, nothing will “disincentivize” you from finding a job. But having a little extra cash on hand might give Nick the chance to breathe a little easier and be a little choosier about his next job.
Did they have unemployment insurance?
That is their safety net.
Feel free to give to these people.
You are very fortunate.
Burman and Boris, I hope you never have to survive in New York City on unemployment which is capped at $504. If you can live off of that in a city that is most friendly to million and billionaires then I would consider *you* very fortunate. We live within a social net that is fraying at a rapid pace and GoFundMe can provide a short-term solution to patch some of that net. It is never intended as a permanent replacement and I have no doubt, given the driven, smart and kind people I encountered working at Absolute Bagels that they are all looking for work as quickly as they can.
I miss my friends at the shop desperately as I have been there every week for 25 years. There is no bagel like Absolute and I have tried them all.
I hear Bagel Nosh has reportedly taken the store and is getting ready to move in. I would love to help the staff in any way I can but if Bagel Nosh was smart they would hire all the staff from Absolute
Nick and the owner should have not let that establishment sink to such a dangerous unsanitary level.
The horse been beat. Please stop with the Absolute Bagel stories. Yes it is tragic that a beacon of the community as been shuttered and many of the employees are now unemployed.
But as one reader mentioned, where was Nick when the me was evidence of vermin present? If he is the manager doesn’t that make him complicit?
Also if we are talking loyalty here, why do you continue to pine over this place and wish he would have just anted up the money to keep it open?! He put NYers’ health in jeopardy! This wasn’t the first time he was cited for health violations.
The Westside Rag takes article submissions from anyone in the neighborhood. Perhaps you would like to write on what you think is a topic of interest for readers and see if it accepted?
Again it is beating a dead horse. I am not the only one who has made this comment. Maybe the editor should say “the dishes are done man.”
And yes I would love to write on what I think would be a topic of interest. I can tell you that it will not include establishments that failed multiple health code violations and continued to serve them to the public with knowledge of these violations.
“It reminds me of that old joke- you know, a guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office and says, hey doc, my brother’s crazy! He thinks he’s a chicken. Then the doc says, why don’t you turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I need the eggs. I guess that’s how I feel about relationships. They’re totally crazy, irrational, and absurd, but we keep going through it because we need the eggs.”
― Woody Allen, Annie Hall
Perhaps the owner could not sell because he did not have sufficient time left on his lease or an option to renew that would make the business worth buying. OTOH, the name “Absolute Bagels” may have commercial value, and I would think the owner would try to sell it for use at another location by another owner. That is, if in fact the owner wants out of the bagel business. It is a shame if, as is reported, Nick wasn’t give proper notice after all those years of good service. I hope he got respectable severance pay. The groundswell of support for him is in itself a good recommendation to a new boss.
As others have mentioned, Nick was the manager for a very long time under which he allowed the unsanitary and dangerous conditions to fester. Yet you call it “years of good service”. Why should the owner reward him with respectable severance when he put him in a dangerous situation?
Nick was always so kind and upbeat and engaging. I’m heartbroken to read he had zero notice about Absolute closing. I would contribute to a Go Fund Me for him. Keep us posted, WSR! (I would also like to underscore it was not just a bagel shop. It was a treasured form of a community center than happened to sell delicious bagels. Rats aside I miss it!!)
People complaining about the Absolute Bagels stories, too many of them on this site. The solution is so incredibly simple, just don’t read them!!…
What is up with all the grouches in the comments complaining about all the absolute bagel stories? Jeez, the stories exist bc we lost a gem in our community and everyone is trying to understand if the employees are ok (which they are clearly not!). Have some compassion.
Just like so many others, I loved Absolute Bagels and I still feel an enormous loss at its closure. Thank you for interviewing Nick, we miss him and everyone at Absolute dearly. If it’s true that there will be a new bagel store, i hope they hire everyone back. (I of course also hope they have a store that is clean and sanitary with no rats). It is horrible hearing that the Absolute employees are in this awful situation of suddenly needing to scramble for a new job. They deserve so much better. I would be happy to support a gofundme.
A loved spot by many that was that was closed by the Health Dep’t. Not sure I understand what the folks that loved this place do not understand CLOSED BY HEALTH DEPARTMENT. What was the manager doing to get rid of roaches & rats that climbed on your bagels?? I am more concerned with eating contaminated products than re-opening this place!
The owner bailed and could care less about his business. Nick has been there for 17 years. Obviously, he knows how to make these bagels. Why doesn’t he find someone to partner with and open a new store and just use the recipe and process he’s been doing for 17 years? Not like the owner is going to come back and track him down.
The number of Absolute Bagels stories exceeds any reasonable coverage.
To those who say we shouldn’t just read them – very hard to do when it is in your face every week.
People who claim it feels like an “enormous loss” apparently don’t know what true enormous loss feels like.
It really feeds unhealthy mass hysteria.
Given the clear evidence of serious sanitation lapses one has to ask what Nick’s role was. As the manager should he not have put sanitation and cleanliness at the top of his priority list? The bagels may have been good but the conditions in the store were beyond disgusting.
Why doesn’t another bagel place hire Nick. Think of all the good will he brings to the job.
Excessive, fawning coverage of a rat-infested bagel shop that was forced to shutter for the sake of public health sooner belongs in the pages of the Onion.
It seems like the west side has plenty of capable folks with resources who want Absolute or something like it to stay open. Coordinate?
https://discord.gg/Rdynunh2
If anyone knows of something that already exists, let me know, but it seems like paying whatever salaries to keep the band together is the first part.
Absolute Bagels had a history of serious health code violations. Final inspection on 12-11-2024 showed 67 violation points. No excuse for that level of violations –
https://a816-health.nyc.gov/ABCEatsRestaurants/#!/Search/40392339
Please let me know how to contact Nick. I want to set up a GoFundMe for the workers. No one should lose their long time employment overnight.