Brentwood Bagel Boom

If you've lived here long enough, you know the Sunday rhythm: a run down the coral-tree median on San Vicente — technically a city Historic-Cultural Monument — coffee along the boulevard, then the farmers market at Gretna Green before parking turns impossible. Lately that ritual has a new complication: where to stop for bagels, because three serious contenders have landed within a short walk of each other.

Layla Bagels brought its hand-rolled sourdough to 900 S. Barrington Avenue, the shop's third location after Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. Chef Sammi Tarantino built the Brentwood space as a fully electric kitchen, part of why the opening took longer than fans wanted. The menu keeps it simple — fresh-baked sourdough, straightforward sandwiches, and coffee, daily until early afternoon. Do not skip the strawberry bagel with whipped white peach cream cheese.

PopUp Bagels sits right on the boulevard at 11710 San Vicente, open since December 2025. The Connecticut chain, founded by Adam Goldberg, is the "Grip, Rip and Dip" outfit: bagels arrive unsliced and hot, meant to be torn apart and dunked in whipped

schmear. Five styles — plain, everything, poppy, salt, sesame — with cream cheeses that rotate every Thursday. (Don't confuse it with Pop's Bagels, Zach Liporace's shop, which packed up its longtime San Vicente storefront in April and reopened on Montana Avenue — a five-minute drive, but technically over the line into Santa Monica.)

Hank's Bagels tucked into the Village at 11725 Barrington Court, taking over the old Yu Cake space. Billing itself as "a deli of sorts," Hank's does handmade sourdough bagels and bialys plus real sandwiches — the Number 1 with fried egg, maple-glazed bacon, and sharp cheddar — and spreads that include scallion, vegan, and its spicy "angry" cream cheese.

The bagels are just the loudest part of a bigger shift. Nine new shops opened across downtown Brentwood and the Village between January and April — Great White, Ggiata, Go Greek, and Flour Pizzeria among them. Flour rebuilt here after the Palisades fire took its original location; after that fire, the Sunday market even expanded to make room for displaced Palisades vendors. Terroni is prepping one of the Village's larger dining rooms next.

Not everyone's cheering. Many of us miss New York Bagel where you could sit down and be served and get some eggs over easy or even Matza Brei. Longtime neighbors will tell you rising rents have pushed out familiar faces even as the new names move in, and there's genuine loyalty to holdouts like Vicente Foods and the Country Mart, which has anchored the neighborhood since 1948.

So next Sunday, after the median run and before the market, you've got a decision. Layla for the sourdough, PopUp for the dip, Hank's for a proper sandwich. Personally, I'd say it comes down to whether you're eating in the car or bringing a dozen home — but that's a debate best settled one bagel at a time.