An acclaimed bagel shop in the mid-cities is expanding bigtime: Dan's Bagels, which has been winning over bagel fans at its original location in Trophy Club, is opening not one but two new outlets in spring 2025.

• The first is in Argyle at an address still TBD — it's under construction off US-377, near the intersection of Frenchtown Road, just north of Liberty Christian High School and east of Northlake. This one will come with a small patio.
• The second is at 2430 Forest Park Blvd. in the former Chip'd Cookie Nachos location (which is also the former Black Rooster Bakery location), close to TCU.

Both locations are new franchisees: The Argyle store is from Josh & Jill Pezzuto, Jwho have several years of fast-casual and franchise experience; and the TCU store is from Luis and Mona Lisa.

Dan’s Bagels is a bona-fide pandemic success, founded by husband-and-wife Dan and Jen Hilbert who, like many among us, turned to baking during the pandemic as a distraction from the quarantine — specifically, baking bagels, which theyy had acquired a taste for, after living on the East Coast for more than 30 years.

"We yearned for a legit bagel - one that was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside," Dan says. "We missed the hustle and bustle of local neighborhood bagel shops offering scratch-made bagels and made-to-order sandwiches."

They quit their corporate jobs and established Dan’s Bagels in April 2020, selling bagels out of their home, offering online preorders for pickup.

"The watershed moment was in November 2020, when word of mouth and buzz for our bagels ignited a demand we had not seen before — we sold 1,000 bagels in 7 minutes," Dan says.

They opened a brick & mortar shop in August 2021 at 301 Trophy Lake Dr. #132, in Trophy Club, and are consistently cited as a destination for bagels. They're skilled at social media, employing devices such as setting up a live-feed "Bagel cam" so that fans can watch as the bagel bins are emptied. And they rotate in seasonal specials, often viral such as the rainbow-hued bagel, or a red-white-and-blue bagel on Memorial Day.

They do about a dozen flavors, some unconventional, such as their pizza bagel, pumpkin, and rosemary salt. You can spot their blueberry bagel: It's tinted an Instagram-friendly vivid blue.

They have a large assortment of flavored schmears. They also do other items such as cinnamon rolls, "hard rolls" — a New York institution that's like a bagel but lighter — plus blueberry muffins, crumb cake, and black & white cookies.

Both of the new locations are anticipated to open in late Spring 2025.