At 7 a.m., the first batch of hot bagels comes out at 6–8 Washington Street, sold whole by the bag and not sliced. Nine hours later, a block or so away at 25 Highwood Avenue, the lights come up over velvet banquettes and a full bar. A month ago, neither business was open.
PopUp Bagels held its grand opening on Friday, October 9. Serafina opened its first New Jersey restaurant days later. Boozy Burbs gave the date as Tuesday, October 13, and The Bergen County Girl reported Wednesday, October 14 at 5 p.m. PopUp covers the morning, Serafina covers the night, and their posted hours overlap briefly in the late afternoon.
Where the Hours Meet
| PopUp Bagels | Serafina | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 6–8 Washington Street | 25 Highwood Avenue |
| Opened | October 9, 2026 | October 13 or 14, 2026 |
| Posted hours | 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily | 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily |
| Format | Hot whole bagels by the bag, counter service | Sit-down dining room with full bar |
PopUp's Tenafly location page lists 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day. Serafina's own Tenafly page lists 4:00 to 10:00 p.m., Monday through Sunday. That leaves a half hour when both are open. These are new operations, though, and the early numbers don't all match. An October 5 report from YeahThatsKosher put PopUp's closing time at 3:00 p.m. Serafina's reservation listing shows a shorter evening, 5:00 to 9:30 p.m. Check before you plan a day around the overlap. Even with the shorter hours, a single downtown Saturday can now start with breakfast and end with dinner, and you never have to drive out of the center of town.
Morning at 6–8 Washington Street
PopUp Bagels started in 2021 in founder Adam Goldberg's backyard in Connecticut, as bagels made for friends and neighbors. Suhel Amid, the brand's New Jersey partner, told The Tenafly Echo that it grew by word of mouth into shops across the country. Tenafly is its first storefront in Bergen County. "Tenafly really stood out to us," Amid told The Echo. "It's a town where people care about great food and have a real connection to their neighborhood."
The shop works differently from a standard bagel counter, so it helps to know the format before your first visit:
- Bagels come hot and whole, by the bag. They aren't sliced or toasted. The brand calls the idea "Grip, Rip and Dip": you tear the bagel apart and dip it into schmears and butters.
- Batches run all day. Amid told The Echo that the team starts well before opening so the first batches are ready for the earliest customers.
- The standard order is the everything bagel with scallion cream cheese, which The Echo reports is the shop's most popular.
- You can pre-order. The location page links to online pre-ordering.
Kosher customers should know which items are certified. According to YeahThatsKosher, the Tenafly shop is certified by National Kosher Supervision, led by Rabbi Aaron Mehlman. The bagels are pareve and non-Pas Yisroel. The plain and scallion cream cheeses are dairy and non-cholov-yisroel. The rotating flavored schmears are not certified.
One item is sold only in Tenafly. PopUp worked with Chef Josh Capon on a carrot cake schmear that The Echo describes as exclusive to this shop and available for a limited time. It went on sale for the opening on October 9. Almost three weeks later, it may not be on the menu much longer.
The Block Between Breakfast and Dinner
PopUp didn't open on an empty street. The Bergen County Girl places 6–8 Washington Street on a stretch that already includes Miller's Bakery, Pizza Nova and Chez Cheeze. BYY Build Your Yogurt is at 6 Washington Street, which The Bergen County Girl suggested as a post-dinner walk from Serafina, a few blocks away.
That makes 6 Washington Street an address you can visit twice in one day. Morning bagels come out of 6–8, and evening frozen yogurt comes out of 6. Serafina, on Highwood Avenue, sits just off the main downtown stretch, so it works as the walking end point for dinner and not a separate destination.
Evening at 25 Highwood Avenue
Serafina opened in 1995 as Serafina Fabulous Pizza on 79th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Founders Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato have since expanded it across three continents, according to Hoodline, which drew on the company's own account. By 2024, it had ten Manhattan locations, plus restaurants in Scarsdale, White Plains and East Hampton. Tenafly is its first in New Jersey.
Boozy Burbs describes the redesigned Tenafly dining room as having velvet seating, warm lighting and a full bar. When The Bergen County Girl reported the opening, no menu specific to Tenafly had been posted. Its preview pointed to dishes Serafina serves at other locations, including cacio e pepe, chicken Milanese, branzino and Bolognese. It also called out the burger, which on several existing menus is made with Wagyu beef, fontina, caramelized onions and French fries. You can book a table through Serafina's website.
The wait was long. Signage went up at the Highwood Avenue property in 2024, and reports at the time projected a spring 2025 opening. The restaurant opened more than a year later. The space has a history as a restaurant address. Hoodline, citing earlier reporting, lists Sachun House and Hong Bo Suk among the restaurants that operated there before.
The Bar Was Approved Ten Months Before Opening Night
Serafina's full bar has a public record behind it. On December 9, 2025, Tenafly adopted Resolution R25-573. It approved a person-to-person and place-to-place transfer of Plenary Retail Consumption License #0261-33-005-009, a license the resolution describes as "currently in pocket status," to Serafina Tenafly, LLC at 25 Highwood Avenue. The one transfer covered both a new holder and a new address. The endorsement language in the December 9 consent resolutions reads:
"This license, subject to all its terms and conditions, is hereby transferred to Serafina Tenafly, LLC., effective December 9, 2025."
The resolution isn't consistent in what it calls the license. Its opening clause says "Plenary Retail Consumption License," and its approval clause says "Plenary Retail Distribution License." The borough's December 22 consent resolutions include R25-581. It repeats the transfer with the same license number and location, effective December 9, 2025.
The transfer took effect in December 2025, and the opening came ten months later. When the doors opened in mid-October, the evening half of the new downtown day already had its permit.
At The Taylor Lucyk Group, we track openings like these on Washington Street and Highwood Avenue because they change what a Tenafly address offers day to day. That's the kind of local detail we put into every pricing conversation. If you'd like to know where your home stands, Request Your Luxury Home Valuation.
