H&H Bagels (Second Avenue)
1551 2nd Avenue | Yorkville | built 1915
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1974
Helmer Toro opens H&H Midtown Bagels East at 1551 Second Avenue
Helmer Toro had bought Midtown Bagels at 80th and Broadway on the Upper West Side with his brother-in-law in 1972 and soon took full control. In 1974 he opened a second shop on the Upper East Side at 1551 Second Avenue, called H&H Midtown Bagels East. It is the Second Avenue shop that survives today.
Source: ilovetheupperwestside.com
- 1979
Toro's first bankruptcy hands the Second Avenue shop to Perry Alexiou
H&H went bankrupt for the first time in 1979, and another company headed by Perry Alexiou took over the East Side store on Second Avenue. Toro kept the West Side shop, so the two shops ran under separate owners with the same H&H name.
Source: ilovetheupperwestside.com
- 2000
A judge forces the Second Avenue shop to drop "H&H Bagels East"
Alexiou's company began a worldwide marketing push for "H&H Bagels East," and Toro sued, saying the East Side shop was riding on the original's reputation. In 2000 a judge ruled that only Toro could use the original H&H name along with its logos and slogans, and barred the East Side store from calling itself "H&H Bagels East." It had to operate under the name in its bankruptcy papers, H&H Midtown Bagels East.
Source: ilovetheupperwestside.com
- 2014
Jay Rushin acquires the Upper East Side H&H brand in 2014
In 2014 Jay Rushin bought the brand already in use at the Upper East Side location, the shop Toro had opened in 1974 and lost control of in 1979. He said the shop had kept doing its own thing under different ownership, even after Toro's West Side locations shut down. The original Upper West Side shop closed in 2011.
Source: ilovetheupperwestside.com
Further reading
- H&H BagelsWikipedia
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