Co-owners Jacob Cohen and Alexandra Cohen, the married couple whose acts of kindness during the pandemic went from a pop-up to a brick-and-mortar restaurant will be expanding again. What Now Philadelphia confirmed with Jacob Cohen via phone call that the couple will be opening a second location of Kismet Bagels in the Reading Terminal Market in the fall that will concentrate on the bialy.
Kismet Bagels started as a home baking enterprise by Jacob and Alexandra, who were out of work during the Covid lockdown and wanted to keep busy. Their bagel creations were so popular that their new brick-and-mortar shop blossomed out of Kismet’s pop-up and wholesale success and it opened in Fishtown on April 8.
The bialy is not the same as a bagel. While bagels are boiled and have a hole in the middle, bialys are baked and have a slight depression in the middle of the bread. The depression will frequently have a filling, which is usually a savory filling like onions, garlic, poppyseed, or salt. The Cohens intend to experiment with the fillings and plan different types of flavors for the bialys per The Philadelphia Inquirer.
