When Bruegger's left Ballston in 2023, who guessed the next bagel would come in threes? Call Your Mother opened at 4000 Wilson Blvd in early July. Bagel Uprising opened at 901 N. Glebe Road later that month. PopUp Bagels has its grand opening scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6, at 4300 Wilson Blvd, a storefront ARLnow places between the other two.
ARLnow called it a bagel battle when Call Your Mother opened. It plays out more like a division of labor, because each shop is built around a different reason to want a bagel. Call Your Mother is a deli that happens to bake its own bagels, Bagel Uprising keeps a classic bagel counter, and PopUp sells only by the bag. Once you know which is which, the question stops being which one wins and becomes which one fits this particular morning.
How fast the gap closed
The timeline is short. Call Your Mother opened on July 7, 2026, after a soft opening the day before. ARLnow reported a line out the door during the morning and lunch rushes, along with free coffee cards and Ballston stickers. Bagel Uprising followed on July 28. PopUp first announced its Arlington plans in April, and its opening is the last of the three.
Arlington was not a random pick. In the Arlington Magazine bagel roundup, Call Your Mother co-owner Andrew Dana said Arlington had been the No. 1 location request from customers. That request goes a long way toward explaining the shop the company built here.
Call Your Mother is a deli first
Call Your Mother calls itself a "Jew-ish" deli, and its Ballston menu goes well past bagels. There are creative sandwiches, potato latkes, babka muffins and black-and-white cookies. The bagels are a New York and Montreal hybrid. The dough ferments for at least 24 hours, gets boiled in malt and finished with honey, and is baked in the shop.
The orders people talk about are sandwiches: the Sun City breakfast sandwich and the Jalapeño JetSki, which is built on brisket and pastrami. Ballston is open 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays and 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, with online ordering. Before opening, the shop said it would have patio seating.
The 6:30 a.m. start is the earliest of the three, and Ballston is now one of three Arlington-area Call Your Mother locations. The others are a kiosk in National Landing's Water Park at 1671 Crystal Drive and a storefront in McLean's Chesterbrook Shopping Center. This is the shop for a full breakfast or an early lunch, ordered ahead before work.
Bagel Uprising keeps the bagel at the center
Bagel Uprising began with one person's standards. Founder Chad Breckinridge started making small-batch, boil-and-bake bagels because he was unhappy with the local options. He sold them at the Four Mile Run Farmers Market and opened a storefront in Del Ray in 2019. Ballston is the second shop. It sits at the corner of Fairfax Drive and North Vermont Street, next to the site planned for a new Ballston Metro entrance.
Breckinridge described the expansion to Arlington Magazine this way:
"This isn't a chain store. It's a second shop aimed at becoming part of the Ballston community, just as we have in Del Ray."
The menu is deliberately focused. The dough has five ingredients, and the bagels are boiled and made on-site every day. Everything is the top seller. Signature cream cheeses come in flavors like "Hot" Cocoa and Green Goddess, and the shop sells babka through Breckinridge's business partner, Justin Silverman. Sandwiches include the Breakfast Spud and a Reuben at lunch.
The prices suit an everyday stop. On the shop's online menu, a build-your-own bagel starts at $1.75, egg-and-cheese bagels run $6.50 to $9.25, and an avocado BLT is $8.75. Ballston is open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, with online orders for pickup.
Arlington readers have already weighed in. Bagel Uprising won the ARLnow Readers' Choice poll for best new restaurant, held Sept. 3 to 16, 2026, with 194 of 745 votes, or 26.0%. Xi'an Famous Foods came second with 188 votes. A six-vote margin in a countywide poll is a small, real signal that a two-shop local business has earned a following here.
PopUp Bagels sells the bag, and opens Friday
PopUp takes the most unusual approach. The Connecticut-born company started as a backyard pickup operation in Westport. It is known for "rip and dip": you get whole bagels and a tub of schmear, and you tear and dunk instead of slicing and spreading. A sign on the Ballston door reads, "Bagels. Not sandwiches."
There are five flavors: plain, everything, poppy seed, salt and sesame. The dips are plain or scallion cream cheese or salted butter, plus weekly schmear specials in flavors such as cake batter. Bagels come only in bundles, and pre-orders are limited to dozens. In April, ARLnow reported a starting price of $15 for three bagels and a tub of cream cheese or butter.
The grand opening is set for 7 to 11 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 6. It promises "special surprises" and a limited-time Cafe Salted Caramel Cider Doughnut Schmear made with Good Company Doughnuts. PopUp's other DMV shops are in Georgetown and Bethesda. Bundle pricing and dozen-only pre-orders point to the occasion it is built for: a bag picked up for the office, a houseguest brunch, or a Sunday at home.
The three, side by side
| Call Your Mother | Bagel Uprising | PopUp Bagels | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 4000 Wilson Blvd | 901 N. Glebe Road | 4300 Wilson Blvd |
| Arrived | July 7, 2026 | July 28, 2026 | Grand opening scheduled Nov. 6, 2026 |
| Built around | Deli sandwiches and baked goods | Classic boiled bagels, made daily | Whole bagels by the bundle, with schmear for dipping |
| Bagel style | New York–Montreal hybrid, honey-finished | Five-ingredient boil-and-bake | Five core flavors |
| Order to know | Sun City or Jalapeño JetSki | Everything bagel, Breakfast Spud | A bundle plus the weekly schmear |
| Hours | 6:30 a.m.–2 p.m. weekdays, 6:30 a.m.–3 p.m. weekends | 7 a.m.–2 p.m. daily | Opening event 7–11 a.m. Nov. 6 |
| Ordering ahead | Online ordering | Online pickup | Pre-orders by the dozen |
The bagel map reaches past Ballston
Ballston has the cluster, but other neighborhoods have their own additions. Starting Sept. 28, Bullfrog Bagels began supplying hand-rolled, boiled bagels to the Ghostburger stall at Upside on Moore, the food hall at 1700 N. Moore St. in Rosslyn. You can get them on any breakfast sandwich, including the Otto Superiore with scrambled egg, bacon, pimento cheese, pickled red onion, pickled jalapeño and cilantro jalapeño aioli. Dozens come in plain, everything, sesame, poppyseed, cinnamon raisin, asiago cheese and whole wheat.
In Clarendon, chef Gina Chersevani is working on a fourth location of Buffalo & Bergen at 1028 N. Garfield St. Her D.C.-based concept combines a soda counter, a deli and a cocktail bar, and it is known for New York water bagels, brisket Reubens and knishes.
A Saturday route, once all three are open
Call Your Mother and PopUp are both on Wilson Boulevard, and Bagel Uprising is around the corner on Glebe. That makes it easy to hit all three in one morning, especially with a few people to split the orders.
- Start at Call Your Mother around opening. Weekend doors open at 6:30 a.m., and the July lines formed during the morning rush. Order a sandwich to share, since that is the one thing the other two stops are not built around.
- Walk to Bagel Uprising for the bagel on its own. An everything bagel with one of the signature cream cheeses lets you compare it directly with the hybrid you just had. Pick up babka for later.
- End at PopUp with a bundle for home. Check its regular hours first, then carry out a bag and that week's schmear for the rest of the weekend.
- Save Rosslyn for a weekday. Upside on Moore is a short trip away and makes an easy lunch stop for a Bullfrog bagel sandwich.
If your weekends already run through Ballston, the Rosslyn Holiday Market on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Central Place Plaza, 1800 N. Lynn St., is a good next stop. Santa visits from 2 to 4 p.m.
The RGA Realty Group team keeps track of the small changes that shape daily life in Arlington, from a new bakery on the corner to a planned Metro entrance down the block. If you live near the new bagel row and wonder what your home is worth now, ask for a Free Home Valuation. We'll walk you through it calmly and clearly, with no pressure.
