A Dallas New York-Style Bagel Shop Is Coming to Austin

A Dallas bagel shop is making its way into Austin next year. Shug’s Bagels will open in the Clarksville neighborhood at 1206 Parkway — taking over what was the original Austin Java restaurant space — sometime in 2025.

Shug’s takes on a New York deli-style approach, focusing on serving New York-style kettle-boiled bagels in classic and fun flavors. Those include everything, salt, jalapeño-cheddar cheese, cinnamon raisin, and French toast; some can come gluten-free. There are cream cheeses like scallion, garlic-herbs, vanilla-walnut, strawberry, and vegan ones; alongside spreads like lox, grape jelly, and Nutella.

Then there are breakfast, lunch, and chicken cutlet sandwiches that can be made with bagels, rolls, or wraps. Expect fillings like the Ridgewood, made with Taylor ham, eggs, and American cheese; the classic lox combination; open-faced pizza bagels; turkey clubs; Philly cheesesteak; chicken parm cutlet sandwiches with marinara sauce and melted mozzarella; and the barbecue cutlet with melted cheddar cheese, bacon, and a barbecue sauce. Plus there are build-your-own options.

Shug’s owner Justin Shugrue is from the Westchester, New York area himself. He attended Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas and noticed that there were a lot of students from the Northeast. “They’re looking for that hometown cuisine that a lot of New Yorkers didn’t even think was a regional thing,” he tells Eater, marveling at the beauty of the ubiquity of a bacon-egg-cheese on a roll and bagels available anywhere in New York.

After college, Shugrue worked in the service industry, came back to Dallas, and realized it was time to start his own bagel shop. “There’s a lot of New Yorkers, Connecticut, and New Jersey folks who are moving to cities where they just want a bagel with cream cheese that reminds them of home,” he says. Shug’s opened in Dallas near SMU in the summer of 2020, with a second location in the city in the fall of 2023.

“I tried to have showed be as similar to any place that you’d see in the Northeast,” Shugrue says. “I’m not trying to replicate any super-iconic place like Russ & Daughters, Ess-a-Bagel, or Utopia Bagels, but my experience growing up walking into a nameless bagel shop or bodega and being able to say, ‘Give me an onion bagel toasted with butter,’ and knowing that it’s going to be good.” Oftentimes, there are lines on the weekends.

Austin seemed like the perfect next expansion for Shug’s. Shugrue recently submitted permitting applications for construction on the space, noting that he and the team will have to improve the kitchen so that they’ll be able to properly bake everything there. “We go from flour to product on site,” he says. Like the other locations, the Shug’s Austin will function as a counter-service restaurant.

And actually, Austin is Shug’s fourth planned location. Before that, the team is working on their third store in New Orleans near Tulane University.

The Parkway address had been the original location of Austin diner mini-chain Austin Java, which opened in 1995 and closed in 2017. There’s only one location remaining in far south Austin.