Kismet Bagels plans four new shops, from Chestnut Hill and Manayunk to Collingswood and the Jersey Shore

Kismet Bagels, which launched around five years ago as a couple’s pandemic project and has grown to four locations, expects to double its store count by this summer.

Jacob and Alexandra Cohen have signed leases in Chestnut Hill, Manayunk, Collingswood, and Ventnor, N.J.

All will be luncheonettes with dine-in and takeout offerings, similar to the one in Penn Valley — except for Manayunk, which will be a bagel shop, similar to those in Fishtown and Rittenhouse. (Kismet also has a stand at Reading Terminal that specializes in bialys, the flat breakfast roll.)

The new Collingswood location, at the former Healthy Garden & Gourmet Pizza space at 474 Haddon Ave., will be first of the new batch of Kismet shops to open, likely in April.

The Chestnut Hill location, targeted for June or July, is the former Roller’s Express-O at Germantown Avenue and Gravers Lane, which has been closed for nearly eight years. “We went to Chestnut Hill in August, and looked in the window,” Jacob Cohen said. “We knew it had been empty a long time, and it really fit our luncheonette vibe to a tee. The tin ceilings are gorgeous, [there was] black-and-white subway tile on the floor, the gorgeous bar, and cherry wainscoting underneath.” Kismet has a customer base in both Chestnut Hill and Collingswood from their farmers markets.

The Manayunk shop, which the Cohens also hope to open in June or July, will replace Pizza Jawn at 4330 Main St. Owner David Lee will move the pizza operation into his nearby Bar Jawn, likely after April 27, coinciding with the Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival.

In Ventnor, Kismet will take over for Water Dog Smoke House at 7319 Ventnor Ave., which is closing up shop after seven years. Owner Steve Marcel said he has faced “the reality that costs to maintain a physical location have gone through the roof in the last couple years.”

Water Dog still operates Betty’s Seafood Shack in the Bay in Margate, as well as Betty’s BBQ & Fried Chicken, which is set to premiere April 25.

The idea for barbecue and chicken struck last summer, Marcel said. His wife, Robin Kramer, was working a typical 80-hour week at Betty’s, when Marcel suggested that they take over the cookie place next door. To his surprise, she agreed.

The Cohens said they would fast-track the Ventnor Kismet to open around May 1, in time for the summer season. It’s about two miles from the Margate Community Farmers Market, where the Cohens began vending in July 2020. “Those eight weeks were really instrumental to our early success because everybody from Philly was camped out down the shore,” Alexandra Cohen said.

In 2020, Jacob Cohen, then a real estate agent, and his wife, Alexandra Cohen, an advertising salesperson, began baking bagels while holed up in quarantine. When they posted about their hobby on a Northern Liberties neighborhood Facebook page, orders and donations flooded in. A pop-up at Urban Village Brewing in Northern Liberties brought in $1,200, which they donated to Project HOME. They have since expanded to a combination of commissary and in-store baking. The new locations will bake on the premises.