A Cream Cheese Shortage Is Sending NYC Bagel Shops Into a Frenzy

A crippling cream cheese shortage is leaving NYC’s bagel shops scrambling to stock their schmears. The New York Times reports that the city’s top bagel destinations — including Absolute Bagels on the Upper West Side and Tompkins Square Bagels in the East Village — are struggling to find cream cheese, an essential component to NYC bagels, amid ongoing, national supply chain shortages.

Shops across the city typically go through thousands of pounds of cream cheese every couple of weeks, according to the Times. But the shortage is upending that cadence: Zabar’s only has enough cream cheese to last the next 10 days, according to the Manhattan institution’s general manager. Tompkins Square Bagels owner Christopher Pugliese tells the Times that an 800-pound cream cheese order the shop was expecting last week never materialized, forcing them to make do over the weekend with a case of individually wrapped three-pound cream cheese sticks.

Owners don’t expect the shortage to dissipate anytime soon, according to the Times. They say it’s too soon to tell whether order limits or price increases may be instituted to survive the crisis.

A pair of decades-old Midtown restaurants lose their home

Greek mainstay Molyvos and casual diner Park Café, both located inside the Wellington Hotel in Midtown, have been served with eviction notices, the New York Post reports. The hotel’s owner has invoked a demolition clause at the property, according to the Post, signifying that the business might be preparing for a permanent closure. The establishments must vacate the property by January 1.

City considers adding booster requirement for indoor dining

Mayor Bill de Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer last Friday that city officials are “going to analyze” whether or not to amend NYC’s vaccination requirement for indoor activities, including dining out, to include a booster shot.

The Starbucks union push gets a Bernie boost

Set a reminder for this one: Senator Bernie Sanders is livestreaming a town hall with Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York, tonight at 8 p.m. to discuss the employees’s ongoing union organizing efforts.