By Tracy Morin
Photos provided by Tompkins Square Bagels and Carmine’s Italian Restaurant
Carmine’s Italian Restaurant and Tompkins Square Bagels recently wrapped a monthlong collaboration combining two iconic NYC concepts while tapping into the nostalgia of pizza bagels—boosting local awareness for both brands in a creative way.
The collaboration featured four loaded pizza bagels, released one per week throughout May at all Tompkins Square Bagel locations in Manhattan. Each was made with a jarred “restaurant to retail” tomato sauce from Carmine’s (available in Marinara, Tomato Basil, Vodka and Fra Diavolo) so that customers could later craft their own versions at home. The full lineup included:
- Traditional Tomato Basil Pizza Bagel: Everything Pumpernickel Bagel, Tomato Basil Sauce, mozzarella, roasted red pepper, caramelized onions, basil (available May 4-May 10)
- Spicy Soppressata Pizza Bagel: Rosemary Garlic Bagel, Marinara Sauce, soppressata, mozzarella, Romano, hot honey drizzle (available May 11-May 17)
- Vodka Chicken Parm Pizza Bagel: Egg Bagel, Vodka Sauce, crispy chicken, mozzarella, Romano pesto, ricotta (available May 18-May 24)
- Eggs in Purgatory Pizza Bagel: Plain Bagel, Fra Diavolo Sauce, mozzarella, Romano, crispy chicken sausage crumble, fried egg, hot honey drizzle (available May 25-May 31)
The bagels, which retailed for $12.50 to $14, were a smash hit—proving that customers love when chefs rethink familiar, retro foods like pizza bagels, using higher-quality ingredients.
“Nostalgic comfort foods and home cooking hacks are continuing to trend, and one unexpected comeback we’re seeing right now: the glow-up of the pizza bagel,” the brands shared in their pre-collab PR efforts. “The campaign is a celebration of classic New York flavors, where bagel culture overlaps with Italian-American red sauce tradition, with some creative twists.”
PMQ recently asked the collaborators—Glenn Rolnick, director of culinary operations at Carmine’s, and Christopher Pugliese, owner of Tompkins Square Bagels—how the partnership formed, how they spread the word, and what they learned in the process that other operators can use for their own collaborative endeavors. Might there be a partnership with a local bagel shop, bakery or bread maker in your future?
PMQ: What inspired the partnership between Carmine’s and Tompkins Square Bagels, and why was now the right time to revisit and reinvent pizza bagels?
Rolnick: This partnership brought together two quintessential New York institutions: Carmine’s, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, and Tompkins Square Bagels, which has become a staple of New York’s bagel culture and is celebrating its 15th anniversary later this year. While we come from different corners of the food world, we’re both firmly rooted in the New York City community and share a commitment to hospitality, quality ingredients and NYC food tradition.
When we started thinking about a New York-centric collaboration, bagels immediately came to mind. They’re one of the most iconic foods associated with the city. At the same time, we were looking for a creative way to showcase Carmine’s Sauce in a way that would resonate with both New York diners but also home cooks in New York and across the country. That’s when the pizza bagel concept really clicked, when we realized we could create something exciting and local while also inspiring home cooks everywhere to recreate their own versions at home. Pizza bagels are nostalgic, convenient and comforting—three trends that continue to resonate with consumers.
Pugliese: We were excited to collaborate with a New York institution like Carmine’s to create an elevated version of the pizza bagel, which is sometimes an afterthought when we have so many specialty sandwiches on our menu. The concept aligned with broader consumer trends around elevated comfort foods and creative uses for pantry staples, not to mention a fun twist on a forgotten food like the humble pizza bagel.
And, if people are looking for a DIY experience or aren’t local to NYC, there’s the option to order our bagels nationwide via Goldbelly and pick up Carmine’s Sauce, along with other ingredients, at your local grocery store, to create a custom pizza bagel to your liking. The possibilities are endless.
PMQ: How did you spread the word to customers about the collaboration, and how did it perform in terms of customer engagement, social media buzz, traffic or sales?
Pugliese: We approached the pizza bagel campaign as both a consumer promotion and a storytelling opportunity across both brands. Support included media outreach to spread the word and build excitement locally, plus social media content and influencer engagement.
A key moment was our May 7 press event at Tompkins Square Bagels’ Avenue A location, where attendees had the chance to sample all four pizza bagel varieties at once, hear directly from chef Glenn Rolnick and me, and connect with fellow pizza or bagel enthusiasts. More than 25 writers, influencers and industry VIPs attended, which really helped build buzz.
[After the campaign concluded], the most popular version by far was the Vodka Chicken Parm pizza bagel, followed by the Spicy Soppressata pizza bagel.
PMQ: How did you approach menu development for the four specialty pizza bagels, balancing familiarity with innovation?
Rolnick: We wanted the menu to feel nostalgic while still offering enough creativity to make each weekly special feel exciting and distinctive. A big part of the development process was making sure that each Carmine’s Sauce variety had an opportunity to shine from week to week.
The four pizza bagels highlighted our Tomato Basil, Marinara, Vodka and Fra Diavolo Sauces, paired with both familiar and unexpected toppings and, of course, high-quality bagels from Tompkins Square Bagels: everything pumpernickel, rosemary garlic, egg and plain.
Each pizza bagel we created offered a different flavor experience. The Vodka Chicken Parm Pizza Bagel was a play on our signature chicken Parm dish at Carmine’s, in pizza bagel form, offering our restaurant experience in a new way, using the jarred sauce. But we wanted to get playful, too—it’s not every day you see a breakfast pizza bagel, and we know New Yorkers love both breakfast sandwiches and pizza, so that felt natural.
PMQ: From a marketing perspective, why did you decide to offer a rotating menu, versus launching a single item or a group of specialty items for the entire month?
Pugliese: Having a new pizza bagel offering available each week gave customers a reason to come back again and again. Each version offered delicious combinations of high-quality yet approachable ingredients, from the sauce to the toppings to the bagels themselves.
PMQ: Carmine’s used the campaign to showcase its retail sauce line. What lessons did you learn about using restaurant menu items to drive awareness and encourage trial of retail products?
Rolnick: We’re noticing that people respond strongly when they see a product used in smart ways beyond its traditional application. Most people think of pairing tomato sauce with pasta or traditional pizza, but this crossover showed how versatile a high-quality tomato sauce can be with unexpected handhelds, like bagels.
Guests were tasting our sauce in a finished menu item, creating a memorable connection to the brand. Carmine’s Sauce was built out of consumer demand during the pandemic, when the restaurants were closed, so product trial now that we’ve grown in scale is essential for awareness.
Our guests at Carmine’s associate their restaurant experience with happy memories, celebration and milestones. Collaborations are a great way for us to test new potential menu items that will resonate with our guests both at home and in the restaurant, and understand guest and consumer demand. Plus, so many of our loyal sauce customers always ask if they can use the sauce for pizza, so it’s definitely top of mind for home cooking.
PMQ: After this experience, what advice would you give pizzeria operators interested in creating their own limited-time collaborations?
Pugliese: You can have the most creative collaboration idea in the world, but if it doesn’t taste good, people aren’t going to come in or come back for it. We wanted to make sure we created something that people not only thought looked delicious but actually tasted delicious, too. Aside from that, I’d make sure there’s a solid marketing campaign behind it to ensure that customers near you—and beyond—are hearing about it.
