This one will leave a hole in the heart of bagel lovers.
The oh-so trendy Rainbow Bagel’s Brooklyn home base, the Bagel Store, has unexpectedly shuttered.
The news was first reported by bagel event producer and enthusiast Sam Silverman, who posted on Monday that the Bagel Store’s Instagram bio had been updated to bear the all caps message “thank you all for loving us all these years due to health concerns we will be closed always choose happiness 100.”
It’s as yet unclear what these health concerns are and if they refer to the health of the owner or health concerns regarding the bagels themselves (we assume the former).
The shop, on 5th Ave. in Park Slope, has also been marked permanently closed on Yelp, and its Google Maps listing has been removed — but the many-colored, single-holed bagel breed’s influence is forever.
“Love it or hate it, Scot and the Rainbow Bagel have made an indelible impact on the bagel industry,” Silverman concluded his post, referencing shop owner and Rainbow Bagel inventor, Scot Rossillo.
For Rossillo, a longtime baker and bagel industry veteran, the Rainbow Bagel was his big break: Although he’d been selling bizarre-looking bagels since the mid-1990s, it took a viral 2016 video for his creations to become world-renowned.
Following the video, Rossillo’s photogenic, carb-based brainchild began selling like hot cakes, and demand at his then two stores — the Park Slope one and one on Metropolitan Ave., in Williamsburg — became so intense one had to temporarily close.
The fad madness eventually simmered down, but for months there were still 15-minute lines outside the store, and knockoff rainbow bagels quickly began springing up all over New York. (The Bagel Store still proudly notes they are “The Original Rainbow Bagel” in their Instagram bio.)
Then, in May 2019, three warrants were issued and the Williamsburg location was seized over more than $128,000 in unpaid taxes.
“Thank you to everyone for giving us positive vibes while we work towards a solution to our closure,” the shop posted on social media, The Post reported at the time.
The Bagel Store did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.