If you’re a fan of the classic sitcom “Seinfeld,” I’m sure you remember the episode when Kramer goes back to work at H&H Bagels (below left photo) after being on strike for twelve years.
Well, that episode, and H&H’s appearances on “Sex and the City,” “The Office” “Entourage” and other TV shows and movies, helped keep one of Manhattan’s best-known “real New York” bagel shops in people’s memories for years, after being founded in 1972 on the Upper West Side by Helmer Toro and Hector Hernandez.
Today, H&H Bagels has 13 locations — seven scattered around NYC, plus one in California, one in Washington, DC, one in Knoxville, TN, and three in Florida, including the newest location at 1155 S. Dale Mabry Hwy. in South Tampa (bottom photo). There also are eight more locations coming on-line, including five in the Sunshine State, one in California, one in North Carolina and one in Chicago.
Yes, the H&H name is growing again, thanks to CEO and Florida State University grad Jay Rushin (top right photo), who worked on Wall St. in Manhattan for 20 years before taking over at H&H eleven years ago (he also has family in Tampa)…