Bagel & Barista Station has made its next stop, serving up sandwiches where the surf’s up. Bagel Station Express is now open in The Tides at Arverne by the Sea (ABTS).
ABTS now has a quick spot to grab chicken fingers and fries, mozzarella sticks, bagels, a bacon, egg and cheese on a roll, pancakes, smashburgers and variety of sandwiches on heroes, wraps and paninis, plus a self-serve coffee and iced tea island for a variety of hot and cold coffees and teas, plus beers and seltzers. Bagel Station Express may look and sound familiar, as it’s the little sister of Bagel & Barista Station on Beach 116th Street, brought to you by the same partners, Rob Pisani, Alex Pisani and Joseph Gagliardotto.
As a smaller space, Bagel Station Express’ mode of operation is for everything to be taken to go. The to-go case is full of pre-made salads, fresh fruit and more, and their kitchen items and sandwiches are made quickly, without sacrificing the fresh and high-quality ingredients, such as Boars’ Head products. There isn’t seating available inside, but the patio of The Tides makes for a nice outdoor seating space to enjoy food on site. Trying not to step on the toes of neighboring businesses, you won’t find espresso drinks like lattes and cappuccinos at Bagel Station Express, and not many bakery items, as those can be found at neighboring Locals Café, but there are plenty of other goodies that ABTS residents have had to seek elsewhere but will no longer have to go far for.
Being in ABTS and near the popular surfing and surf school spots around Beach 67th Street, this Station has more of surf theme rather than a subway theme running through, which is especially noticed in the sandwich menu. Browse the Specialty Short Boards and you’ll find a series of heroes with surf-inspired names like The Drop In, a chicken cutlet hero with bacon and American cheese, topped with gravy, or the Barrel Burner, a buffalo chicken cutlet with Monterey jack cheese and jalapeños. On the Balsa Boards section, you’ll find some heavy-duty subs like the Wind Swell with roast beef, melted mozzarella, gravy, topped with onion rings on a hero, or the Ground Swell—one pound of hot pastrami on toasted rye with melted swiss, sauerkraut and spicy mustard. A three to six-foot hero off the catering menu is called a long board. Even the breakfast menu is on theme with options like the Endless Summer featuring egg whites and avocado on a wrap.
Bagel Station Express is the fourth bagel shop/deli currently owned by Pisani and his partners, a venture that began when they first opened All American Deli in Broad Channel in 1998, a spot that they recently re-purchased in June 2024, and since then, the partners have been on a roll. In November, they bought Brothers Italian Food World in Howard Beach and reopened it as The Meat Market NYC in January, and right after that, they jumped at an opportunity to lease the ABTS space, formerly occupied by Claudette’s, in February. Since then, they’ve been gutting and rebuilding out the space to fit the needs of Bagel Station Express, and on Tuesday, August 5, the newest addition to The Tides at 190 Beach 69th Street, opened its doors and was packed by lunch time.
After all, Bagel Station Express fills a need that those in The Tides and the surrounding community have been longing for. Pisani explained, “I always wanted to come down here because a lot of my friends live in Arverne, and they come to Beach 116th Street and I want to support them because they were always telling me they have nothing like this in Arverne. The closest bagel store was Boardwalk on Beach 108th. I tried to get the Chase bank spot years ago but Stop and Shop has a noncompete order on that side of the street, so when Claudette’s was closing, Gerry Romski called me and said he had a spot. It wasn’t great timing having just opened the other spots, but I had people begging me for it, even just for their kids to have a place to grab chicken fingers and fries without going into a bar, or waffles and French toast—you couldn’t get that here. You have to go to Stop and Shop just to get a Boar’s Head cold cut sandwich. There was nowhere kids could go in and for 10 bucks get a burger and fries. Now they can. People at the ABTS civic meetings were asking for a bagel store. I couldn’t pass this up.”
That filled need was met with gratitude on Tuesday as customers filled the store and thanked Pisani for opening. “I’ve been waiting for this! Thanks for coming to our neighborhood,” a new customer exiting the store said. “I’ve been hearing that all day,” Pisani told The Rockaway Times. “I’m excited that we did this.”
Pisani believes the customer base will continue to grow in the future as well. “There’s a school opening up down the block, so I think that will be great for us, and they’re building three more condo high rises here. With all of those people in these buildings, this now gives them a place to grab something quick before or after work, especially for the kids,” he said.
Bagel Station Express is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. They take call in-orders (718-912-1092) and will eventually be available for online ordering, with cubbies for in-store pick up. “We’re trying to make it as express as possible,” Pisani said.
For more info, check out www.bagelstationexpress.com and follow bagel_station_express on Instagram.