Alamo BBQ had been in the space for over a decade. (Mike Platania photo)
Church Hill is officially getting a bagel shop.
Baltik’s Bagel is planning to open a new location in former Alamo BBQ property at 2202 Jefferson Ave., owner Yero Rudzinskas confirmed on Tuesday.
Rudzinskas purchased the pastel orange-painted building over the summer and at the time said he was unsure what he’d do with it. He said he wanted to see if a bagel shop was something the Church Hill area had an appetite for.
“We took a minute to figure out if the building could support an operation like ours, which I think we’ve now got an affirmative answer to, and the other question was, ‘Does anyone care?’ It seems like they do,” Rudzinskas said. “So we’re looking to move forward here with our second Baltik’s location in that spot.”
Baltik’s opened its first location along Forest Hill Avenue in the Southside in 2024, serving bagels and breakfast sandwiches out of a former Dunkin’ building. The company also wholesales its bagels to around 50 markets and restaurants, shipping out thousands of bagels around the region every day.
Yero Rudzinskas
Alamo BBQ had operated out of the Jefferson Avenue building throughout the 2010s before closing around 2023. The building dates back to 1950 and totals about 500 square feet. Despite its small size, Rudzinskas said it has the components he most coveted in a second-generation restaurant space.
“That place had a hood, a walk-in and a grease trap which is like the holy trinity of restaurant infrastructure,” he said. “We realized we could move in quickly.”
The Church Hill spot will have the same name, menu and offerings as the original Baltik’s, Rudzinskas said. The building will be mainly for production and service will be through a walk-up window.
Rudzinskas said he plans to have outdoor, covered seating, and that it’ll start out with the same 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. hours the Forest Hill shop keeps, adding they may add earlier hours to serve the many VCU Health employees in the area.
The Church Hill Baltik’s is aiming to open in November.
With the Forest Hill shop busy and the company’s wholesale and catering arms growing, Rudzinskas said he’s looking to find a place to ramp up production of Baltik’s bagels even further.
“We are actively looking at a production facility model. I think what we want to do is something that can attach to some kind of retail presence as well,” he said. “We’re going to be opportunistic about it.”
Baltik’s would be the second bagel shop to open in the city this fall. A few weeks ago, former pop-up Sunday Bagel opened a brick-and-mortar location at 210 W. Marshall St. in Jackson Ward.
The post Baltik’s Bagel makes it official: It’s opening a Church Hill spot in former Alamo BBQ building appeared first on Richmond BizSense.
