From bagels to donuts, here are four new breakfast spots to check out around Louisville
If you've noticed a missing piece of your morning (or afternoon) routine, these four new restaurant concepts will likely fill that void.
Two new doughnut shops — one boutique brick-and-mortar and one funky food truck — have recently opened in Louisville. To round out the breakfast options, two new bagel and coffee shops that promise to offer something better than your average bagel have also recently joined the Louisville dining scene.
Together, these four new-to-town places check a lot of boxes for a balanced breakfast. And each spot has a story worth biting into.
Read on for details about this collection of new eateries ready to fuel your day.
Bamboo Coffee & Donuts
2400 Lime Kiln Lane A1, bamboosweets.com
When Sokheang Ty says he’s been working in the restaurant biz for 15 years, it’s more impressive when you learn he hasn’t even turned 30. The native of Cambodia, who grew up in Mount Sterling, started his own coffee and doughnut business, called Buzz Cup, out of a trailer while in high school. He has expanded the concept into Bamboo Coffee & Donuts, which opened around the start of 2024.
“It’s providing what we think is missing in Louisville,” Ty told the Courier Journal.
His motivation to work those early mornings came from his mother, who moved the family to Kentucky when Ty was a toddler.
“She’s my inspiration every day,” he said.
Ty's business is based on craft coffee and cake doughnuts. Some donut and pasty items on the menu include Old Fashioned, Blueberry Buttercream, Maple Berry, Triple Chocolate Donuts, and more.
“The thing that sets bamboo apart is it’s an experience,” Ty said. “Our main thing is creating a quality product in a timely manner and that feel-good feeling.”
Bamboo Coffee & Donuts is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Born2Bagel
231 Blankenbaker Pkwy, born2bagel.com
They say you haven't had a real bagel if you haven’t had a New York bagel.
Bruce Rosenblatt, who grew up on Long Island, believes it enough that he decided Louisville needed a New York-style bagel shop. He and his wife, Jennifer, opened Born2Bagel in September. The name came to him after a phone call to his sister, as he floated the idea of starting a bagel business here.
Her response? “You were born to do this.”
They’re not making that up. A prized possession of his is a newspaper clipping from his first birthday at a near-century-old deli. There’s a photo of baby Bruce with this caption: “We catered his birth with lox and bagels and he’s been coming ever since.”
He’s been a little too busy waking up at 3 a.m. for bagel duties to get that framed and hung on the walls at Born2Bagel, where five of his six children also work, but he's working on it. In the meantime, the early hours are paying off as the shop has been a hit from day one.
“There was a need for it here,” Rosenblatt told the Courier Journal. “There wasn’t a place to get a real, true New York bagel.”
The menu includes 17 types of bagels made with dough shipped from New Jersey, several fish options, house-made schmears, breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches, potato pancakes, and other items at the “brunch destination.”
“My vision for this restaurant was to bring back the food I grew up with,” Rosenblatt, who has worked in the restaurant industry for 30 years, said. “It brings back memories.”
And when customers relay those memories to Rosenblatt, it gives him “goosebumps.” It reminds him why he quit his corporate job to pursue this mom-and-pop place.
“We’re trying to educate people on bagel 101,” he said. “Once people try it, they want to come back.”
Born2Bagel is open Mondy-Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Earlybird Bagel Shop
1039 Ash St., instagram.com/earlybirdbagelshop/
Sometime in 2020, Brice and Lisa Ginardi became “those home pandemic bakers.”
The native Midwesterners were living in Hawaii and “couldn’t find a decent bagel,” Lisa Ginardi told the Courier Journal. So they decided to make their own.
“It’s a vehicle for so many flavors,” Lisa Ginardi said. “Everybody loves bagels.”
They loved the hobby. They loved it enough to give bagels away to friends and family. Then, when they moved to Louisville’s Germantown neighborhood in 2022, they asked a local, “What does this town need?”
The answer? Bagels.
The couple’s craft bagel business joined Chef Space, the kitchen incubator, and began with pop-ups at local bars. They turned heads with unique bagel flavors, such as a cacio e pepe option and a za’atar and sea salt one.
A helping hand rolled in with a $50,000 Midi Loan from Metro’s METCO program. That allowed for a move in November to the front of the space shared by Six Forks Burger. The grab-and-go shop should be open by the end of March.
Because of its small-match nature, Earlybird will offer weekly flavors along with breakfast and lunch sandwiches using local ingredients.
“We live in this neighborhood and we want to serve our neighborhood,” she said. “We count on feeding our neighbors and getting their day started on a good note.”
Earlybird will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.
The Groovy Gus Donut Bus
facebook.com/GroovyGusMiniDonutsLou/
If you’re attending a big event in Louisville in the coming months, look for this colorful truck carrying miniature donuts.
You probably won’t be able to miss this mobile eatery, adorned with bright tie-dye patterns and matching smiles through the window.
Those will be the faces of Kyle and Claire Roehm, who launched the Louisville iteration of Groovy Gus Donut Bus at the Tailspin Ale Fest in early March. The food truck is booked with festivals and private events throughout the year, including at the University of Louisville football games and the Kentucky Derby Festival.
The couple’s mobile sweet eatery is an extension of a family business.
Roehm’s mother, Cindi Garden, got Groovy Gus going a couple of years ago during a lull in her career. She remembers looking at her now-husband, Steve, and saying, “I need some joy in my life.”
The need was met via a food truck serving miniature donuts by the box in Bowling Green, which kicked off in 2019.
“Our goal is to spread joy,” Garden said. “We want to bring happiness everywhere we go.”
Their vehicle for that includes creative flavors and sizing. You don't order one doughnut here, but more like a dozen at a time. You could eat one in two bites. Customers can choose from a box of “cool classics” for $8 or a box of “funky features” for a dollar more.
The concept has drawn a lot of interest, helped by being featured on an episode of Food Network’s “Guy’s All-American Road Trip.”
“It’s a novelty,” Garden said. “I think we’re really eye-catching.”
The next step was a brick-and-mortar store in Bowling Green and the second truck rolling in Louisville.
Roehm hopes to continue the family business's goal: Spreading joy.
Reach food reporter Amanda Hancock at ahancock@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: New bagel donut shops open in Louisville: Born2Bagel, Bamboo Coffee
