Luke’s New York Bagels is gearing up to open a new Gainesville location next month, featuring a full dining room, expanded menu and window into the bagel-making kitchen.

But with the expansion, the business will close its downtown headquarters off S. Main Street and just north of Depot Park.

The locally owned and operated bagel-centric restaurant chain is renovating the former Red Onion Neighborhood Grill (3885 NW 24th Blvd.) in the Uptown Village apartment community off NW 39th Avenue.

Owner Jason Hurst said he’s expecting to open the 2,800-square-foot dining room towards the middle to end of June, with daily hours of 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and an emphasis on making a community gathering space.

Official building renderings will be released soon, but Hurst said people can start getting excited about watching bagels being made surrounded by a New York vibe—think lots of New York music and murals of The Big Apple.

“Up until now, we’ve been a walk-up window where it’s kind of transactional,” he said. “We wanted to create an experience in this new location where people can sit down, bring guests, have coffee meetings, you know, open it up to small groups, to churches, a place where people can connect while they’re waiting for the bagels to be served.”

The bagel shop’s original S. Main Street location, where Luke Vescovi founded the brand in 2020, is going up for sale and will close in June. Hurst said while the closure is unfortunate, it will ultimately help bring a piece of Vescovi’s long-term vision for the bagel brand to fruition.

Hurst and his team, who also brought the Maple Street Biscuit Company franchise to Alachua County, bought the Luke’s brand in December 2024.

He said Vescovi is still involved on the restaurant’s advisory board and wanted to evolve the operation into a place where people could have meetings and make memories while breaking bread together.

The new location aims to do that while Luke’s still operates a food truck at Jonesville Capital City Bank and kitchen in the food hall at City Social in The Standard in downtown Gainesville, which Hurst said will continue serving University of Florida students.

Hurst said between all its locations and a rapidly expanding wholesale business, Luke’s dishes out around 10,000 bagels made from scratch every week. Between the new kitchen and an upcoming partnership with an undisclosed regional coffee shop chain, Hurst said there will be plenty more.

“We kind of came up with this symbiotic nature of a business that combined [Vescovi’s] amazing product that had this huge following with my experience creating a space where people can come and vibe out and connect. So I think this is like the perfect marriage of the old and the new vision for Luke’s,” Hurst said.

The expansion also applies to the menu.

Hurst said Luke’s will offer other New York delicacies at the new location to “compliment the bagel experience,” including a traditional breakfast with sausage, bacon, eggs and side bagel, house-made bagel chips, baked pretzels with cheese and various bowls and salads.

Luke’s is partnering with local companies to serve other treats, like New York style cheesecake, a Jewish treat called rugelach and Sweetwater Organic Coffee.

“We want to focus on what we’re good at, and that’s making bagels and cream cheese,” Hurst said. “But all the other stuff that we’re going to be selling on the menu will be locally sourced if we don’t make it in house.”

The new bagel shop will open after hours for any organizations, churches, nonprofits, schools and community members who want to host events. Hurst said they are actively looking to hire anyone with good customer service experience.

“More importantly than just being another person selling food, we want to be a place that connects with community,” Hurst said.