Meshuggah Bagels Rolling Into Downtown this March

By Kevin Collison

The bagel that ate 39th Street last spring is rolling into downtown Kansas City, hopefully in time for the Big 12 basketball tournament in March.

People were lined up for bagels when Meshuggah opened its 39th Street outlet last spring.

Meshuggah Bagels plans to open its fourth metro outlet in a 1,400 square-foot space off the ground-floor lobby of One Light apartments at 13th and Walnut streets.

“We really wanted something in the heart of the city,” said co-owner Janna Linde. “It’s a beautiful space and a totally different crowd of people…this will be our flagship store.

“The One Light lobby is stunning, very contemporary. We’ll have a warm, early Polish farmhouse look but accessorize it with a gorgeous chandelier. Fun and beaufiful, a little glam with our Old World stuff.”

And the bagels that have drawn lines to the Meshuggah Bagel shop at 1208 W. 39th St. since it opened last March will be the star. Linde said they’ll be brought in twice daily fresh from the Meshuggah bakery in Pleasant Valley.

Janna and Pete Linde are proud of doing authentic New York City-style bagels. They boil the bagels before baking them on a burlap stick.

Since opening their first shop on 39th Street, the couple have opened one in suburban Overland Park and have a third outlet about to open in Liberty. Janna said they looked at Brookside for their fourth location, but were wooed by Cordish, the operator of One Light apartment tower.

The new downtown Meshuggah will be next to the One Light lobby at 13th and Walnut.

“Cordish reached out to us sometime ago,” she said. “We were downtown for an event and we were taken aback by all the people there for lunch time.”

Nick Benjamin, executive director of the Power & Light District, said the growing residential population downtown make homegrown businesses like Meshuggah Bagels a great fit.

Meshuggah will be open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and breakfast. In addition to their bagels, it offers a variety of schmears including rosemary and garlic, jalapeño, dirty martini, Oreo cheesecake and German chocolate. Other menu items will include salty lox, Nova salmon and signature whitefish salad.

The couple also plan to introduce deli items on their bagels at the new downtown location including smoked turkey and pesto-parmesan ham.