Modern Bread & Bagel, the quick-service gluten free bagel shop that always has a line, says it is hoping to be open by December, if all goes according to plan. They are certainly making progress.

They have taken the space in the Sonder hotel-ish building on the southwest corner of Duane and Church — fka the Duane Street Hotel, which closed in May 2021. When the hotel closed, so did Jehangir Mehta’s restaurant Graffiti Earth, which he originally opened in 2013 as Mehtaphor.

The Modern Bread menu is entirely gluten-free and nut-free; the bagels are kettle-boiled and made with ancient grains. The salmon is smoked in house. There are plenty of other meal options on the menu, which they describe as pescatarian, vegetable forward.

The company was founded in 2019 by Orly Gottesman, whose husband was diagnosed with celiac disease when they were dating. She attended the Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Sydney and worked with the head chef for pastry on an independent study for GF pastry development. When the couple moved back to New York in 2019, they came across an old bagel shop for rent on the Upper West Side — that started the chain.

They have four locations in the city now, one in Jersey and three in California. Some have liquor licenses and dinner, so more on that soon.