Come on in. It's ugly in here. Ugly Bagel franchise opportunities.
Fresh, hand-rolled bagels made with a slow cold-fermentation process. Sandwiches, proprietary coffee, seasonal lattes, and refreshers broaden the daypart. Three Nashville company shops prove the model — now we're awarding franchises to operators who love the room as much as the product.
A brand people feel
before they even order.
Ugly Bagel isn't a menu — it's a hospitality model. Two founders built it from a home kitchen with corporate-grade systems already in place. Three Nashville company shops later, we're handing the keys to franchise operators who want a business with soul, structure, and serious growth potential.
From the sidewalk to the shelf
Every Ugly Bagel shop is designed as a walk-through story: a bright door, a warm case, a helpful host, a rotating menu, and retail guests want to take home.
An Aqua storefront you can spot from the road
Awnings, tile, and hand-painted type. 1,037–1,600 square feet in a high-traffic retail center — small enough to be affordable, loud enough to be a landmark.
Fresh, hand-rolled bagels with a slow cold ferment
No freezers. Barley malt, high-gluten flour, wooden boards, a 12–18 hour cold ferment, a boil and a bake. Five or six ingredients and nothing to hide behind — the case is the proof.
A Bagel Concierge reads the room before you order
Kiosks, app, and web ordering run on Toast so the team can spend its attention on people. Technology takes the transaction; humans keep the hospitality.
Monthly specials land on the first and vanish at month-end
A centrally built customer-acquisition program gives guests a fresh reason to return. Corporate creates the campaign; your shop gets the line out the door.
Merch, beans, and plush Uggys people actually buy
Tote bags, tumblers, pins, and whole-bean branded coffee. Supplemental retail turns a bagel run into a brand people wear.
Four revenue streams,
one small footprint
Bagels and spreads, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, coffee and beverages, and catering — all simple enough to execute at volume, deep enough that regulars never get bored, with branded merchandise as supplemental retail revenue.
14 bagel flavors monthly
Plain and everything anchor the mix; jalapeño cheddar, pepperoni pizza, and chocolate covered cherry keep regulars coming back — and posting.
14 schmears monthly + 4 butters
The Schmear Station is theater and a margin driver. 150 ideas brainstormed; only the ones that scale and sell make the wall.
9 sandwiches
Breakfast rolls into lunch, plus a catering program that has become a real slice of revenue in company shops.
Coffee that pulls weight
A proprietary coffee blend, espresso, drip, seasonal lattes, and refreshers give guests more reasons to visit.
Real numbers from real shops
Ugly Bagel was built for franchising from day one — corporate finance, construction, culinary, and brand systems were in place before the first shop opened in November 2024. The Item 19 financial performance in our FDD comes straight from those company-owned Nashville shops.
See the full investment detail| Measure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $887,426 |
| Food cost | $197,896 |
| Labor cost | $238,718 |
| Gross margin | $450,812 |
Source: Ugly Bagel 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), Item 19.
Two shop formats. One multi-unit growth strategy.
Ten reasons operators
pick this brand
See all ten A name people never forget
Uggy and the "ugliest damn bagel" story do the marketing work most new brands have to buy — lowering your customer-acquisition cost from opening day.
A genuinely better product
Fresh, never-frozen dough is cold-fermented for 12–18 hours, then hand-rolled, boiled, and baked. Guests taste the difference on the first bite.
Four revenue streams, one small footprint
Bagels and schmears, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, a real coffee program, and catering — built to drive frequency and margin.
The Bagel Concierge
A hospitality position nobody else staffs — the reason the room feels like the friendliest one in town and regulars become regulars fast.
Monthly Drops
A centrally built monthly release calendar gives guests a reason to return, post, and bring friends — without franchisees inventing each campaign.
Corporate infrastructure from day one
Finance, construction, culinary, and brand systems were built before shop one opened, so franchisees step into a running playbook.
A wide-open lane in a growing category
Bagels are a growing, under-franchised corner of the quick-service breakfast boom. Many U.S. markets remain underserved by differentiated, experience-led bagel concepts — which is exactly why the right operator can own a market fast.
See the industry research
Founder-led support
from day one
We are still small enough that the founders sit on your weekly call — and built out enough that the recipes, equipment, ordering tech, and marketing systems already exist.
Weekly founder calls from day one
Financing, real estate, and pre-development — worked in order, with the founders, every week until you open.
Site selection and lease review
Your local broker, our trade-area read, and an honest cost-basis check before you sign anything.
Design, permitting, and build-out
Our architect of record draws the space, pulls permits, and keeps every selection brand-approved and on budget.
Two weeks of Nashville training
You bake, build schmears, work every station, and ride the early delivery run alongside the team that built it.
Grand opening support
PR, decor, giveaways, collateral, social and digital — run it yourself or hire our team for launch week.
Marketing that ships from HQ
Campaigns proven in company shops get packaged and pushed system-wide, so you market like a multi-unit brand from day one.
Hospitality people first, bagel people second
We can teach the boil, the bake, and the slow cold ferment. We can't teach someone to love a room full of strangers. The best Ugly Bagel franchisees are hands-on in their market, obsessed with the guest, and capitalized to build something that lasts.
- Liquid capital
- $300,000 recommended
- Net worth
- $1,000,000 recommended
- Franchise fee
- $35,000 per shop
- Experience
- Hospitality mindset, local owner
How much do I need to invest?
We look for roughly $300,000 in liquid capital and $1,000,000 net worth. The initial franchise fee is $35,000 per shop.
Do I need restaurant experience?
No. We look for hospitality instincts and local ownership. The boil, the bake, and the ferment are trainable — the guest obsession isn't.
What kind of return can a shop generate?
Item 19 of our FDD shows the real financial performance from our company-owned Nashville shops. We put that breakdown in the Franchise Investor Magazine.
Can I open more than one shop?
Yes. Multi-unit development agreements cover three to five shops, with lower-cost non-kitchen locations fed by your first shop's kitchen.
Download Own the Ugly.
