Central KY bagel staple opening first location outside Lexington

A Lexington-based bagel bakery and restaurant is expanding to Louisville.

Great Bagel, which has locations in Lexington on Woodland Avenue and Boston Road, is opening a third location in the Middletown area, at 12905 Shelbyville Road.

It’s set to open July 28, with an official grand opening on Aug. 4.

“This is the right time and the right place,” Great Bagel co-owner Robert Swan said in a news release. “Louisville values authenticity, and we’re excited to be part of a neighborhood that appreciates real food, made well. That’s what sets us apart.”

What’s on Great Bagel’s menu?

Great Bagel, which opened in 2011, specializes in a “farm-to-bagel” concept, according to the release, using organic and fresh-milled flour. The restaurant sources its grain from farms in Minnesota and Illinois, according to the release.

Great Bagel mills its flour in-house daily then makes them into bagels, made fresh several times a day. That process can be difficult, co-owner Lara Swan said in an interview with the Herald-Leader, but it makes for a “transparent, delicious end-product.”

“As bakers and chefs, we like to have ownership over the end product,” she said. “You get the best flavor, and you get the best nutrition out of items that come directly from places that you know about.

Lara Swan said Louisville has always been the next step for the brand. After the business survived the COVID-19 pandemic, Lara Swan said she and her husband thought it was the perfect time to expand, and they began looking for properties in Louisville.

Great Bagel’s menu offers over a dozen bagel flavors, along with breakfast and lunch sandwiches, soups, salads and other baked goods. In 2021, it was one of seven bagel-serving establishments listed on the Herald-Leader’s list of best bagels in Kentucky.

More locations coming

Lara Swan said Great Bagel will look to open “a few more” locations in Louisville in the future, but needs to make sure each location is “healthy” before moving on with further expansion.

“I think there’s no reason why, in Louisville, we can’t make that happen or continue to make that happen over the course of the next, I want to say, three years,” she said.

This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.