August in Berkeley brings the winds of change to our little community. Back to school sales are popping up at local retailers, families are returning from their summer adventures and vacations, and the weather is just a tad bit hotter, the sun a bit brighter and the seasons change on top of us as we transition to the second half of 2026. Berkeley has a vibrant energy at the end of the summer, crackling with anticipation of another successful scholastic year, brimming over the top with new UC Berkeley Calbears of the class of 2030 (wow!) and their excitable attitudes to the newness of University Ave. For our new students, did you know Bageltopia is a very comfortable place to get your morning work done? Swing by, park in our parking lot, grab a bagel, post up and LOCK IN. We are happy to have you!

There's some amazing culinary and cultural events around the bay area in August. There's Temescal Tastes on August 9th and Stockton Tequila fest August 29! But, one of our absolute favorites is the SF Pizza Bagel and Beer fest in North Beach, San Francisco. Taking place on August 15th, this year's gathering is the third annual event, hosted right in the heart of North Beach at 1630 Stockton Street, San Francisco. Last year, Bageltopia was featured among the best bagelries in the Bay Area, and the response from the festival crowd was extremely positive. We ran out of everything! We featured four of our delicious bagel sandwiches, the Superclassic, Supernova, Veganova and of course the Japanese inspired Sushinova for everyone to try at the 2025 offering of the carbohydrate based festival. People loved the varied offerings we had to taste, all built upon freshly baked bageltopia bagels. They moved fast.

This year we decided to feature a COMPLETELY NEW bagel sandwich that we will also be offering as our August monthly special here at bageltopia. Owners Dan and Mike, inspired by some of the viral sandwiches that have come from Florence, Italy collaborated to create a special sandwich that would make even the Mona Lisa smile, the TOSCANO. This is truly an unique offering from Dan and Mike, featuring Duck Prosciutto, spicy eggplant arugula and our own Pistachio Cream Cheese. You can trust that we have learned from last year's Pizza and Bagel fest that we know to bring plenty of servings for everyone to enjoy. In addition to the Toscano, we will have our Pistachio cream cheese. Rich in nutty flavor and a creamy texture that with shock and delight even the most plain cream cheese enjoyers, the pistachio cream cheese will be a center piece of the fest, featured atop our freshly baked bagels.

We would be remiss to not offer one of our most fundamental menu options, the Sushinova as a treat for our fish lovers. Take a lox bagel and give it a Japanese flavor twist and you have the Sushinova. We will be smoking extra lox for this event in house (as we always do) to lock in that thin sliced salmon classic. We take our lox seriously and we love this sandwich. During last year's fest we received lots of positive feedback from pizza fest attendees about the quality of the Sushinova sandwich! We are delighted to be able to bring that experience once again for everyone to enjoy!

We can tell you from experience that the Pizza, Bagel and Beer fest is a must attend if you are free Saturday August 15th and want to try some of the absolute best food around the bay area. We are looking forward to connecting with all of you, enjoying the different restaurants and noshing on some delicious bagels, pizza and beer from so many local food luminaries.

 Grab your tickets soon before they sell out!

For our August specials we wanted to bring the excitement of the bagel pizza fest to our monthly menu. For the event, we took on the challenge of creating a sandwich that emulates the approach of a contemporary Italian sandwich you might find in a piazza in Florence. With a bit of experimentation we landed on some truly magical flavor pairs that will really be a work of art worthy of the ufizzi.

Toscano Sandwich

For the Toscano, we looked towards the sandwiches made by All' Antico Viniao, whose original location on Via de' Neri, Florence, is just around the corner from Michelangelo's David, and il Duomo. All'Antico is not afraid of some Pistachio Cream, which they slather on their foccacia based sandwiches.

Owners Dan and Mike said to themselves, ok, let's make an amazing pistachio cream cheese to combine with our bagel base to start our florentinian experience. They then matched that with duck prosciutto. This unique approach to what is normally a pork product is fatty and delicious in a way that most be tried to fully appreciate. We then add to that roasted red peppers, oily and full of charred flavor. A layer of roasted spicy eggplant (like a camponata) roasted in olive oil with garlic, herbs and Calabrian peppers. The flavor mixes to robust peaks. A bit of crunchy arugula on top and some olive oil and you have a sandwich that is truly top notch. Enjoy it all on a fresh poppy seed bagel, or sesame if you like. We are so excited for you to swing by and try it! Please tell us what you think.

Garlic Herb Bagel

Our Garlic Herb bagel, Handrolled (of course) is a fantastic late summer offering from Dan and Mike. Fans of Bageltopia will know that we are not vampires, and most certainly not afraid to get into some deeply influenced garlic flavor zones. Our black garlic cream cheese, for example, brings the rich and nuanced black garlic flavor

Pistachio Cream Cheese

Pistachio Cream Cheese! Seems so simple yet so elegant. As part of our flavor explorations for the Toscano sandwich, we wanted to emulate the pistachio crema you might find on focaccia sandwiches from the Tuscany region of Italy. In Italy the process to make the pistachio crema involved a blending of pistachios with olive oil, basil, lemon, pecorino romano or parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. When paired with a delicious slice of mortadella or a spicy eggplant you get a flavor combination that is uniquely Mediterranean.

We wanted to copy this flavor and the approach of the Pistachio cream all while leveraging the traditional bagel shop cream cheese format. Take the pistachio cream cheese and incorporate it into some of your favorite recipes and baked goods. Pistachio Cheese Cake, Pistachio Coffee Cake, Pistachio Pound Cake? Simply replace your normal Philadelphia Cream Cheese in your recipe with our Pistachio Cream Cheese. You will be able to get that rich dense pistachio flavor baked into some of your favorite dishes! A Danish with the Pistachio Cream cheese could be delightful. We encourage you to experiment on your own and please get back to us if you come up with a recipe that is truly amazing.