Pop’s Bakery, a Washington, D.C.-based bread and bagel manufacturer, has opened a new production facility to accommodate its expansion. Founded by Grant Sarvis in 2016, the company has doubled sales annually since 2021. The upgraded facility, which includes a retail bagel shop at the front, enables Pop’s to scale production to more than 150,000 units per week across its bread and bagel lines.
Sarvis’ passion for bagels and breads began at a young age, inspired by his grandfather, affectionately known as Poppy. At every family brunch, Poppy's homemade bagels were always the highlight. In 2016, Sarvis set out to bring that same excitement to a broader audience, launching Pop’s Bakery with a line of stuffed bagel bites. A few months in, these same stuffed bagels bites were voted the best by the Washington Post.
In 2017, Grant Sarvis joined Union Kitchen’s Accelerator to expand beyond local farmers markets and a few select retail locations where they were sold at that time. Leveraging Union Kitchen's ecosystem and distribution partner, District Distribution, Grant Sarvis expanded into retailers across the Mid-Atlantic including places like Whole Foods Market.
As Pop's gained traction, Sarvis identified an even larger market opportunity —bread. “[Bread] was an unexpected love, honestly,” Grant Sarvis shared. “I started to get into it, and it was unbelievably challenging…That challenge excites me.”
He collaborated closely with Union Kitchen's store team to refine his bread and meet the needs of their sandwich program. He then applied the same strategy with another Union Kitchen partner, Compass Coffee, which now serves Pop's buns on all of their breakfast sandwiches.
“We always want to make sure we’re serving our customers with pastries, breads, and snacks that are as good as the coffee,” shared Compass Coffee founder Michael Haft. “It’s also really important to us that we’re serving locally-made products so that we can help build the D.C. food community around us.”
From there, the demand for Pop's Bakery bread grew quickly and has continued to do so. Pop's Bakery services over 100 restaurants across the greater DC region. Their products are now and major retailers including Whole Foods Market and Harris Teeter.
What started as a tribute to Grant’s grandfather and a passion for bagels has evolved into a full-scale bread manufacturing business. With the new facility, Sarvis and his team are positioned to continue scaling and reaching more customers.
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