Take a bagel, subtract the hole, add a delicious filling, and alas, a bialy — pronounced bee-a-lee.

“Bagel adjacent” is the simple way the founder of Bialy Bird, Adam Thompson, describes this bready treat to those unfamiliar. But don’t be fooled, he says, there are a number of other differences.

In 2022, Thompson first launched his Portland-based business dedicated to the baked goods as a pop-up. An overwhelming response, in the best way possible, earned him a spot at the Dame Collective, an innovative restaurant model where multiple restaurant concepts share spaces on different days of the week.

But soon, Bialy Bird will call Southeast 14th Avenue and Morrison Street its new home in the Buckman neighborhood, changing from three-day pop-ups to a full brick-and-mortar.

Thompson is leasing two spots, one side of which will operate similarly to his pop-up shop and is slated to open the second week of August. The other side, slated to open in early September, will be a full-service cafe with seating and a coffee bar.

Plus, the area felt perfect for him, formerly the home to Malekko Heavy Industry and Crush Bar, which both have strong ties to his personal life.

“It just felt like this perfect sort of collection of things to allow me to feel comfortable in a place I love, where I can grow and also feel and be able to give back and support the community in that way,” Thompson said.

Band beats to bialys

For 15 years, Thompson performed in a professional band: Thao & the Get Down Stay Down. The rock group scored gigs all over the world.

“From the very beginning, we were just hoping and praying that we could just play any old show that we came across,” Thompson said.

When the pandemic hit full force, urging people to stay home to save lives, it became virtually impossible for his band to continue performing. Thompson said they were scheduled to release a record on the day “the whole world shut down.”

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, though planning a tour, called it quits two years later.

“It really rocked us,” Thompson said of the pandemic. “Music never really paid the bills, but it was such a dream for us, even if it wasn’t necessarily providing us with a stable income.”

Thompson’s typical side hustle was always cooking, gravitating toward the places that allowed him to break away for tours. Much of his cooking career was spent in intense kitchens on the hot line. Thompson said people reference “The Bear” when he shares his story.

“Here’s this sort of toxic world that you get thrust into it and it’s really difficult and insane,” Thompson described of his restaurant experiences.

But working in the kitchen was the other side of his rocker life.

As the band dissolved, and the pandemic pushed on, he turned to bread, a confectionery he was familiar with at the time, having worked at Bernstein’s Bagels.

“I need to step out and do my own thing,” Thompson remembered thinking. “I want to have something that’s mine.”

While Thompson was living in New York for a while, he would frequent the Russ & Daughters appetizing shop serving Jewish deli-style items like smoked fish, caviar, bagels, bialys and babka.

By this point, he’d already played around with doughs, having read “Tartine Bread” by Chad Roberson, so he skipped the bagels, biscuits, buns, brioche, baguettes, and headed straight for the bialy — an item he describes as humble, often overlooked and full of potential.

Bialys bursting with flavor

Thompson chooses the flavors of his fillings as a way to connect people with a concept.

“By connecting disparate elements of cuisines from various places and combining them, you have this beautiful mixture of creative storytelling,” he explained of the power of the flavor combinations.

He was born in Japan on a Navy base, and though he doesn’t remember his time there, it’s a piece of his family history that he sneaks into his cuisine now, showcasing bialy flavors like okonomiyaki and miso-onion. Thompson sources much of his ingredients locally, with some coming from his own garden.

Other flavors that frequent his menu are cacio e pepe, shaved potatoes and truffle oil, and strawberry with honey and feta, which can be paired with a selection of cream cheese schmears, such as the “comfort corn,” which is sweet corn roasted with butter, miso, green onion and togarashi spice.

Alongside his flavor-laden breads and schmears, Thompson serves coffee from Tokyo roaster Apollon’s Gold and plans to offer products from Matcha Freak, founded by Katy Connors.

Knowing the farmers, knowing the food coming out of the ground and knowing the quality of the goods are sacred parts of running his business.

“That perspective as well as knowing the effort that goes into creating it and the actual costs, those are things that feel really important to me moving forward in this dystopian world,” Thompson said.

A GoFundMe is available to donated toward buildout and opening costs is online at gofundme.com. For more information, visit Bialy Bird on Instagram @bialybird.