H&H Bagels is a bagel company in New York City that has been described as "classic," "famous," and "iconic." The original store has closed, but five retail locations on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan and at John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Moynihan Train Hall are currently open daily. With these stores and its nationwide shipping and wholesale businesses, H&H Bagels is one of the largest bagel manufacturers in New York City. History The business was started in 1972 when Puerto Rican Helmer Toro and his brother-in-law Hector Hernandez (hence "H&H"), bought Midtown Bagels at Broadway and 80th Street for $5,000 ($ in 2018 dollar terms) in cash and $50,000 ($ in 2018 dollar terms) in a loan. Toro eventually assumed full control of the business. In 1974 Toro opened H&H Midtown Bagels East on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In 1979 H&H went bankrupt for the first time which resulted in a new group taking over ownership of the Upper East Side H&H location while Toro retained ownership of the Upper West Side location. In 1993 Toro moved his bakery to 46th Street at 12th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, although his primary storefront remained on the Upper West Side. On December 18, 1997, NBC aired the Seinfeld episode entitled "The Strike," in which Cosmo Kramer returns to work at H&H Bagels after supposedly having been on strike for 12 years. He eventually strikes again, returns again, then is fired for dropping his gum into the bagel dough. The episode is also famous for introducing Frank Costanza's alternative holiday, "Festivus for the Rest of Us!" On November 18, 2009, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced the indictment and arrest of Helmer Toro for stealing, withholding taxes and evading unemployment insurance taxes. The indictment alleged that between July 2003 and April 2009, Toro failed to pay $369,000 withheld from H&H employees. In May 2010 he pleaded guilty to grand larceny, and was sentenced to pay restitution of more than $540,000 and to a jail term, which he served over the course of 50 weekends from June 2010 to July 2011. Toro's portion of H&H filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2011 in an effort to maintain its manufacturing facility in Secaucus, New Jersey, but ultimately that facility was sold at auction in October 2011. The West 46th and West 80th retail locations closed