Call Your Mother, the pastel-colored bagel deli that built a cult following in Washington, D.C., is opening its first Florida location on Miracle Mile in downtown Coral Gables, with plans to start serving bagels shortly after Thanksgiving. The shop will take over the former home of Bodega Taqueria y Tequila at 317 Miracle Mile, one of the neighborhood's busiest retail and dining strips.
According to Miami New Times, the deli plans to open in early December, marking its first brick-and-mortar footprint in the Sunshine State. The company describes itself as a Washington, D.C.-born, Jew-ish bagel shop and deli, and it has leaned into a playful identity built around pink, yellow, and teal color schemes plus a brand mascot lineup that includes manatees and flamingos, a nod, the outlet notes, to its new Florida home.
Call Your Mother is co-owned by married founders Daniela Moreira and Andrew Dana, who met in 2015 while haggling over the last carton of eggs at a Washington, D.C. farmers market, according to the Miami New Times report. Dana was running a pizza food truck at the time, while Moreira was a recent graduate of the Culinary Institute of America who had also worked as a private chef. Before bagels, the pair opened Timber Pizza together, a concept that went on to earn a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation.
From a D.C. Farmers Market Stall to a Coral Gables Storefront
The bagel business itself started small: Dana and Moreira sold bagels at a D.C. farmers market in 2017 before opening their first brick-and-mortar shop in 2018. By 2021, the brand had grown to about five or six shops, per the Miami New Times account, and the Coral Gables opening will extend a national expansion that has already carried the deli into Denver, its second market, as well as Chicago and Philadelphia.
Moreira, who was named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list and recognized as a James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef semifinalist, is described in the report as wanting her children to grow up around Spanish, Argentine food, and family traditions. She has said the couple wants to spend more time in Miami, and the two plan to move their family to the city if the Coral Gables opening goes well, moving there for the winter in the meantime.
A Personal Connection to South Florida Retirement Communities
Dana has deep roots in the region: he grew up visiting his grandparents in Boca Raton and Delray Beach and has said he's always loved South Florida, visiting several times a year even before the bagel shop's expansion plans took shape. He has eaten with his grandfather at South Florida institutions TooJay's and Three G's, according to the Miami New Times piece, and that personal history has worked its way directly into the Coral Gables menu.
The shop plans to name sandwiches after South Florida retirement communities, a tribute that shows up literally on the menu. The Glen Eagles sandwich is named after the community where Dana's grandparents lived, while the Sun City breakfast sandwich rounds out the retiree-inspired lineup. The Delray Club, a nod to Dana's other childhood stomping ground, will layer bacon, jalapeño, nectarine, potato chips, and peach cream cheese onto a plain bagel.
What's on the Coral Gables Menu
Beyond the retirement-community tributes, the Coral Gables location will serve the Jetski, which piles brisket, pastrami, sofrito, cheese, and jalapeño onto a cheddar bagel, and the Grandezza, built from turkey, mozzarella, pesto, and red pepper relish. The bagels themselves are boiled in honey and, per background reported by Washingtonian, baked in a wood-fired oven, a method meant to combine the sweetness of Montreal-style bagels with the airier texture of a New York bagel. Dana has embraced the self-proclaimed title of the company's chief doughboi.
Company officials describe the overall aesthetic as boca meets Brooklyn, and the Miami New Times reports Call Your Mother already has its eye on further expansion to Miami Beach after the Coral Gables debut. The brand's colorful, playful visual identity marks a contrast with the corporate machinery now behind it: global investment firm Artal, through its investment advisor Invus, acquired a majority stake in the company in January 2025 to fund exactly this kind of national rollout, according to Restaurant Business. Invus was also an early investor in the fast-casual chain CAVA.
A National Brand With D.C. Political Roots
Call Your Mother's rise has always carried a bit of Washington political glamour. Its Georgetown shop became the first local restaurant then-President Joe Biden visited after taking office, when his motorcade stopped for bagels in January 2021, as reported by the Times of Israel. Former White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients was also an early investor in the company, and initial bagel recipe testing reportedly took place in his home kitchen, according to Washingtonian.
The brand has also shown it will fight to protect that identity as it scales. In November 2025, Call Your Mother filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit in New Jersey against a deli operating as Call Your Bubbi, arguing the name and its circular logo caused consumer confusion, since both terms evoke a caring Jewish matriarch, Restaurant Business reported.
By mid-2026, the company's footprint had grown past 20 locations across its D.C.-area home base, Denver, Chicago, and Philadelphia, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Hoodline has tracked the chain's Philly arrival and its earlier moves into Chicago's Wicker Park and the Denver suburbs, as the brand has followed a pattern of securing multiple leases per city to justify local management infrastructure.
Company Culture Behind the Playful Branding
Moreira, who immigrated from Argentina without speaking English, has built workplace benefits around that experience: Call Your Mother funds language education for staff, offering English lessons for back-of-house kitchen workers and Spanish lessons for front-of-house team members and managers, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Moreira developed the Coral Gables bagel recipes by traveling to New York, Montreal, South Florida, and San Francisco, the Miami New Times reports, gathering inspiration before settling on the shop's final lineup.
Whether Miracle Mile's high commercial rents and competitive dining scene will test the fast-casual bagel model remains to be seen, but for now the plan is set: bagels shortly after Thanksgiving, a menu full of hometown references to Boca Raton and Delray Beach, and a colorful Coral Gables shop meant to feel as much like South Florida as it does like the brand's D.C. roots. More details, including exact opening dates, are expected on the company's website, callyourmotherdeli.com.
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