My Whitefish Salad Runneth Over: H&H Bagels Reopens!

Well, that was quick: the Upper West Side location of H&H Bagels reopened this afternoon, after being seized by the government for non-payment of taxes early this morning. The State Department of Taxation and Finance this afternoon told the CityRoom that the retail location of H&H and its Hell's Kitchen bakery owed more than $100,000 in back taxes. Clerks at the UWS bagel store have returned to laying out lox slices and buttering those poppyseed selling plain, unadorned bagels like there's no tomorrow, and have been specifically instructed not to talk about the temporary seizure. A woman at H&H's flagship (identifying herself as “Blanca, just Blanca”) said the seizure was “a misunderstanding that has been cleared up." The tax department differs; CityRoom explains, "so many tax warrants, or liens, had piled up by Friday that the department was still struggling to provide a full accounting to reporters." H&H hopes to have everything cleared up by today, so that no more locks will be hoisted upon on the House of Lox.