Aaron Emas started out planning a third Backyard Bagel for Magnolia Village. He already runs storefronts in Fremont and Laurelhurst, plus a stand at the Ballard farmers market, so a third shop on W McGraw Street looked like the obvious next step. Then he spent time inside the space at 3213 W McGraw St and changed his mind.
"Our intention was to open a Backyard, but after spending more time in the new shop, it was a square-peg-round-hole situation," Emas told the Seattle bagel newsletter It's a Shanda in early October. So Magnolia isn't getting a branch. It's getting Little Boat Bagels, a concept built around this one storefront, with a different bagel, a different sandwich and a name taken from a Danish workboat.
A space that sat dark, then fit nobody's template
The storefront has been empty a long time. Eater Seattle reported in November 2025 that the Slice Box pizzeria in Magnolia had been closed since that August. When Little Boat was announced on October 4, 2026, the space had been dark for more than a year.
Emas told It's a Shanda he first looked at the location about a year ago. The deal seemed to fall through, then the space came back on the market, and "we just had to make it happen."
Once he had it, the layout set the terms. He said fitting a standard Backyard into the room "would have been more expensive, and the flow would have been a little awkward with the equipment needed." He also wanted every Backyard to feel alike to customers, "and this just wasn't it." The company's systems and back-end resources still carry over. The menu, the room, the brand and the bagel don't.
For the 3200 block of W McGraw, a branch would have meant a bagel you could already buy in Fremont. This plan means a bagel you can only get here.
What gets built in place of a Backyard
Backyard Bagel makes a traditional New York-style bagel. Little Boat will make sourdough, from a recipe the team is still developing. Emas has described the target in physical terms.
"We're developing a new sourdough recipe unlike any other bagel in the city. Think open crumb, glassy crust, and lots of blisters. We have a deck oven and will bake everything on cedar boards." Aaron Emas, speaking to It's a Shanda
The kitchen is mostly open, so customers will be able to watch bagels get boiled, baked and tossed into baskets at the counter. Speaking to Seattle Met, Emas made clear the shop isn't chasing a memory of somewhere else: "We're not trying to be the bagel of your NYC childhood or compete with someone's nostalgia."
The sandwiches borrow from Copenhagen. Every bagel sandwich will be open-faced, modeled on Danish smørrebrød, which Emas credits to a few months he spent eating it in Copenhagen. He calls the concept "a creative outlet for myself and a talented team of chefs and bakers." The shop will still sell the usual bagel-shop basics.
The little boat in the name
The Danish theme runs through the name too. Emas grew up on Bainbridge Island and loves fishing, and the name partly reflects that. It also honors the Gerda III, a "little boat" used to smuggle Jews out of Nazi-occupied Denmark to Sweden during World War II.
The boat's history is on record. According to Mystic Seaport Museum, the Gerda III was built in 1926 as a lighthouse tender, an ordinary-looking Danish workboat. In October 1943, Henny Sinding, the 22-year-old daughter of the naval officer who commanded Denmark's Lighthouse and Buoy Service, used it with a four-man crew to rescue Jews from occupied Denmark.
Refugees were brought to a warehouse on Copenhagen's waterfront and hidden in the cargo hold. The boat then set out on its official lighthouse supply runs and detoured to the Swedish coast to put them ashore. German soldiers regularly boarded and checked the vessel but never found anyone. Across those trips, the Gerda III carried about 300 people, 10 to 15 at a time.
The museum notes that Sinding and her crew weren't part of the organized resistance. They were ordinary citizens, part of a spontaneous national effort that saved more than 7,000 Danish Jews, nearly the country's entire Jewish population. Denmark's parliament later gave the boat to the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. It was restored to its wartime appearance, and Mystic Seaport Museum now helps care for and exhibit it. Of the roughly 300 boats in the evacuation, the Gerda III is believed to be one of only three still afloat.
That's the background for the logo on the shop's website, a small fishing boat on waves inside a red sun.
Where it lands on the 3200 block
Two cafés and a bakery already operate within a few doors of 3213 W McGraw, and their posted hours show how the block works before noon.
| Business | Address | Posted hours |
|---|---|---|
| Uptown Espresso | 3223 W McGraw St | Mon–Fri 6 a.m.–4 p.m., Sat–Sun 7 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Petit Pierre Bakery | 3204 W McGraw St | Weekdays 8 a.m.–4 p.m., weekends 7:30 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Serendipity Cafe and Lounge | 3222 W McGraw St | Daily 7:30 a.m.–8 p.m. |
| Little Boat Bagels | 3213 W McGraw St | Not yet announced |
On weekdays, Uptown Espresso opens first, at 6 a.m. Serendipity Cafe and Lounge is the only one of the three open into the evening. Petit Pierre Bakery, directly across the street at 3204, opens earlier on weekends than on weekdays. With Little Boat at 3213 and Uptown at 3223, the odd-numbered side of the block will have two morning stops a few doors apart.
The new shop also changes something It's a Shanda put plainly in its announcement: "One of Seattle's bagel shop deserts is no more." Magnolia Village already has coffee and pastry. It hasn't had a dedicated bagel counter, and the one it's getting was designed with this block in mind.
What's set and what isn't
The opening date isn't firm. Emas has said Little Boat expects to open "by the end of November, depending on permitting." WhatNow also reported a late-November target tied to permitting. In late October, the shop's own site still showed a pre-opening page with a countdown reading "Time remaining: hopefully 6 weeks."
- Set: the address, 3213 W McGraw St; a sourdough bagel baked on cedar boards in a deck oven; open-faced, smørrebrød-style sandwiches; an open kitchen.
- Not yet announced: an opening day, hours, or a full menu.
- Where updates will appear: an email sign-up at littleboatbagels.com and the shop's Instagram account, which the team has pointed to for build-out news.
While the build-out continues, the free Discovery Park beach shuttle is on its final stretch of the season. Seattle Parks lists service Thursdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., through November 1, 2026, so the last run days are Thursday, October 29, through Sunday, November 1. The Discovery Park Visitor Center is still closed after flooding from a broken water main in early 2025. The city estimates it will reopen in summer 2027, and the rest of the park is open as usual.
When a storefront that sat empty for more than a year gets a concept built for that room alone, the Village gains something Fremont and Laurelhurst don't have. If you've been watching the changes along McGraw and wondering how they connect to your own place on the peninsula, the Mr Magnolia team would be glad to talk it through over coffee on the block. Get a free home valuation whenever you're curious.