Even on a Tuesday morning, the line was formidable. It snaked around in a U-shape beneath a covered patio just outside the bakery’s entrance, then extended down the block.

Every few minutes, someone emerged from the storefront, victorious with bags in hand. The rest of us shuffled forward, hoping to be next. My jacket was thin against the morning chill, but I thought of the pastries inside. It was 9 a.m., and, according to the day’s bake schedule, the first batch of crab dip bagels would be emerging from the oven.

Baltimore is home to many great bakeries, but only one invites lines that regularly stretch around the block and last up to an hour or more. New York City-style lines. Welcome to Café Dear Leon, home of the viral crab dip bagel.

In a video posted to TikTok in early February that now has more than 400,000 views and 40,000 likes, foodie influencer Giovanna Posce praised the treat’s “creamy, crabby goodness” and called it one of the best things she had during a visit to Baltimore.

“I need this immediately,” wrote one commenter. “I’m seriously debating spending the last of my money this week on one lmao,” wrote another. Several people said they planned to travel to Charm City just to try it, as though visiting the aquarium or Camden Yards. A few accounts have offered tutorials for making your own at home.

A couple in line behind me said they drove out from Essex to check out the bakery. They hadn’t actually heard of the crab dip bagel but stopped by after seeing the long line and wanting to find out what all the fuss was about. We cheered each other along as we waited in the cold. There were toddlers in line, after all. If they could make it, so could we.

Since Café Dear Leon opened in 2020, it’s been a place where people lined up. But it’s never been quite like this, said co-owner Charles Lee. Customers can now expect to wait up to an hour, or longer on weekends. There’s a limit of two crab dip bagels per person, but even so, the shop still sells out almost every day and a few latecomers inevitably go home disappointed. “That’s the most difficult moment of the day,” he said.

When Lee and his business partner Min Kim opened Café Dear Leon in the summer of 2020, they didn’t set out to start the next viral food craze. In fact, when they signed the lease on their O’Donnell Street storefront in Canton — just before lockdowns hit, as luck would have it — they didn’t even plan on opening a bakery. The friends, who’d been roommates while attending the Culinary Institute of America, just wanted to start a coffee shop with a few homemade treats. The name was a tribute to Kim’s eldest son.

The coronavirus delayed their plans for opening but offered an opportunity. Lee had never made a croissant before, but with newfound time on his hands became a master of the form. With some help from his now-wife, Sunny, herself an accomplished pastry chef, he and Kim created a core menu for their cafe that included croissants, egg salad sandwiches called tamago sandos, which are popular in Japan, as well as cookies and scones, with other options rotating each month.

The menu reflects their French training at the CIA as well as their Asian roots; both Lee and Kim were born in Korea. “I love using those classical French cuisine techniques, but when I create a dish or a pastry I try to incorporate the flavors that I like or the flavors from my memory,” Lee said. Their Instagram account is a feast for the eyes, with picture-perfect raspberry eclairs and dazzling geometric mousse cakes.

Soon after Café Dear Leon opened on July 31, 2020, they decided to start posting a bake schedule online to ensure that customers could get everything as fresh as possible. A typical day at the shop might include scones, breakfast sandwiches and croissants at 6 a.m., with danishes and other treats going on sale at 9 a.m. Sandwiches start at 11, and the shop closes at 4 p.m. Lines got long: Lee added a sheltered patio with heat lamps to keep guests warm as they waited.

But it wasn’t until last November that Lee started offering the crab dip bagel. A manager requested a crab dip pretzel for her birthday, which was that month, but Lee decided instead to make a crabby version of Korean garlic bread, which had sold well earlier in the summer. The new version featured a gooey inside of crab dip topped with lump Indonesian crab meat and kernels of corn. It’s not exactly a bagel. Still, Lee said, “our regulars loved it.”

By January, demand was dying down. Lee was actually considering taking it off the menu when it went viral. “We’re like, ‘We’ll keep it one more month,’ ” he recalls. One month turned into two. Now, there’s no end in sight. He’s had to expand the number of bagels they produce up from 30 a day to 180.

In addition to Café Dear Leon, Lee and Kim also own Love, Pomelo, an Italian restaurant two doors down. Kim manages the eatery while Lee heads up the bakery. The friends sometimes pass one another at 3 a.m., when the restaurant has shut down and Lee is heading in to proof pastries.

The crab dip bagel’s success has reinforced one point for Lee: Café Dear Leon needs to expand. He and Kim are exploring adding an additional storefront for the bakery in either Remington or Hampden, though there’s “nothing concrete at this moment.”

But there’s a whole world of delicious pastries to continue to explore, so Lee is ready to move on from what’s become his most famous dish. The crab dip bagel will eventually come off the menu, he says. Just not today.