16 Bagel Spots to Try Now
Queens and Manhattan: Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company
Two Astoria, Queens locals with a passion for dough started this beloved mini-chain. At the four BB&CC locations (there are three in Astoria and one in Chelsea), the bagels are kettle boiled and baked throughout the day so that they’re always hot and fresh. The variety of cream cheese and spreads here is astounding: there’s jalapeño-Asiago, bacon-scallion, a seasonal pumpkin spread, and a rotating cream cheese flavor of the week. And if you’re searching for a breakfast sandwich, the Hellgate—featuring chipotle cream cheese, eggs, and bacon—is a surefire win.bkbagel.com
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Los Angeles: Yeastie Boys Bagels
Yeastie Boys is that notorious L.A. food truck with Nas blasting out the doors and the words “bagels • lox • schmear • other shit” scrawled on the side. Bagel Lord Evan Fox and his crew offer non-traditional bagels in flavors like sesame-cheddar and Hot Cheetos, as well as one of L.A.’s best breakfast sandwiches. “The Game Over,” a staple at the truck, comes with fluffy scrambled eggs, pepper bacon, tomato, gooey beer cheese and jalapeño spread. (And In case you were wondering, these are the dudes that offered free“F*ck Donald Trump” bagels选民在选举日。)instagram.com/yeastieboysbagels
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New York City: Black Seed Bagels
The bagels at Black Seed embody the deliciousness of both New York-style and Montreal-style bagels: the dough is slow fermented before the bagels are hand-rolled, boiled in honey water, tossed in seeds, and cooked until golden in the shop’s wood-burning oven. Black Seed co-founders Noah Bernamoff (of Mile End Deli) and Matt Kliegman (of the Smile) know that ingredients are key; they use flour grown and milled in Vermont, and fresh cream cheese handmade in the Hudson Valley. They also make their own beet-cured lox, which comes draped over a bagel that’s been schmeared with scallion cream cheese and garnished with colorful watermelon radish and fresh herbs.blackseedbagels.com
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Philadelphia: Philly Style Bagels
It’s not every shop that boils its hand-rolled bagels in a mixture of Yards IPA and water. That’s the case at Philly Style Bagels, which started as a pop up shop at cult Philadelphia slice joint Pizzeria Beddia. The slow-fermented, beer-boiled bagels serve as the base for a variety of sandwiches, including a superb B.L.T., to which you can (and should) add avocado. And you can’t go wrong with a fresh-out-of-the-oven everything bagel—rolled in sesame, poppy, onion, garlic, salt, red pepper flake, and mustard seed—adorned with a generous schmear of garlic cream cheese.phillystylebagels.com
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Oakland: Beauty’s Bagel Shop
Blake Joffe fell in love with Fairmount Bagel in Montreal when he visited the city as a child. “Fairmount is a nearly 100-year-old shop, and the look and feel of it was so visceral to me,” Joffe explains. When he and his wife, Amy Resmen, founded Beauty’s in Oakland, they drew inspiration from the old-school, traditional way of making bagels that Joffe experienced in Montreal. The bagels at Beauty’s are rolled by hand, boiled in honey-sweetened water and baked in a wood-fired oven, resulting in a chewy interior and a rich golden crust.beautysbagelshop.com
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San Francisco: Wise Sons Bagel & Bakery
Wise Sons owner Evan Bloom says he’s dedicated his life to “crafting classic dishes with heart that would make your Bubbie proud.” His bagels—which would get a 100-percent approval rating from Bubbie—are cold-retarded for 36 hours to develop flavor and chew, then boiled in barley malt-infused water and coated with seeds. The bagel sandwiches on offer at Wise Sons’ Fillmore District storefront run the gamut from a high-end pizza bagel to pastrami-smoked salmon to a hot brisket sandwich with harissa shmear.wisesonsdeli.com/location/fillmore-bagel-bakery
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Denver: Rosenberg’s Bagels and Delicatessen
Through a water filtration and additive process, Denver favorite Rosenberg’s has attempted to recreate NYC water in Colorado. But owner Joshua Pollack’s devotion to bagel making doesn’t stop there: He ferments the dough on wooden boards overnight to develop maximum flavor, then cooks the rounds on 500-degree stone shelves. If it’s a lox, bagel, and cream cheese you’re after, just know that Rosenberg’s fish—including salmon, sturgeon, sable, and whitefish—is cured and smoked in house using Old World recipes.rosenbergsbagels.com
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Maryland and Washington, D.C.: Bethesda Bagels
On a trip to the Washington D.C. area, Bronx native Steve Fleishman and Queens native Fran Fleishman found that there were no quality bagels to be found. To rectify the situation, the husband-and-wife team opened the first of six Bethesda Bagels locations back in 1982. “To this day, we still roll our bagels by hand. Something is lost in the process when you rely on machines to make the final product,” says second-generation owner Lee Fleishman. The bagel sandwich with peppered salmon, cream cheese, and sprouts is a power order.bethesdabagels.com
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Charlottesville, VA: Bodo’s Bagels
The staff at Bodo's bakes golden rounds of dough continuously from 5am to 7:30pm each day, which means your bagel will have just been pulled from a 500-degree oven no matter what time you stop in. Chicken salad, egg salad, and bacon-egg-and-cheese are popular sandwiches at this Charlottesville institution; but if it's something sweet you're after, snag one of Bodo's chocolate-laced cakes topped with cocoa nibs and candied orange peel. (Pro tip: Don’t ask for your bagel to be toasted. The bagels’ textures are perfect as is, and the Bodo’s staff won’t do it for you anyway.)bodosbagels.com
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Los Angeles: Bagel Factory
If you think you can’t find New York-style Kosher certified bagels in the City of Angels, think again. Bagel Factory—which now boasts one location in West L.A., one in Torrance, and one in Beverlywood—has been baking cornmeal-crusted bagels and homemade challah since 1973. For something unique, try the Black Russian, a pumpernickel bagel laced with raisins and onions.bagelfactoryinc.com
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Cleveland: Bialy's Bagels
The “Mish Mosh” (everything) is the go-to order at this bialy and bagel shop in University Heights. If it’s fancy bagel sandwiches you’re craving—or schmears, or a table to sit at—go elsewhere. Bialy’s is all about the product: bagels fresh baked throughout the day so they’re warm and chewy with a gorgeous, gold outer crust.
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Detroit: New York Bagel Baking Company
Howard Goldsmith, the third-generation owner of New York Bagel Baking Co., is a Detroit legend. Michiganders come from miles around for his shop’s bagels, bialys, salt sticks, flagels (flat bagels) and Dogels (bagels made especially for dogs). The exceptional lox at NYBBC comes from both Acme in New York and family-owned Detroit company Sea Fare.newyorkbagel-detroit.com
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Boston: Kupel’s Bakery
线很长但爵士vice is efficient at this Brookline bagel mecca. Kupel’s sandwiches are cleverly named after Boston MBTA stops, like the Lechmere, which features garlic-and-herb cream cheese, Nova lox, tomato, and capers. The baked goods at Kupel’s—including chocolate and cream cheese rugelach and pumpkin cake—are also divine.kupelsbakery.com
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Phoenix: Chompie’s Deli
When people think of bagels and Jewish delis, Arizona probably isn’t the first place that comes to mind. And that’s exactly why the Borenstein family, originally from Queens, opened this New York-style bakery and deli in Phoenix in 1979, effectively redefining the Arizona bagel scene. The challah here is hand-braided, the black & white cookies are addictive, and the boiled-then-baked bagels come in 35 varieties.chompies.com
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New York City: Ess-a-Bagel
The cream cheese offerings at this NYC bagel institution are impressive: there are more than 40 types, including sun-dried tomato, olive, raisin-walnut, blueberry, and Oreo. While the original 21st Street location is now defunct, there’s a new 1st Avenue Ess-a-Bagel serving the shop’s signature gargantuan bagels along with sandwiches like the Melanie Special, featuring whitefish salad and nova lox. If Midtown is more your speed, head to the Third Avenue Ess-a-Bagel outpost located between 50th and 51st Streets.ess-a-bagel.com
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New York City: Murray’s
Adam Pomerantz named Murray’s bagels after his father, the man from whom he inherited his love of bagels. Pomerantz opened his Greenwich Village bagel institution in 1996 after stepping down from his VP position at Merrill Lynch—and thank the bagel gods that he did, considering the plump rounds at Murray’s are hand-rolled and made fresh throughout the day.murraysbagels.com