A great bagel needs a highly skilled bagel maker. A great bagel needs hand-kneading. It needs to proof before being baked. It needs a boil bath (called kettling) to lock in primo bagel texture before getting baked. And New Yorkers require seeds and seed blends on their bagels. The old stand-by, H&H, has gone the way of the dodo, since the original owners sold out and closed all locations except their wholesale factory on the West Side Highway. But there are still plenty of options to satisfy your nosh cravings. Here are ten of the best bagel joints in the city these days.
THE BAGEL LIST
Black Seed | Nolita, Manhattan 170 Elizabeth St.
Black Seed opened in 2014 with true NYC restaurant hype, despite the bagels’ Montreal-ish leaning. (They’re wood-fired, have a larger hole, and are made a little sweeter by a kettle of honey-water). This bagel joint comes from restaurateurs Noah Bernamoff and Matt Kliegman (of Mile End and The Smile, respectively) and is designed in dark wood and exposed brick by a well-known Brooklyn design firm, hOmE. When they first opened, Black Seed sold out before sundown every day for months, with lines around the block. Now they’ve settled into production, and Yankee-proud customers can get multi-everything with smoked bluefish spread and rye with beet-cured lox all day long.
Bagel Oasis | Fresh Meadows, Queens 183-12 Horace Harding Expy
Weed through the lotto tickets, the prepackaged snacks and candy, and the cold-case wall of beverages to get to the heart of this 24-hour deli. Bagel Oasis has been making bagels since 1961. They roll dough 24/7, and the best bagel is always the one fresh out of the oven, so there’s no excuse not to load up on a dozen of whatever is hot. Don’t forget to buy a few house-made spreads—bacon cream cheese, walnut raisin, and strawberry are favorites.
Beygl | Park Slope, Brooklyn 291 5th Ave
Unlike many shops, which also function as full-fledged delis, Beygl stays focused on the main event—a throwback to when bagel shops were indeed the specialty stores that they deserve to be. They ferment their dough for 30-45 minutes, proof for an hour, and always boil before baking, churning out one thousand pounds of hand-rolled dough per week. Look for a hint of sweetness in these bagels, thanks to a combination of malt and brown sugar in the dough. Beygl also has an impressive sandwich list: from hummus and cheddar cheese with avocado, sprouts, and salsa verde to a masterpiece of meat with roast beef, turkey, ham, and Asiago cheese. All, of course, are served on bagels.
