To your points about smoked fish, they slice to order (and have both sturgeon and sable). They source from Acme (mainly) which is where R&D and most NY places also get their smoked fish. The prices are high (as in higher than NY) but the quality is decent. I can’t speak to their other food but we’ve had smoked fish and bagels from them over thirty times. Their bagels are decent.
I know this is an NYC thread, but for the record let me assert that the Boston area is not such a bagel wasteland. In Cambridge alone in addition to Mamaleh’s there are the distinctive bagels at Bagelsaurus and the slightly pretzely ones at Mariposa, both well worth having.
Yeah, I kinda thought they might have been a pain just because. A workaround would have been to get the belly lox from the counter and the the bagel next door, but the hassle / attitude is just annoying sometimes when you encounter someone who’s decided to be difficult.
(I frequent the other counters much more, and it’s gotten easy to tell who’s going to be a pain… before I left for my recent trip, I got a few pounds of various sliced up things and several pounds of cheese, and actually chuckled at the range of responses while all that was happening – I had great service, but there was some ignoring, some rudeness, some willful deafness, and more to be observed during my longer-than-usual visit. And that’s not just the staff, lol. That said, the guy hand-slicing the house ham was a gem, and he was so pleased and even more particular about packaging it after I told him it was going to be frozen to travel a few thousand miles to my dad.)
Their signature dish is the chicken. We had it during covid., it was flavorful and spicy, sort of like (in name way) Spicy & Tasty. The sides were great as well, Brussels sprouts and i usually don’t eat them.
Bagelsaurus is okay, but so expensive!!! I already commented on Mamaleh’s, but never had their bagels. Now that they have a Brookline outpost, I may try it. Mariposa, I’ve never heard of. Pretzely sounds good, but not like the bagels I’m talking about. Have you tried OMG? They can be hard to find. For Montreal bagels (frozen in Montreal, sent to the store), The Belmontt Cafe, in Belmont Center is good. I just read about Turenne ( *251 Washington St., Somerville, 617-764-4054, [turennebagels.com]) made in the shop’s wood-fired oven.
Hey, if my substantive Boston-bagel analyses don’t match anything ever produced by any New Yorker ever, whose fault is it if this thread gets diverted?
I want you to appreciate the consideration I’ve shown the delicate sensibilities of you New Yorkers, you who cry when your casseroles crumble, that I’ve resisted responding to the assault on Boston bagels on this thread till after the OP had gotten whatever advice they deserved.
Note:
I’m a New Yorker at heart and a Hell’s-Kitchener for 1/4-ish of the year (tax-man, who’s counting?).
I’ll take any square population-inch of whatever NY neighborhood you choose, and match it to Cambridge.
Nobel-prizes? Pulitzers? Beards?
New York is, of course, fantastically, unimaginably great in ways that is hard to easily document. But, if interesting-per-square inch is a criterion, I offer Cambridge, MA, as the easy winner.
I’d also suggest heading further up broadway from zabars and trying some square slice of pepperoni pizza from mama’s too @ 2750 broadway - not your typical ny style but so good
Because they’re better (get out your smelling salts).
I assert that as fact, living as I do in both places. I’ve had many bagels in both cities. If you wish to frivolously tangle with me, get your facts in order. What bagel in NYC do you hold up against a Cambridge bagel you’ve had?
