After many many years, Ess-A is still our go-to. However, whereas I could put away two whole Ess-A bagels at one breakfast decades ago, I am down to 1/2 per meal. Ess-A pumpernickel will always be my favorite.
As for other purveyors, I stumbled on Shelsky’s a couple years ago and enjoyed their smaller bagels. Also will get bagels at Russ & Daughters when I venture in for my occasional splurge. Their bialys are excellent too. Have also enjoyed the flagels from David’s.
Had a funny experience at Black Seed Bagels at Chelsea Market a few months ago (I was in the neighborhood; NB Li-Lac Chocolates in Chelsea Market is outstanding). Anyway, after waiting in the interminable line, I got to the counter and asked for a dozen bagels. They sell a baker’s dozen so when I got to 12 I tried to order one more. The bumbling counter person told me that a baker’s dozen is 12, not 13. When I tried to explain that there’s a reason the sign says baker’s dozen and not simply dozen, he just chuckled and I gave up. But I sent an email complaining (nicely) and got a $25 gift certificate for my troubles. PS their bagels are mediocre at best.
I really liked ess-a-bagels Midtown East but at some point, it must have been written up in a tour guide, it became hard to get a table and I hated navigating all the roller suitcases.
Yeah when I used to go to my office at 300 Madison I made several stops before heading to the train station and that Ess-a was one them along with Jacques Torres, Melissa’s Cupcakes, Maison Kayser (RIP)……
Not quite. The headline says
“Who Makes the Best Bagel on the Upper West Side?”
Then says
“I’d have to say the best neighborhood for bagels is the Upper West Side, …”
But why? 'cuz
“the UWS has the most bagel bakeries, which vie with each other for bagel supremacy.”
That hardly makes them the “best bagels in nyc”.
Here’s the Eater list, with their own comments pasted in:
Bagels & Co.
“More bulbous than usual, the small hole was like a whirlpool on this one, and the crumb more finely textured, without a speck of sweetness. The taste was slightly toasty without being toasted.”
Absolute Bagels
“Bagel slightly larger than average size, nicely browned with a shiny surface, hole has pretty much disappeared.”
H&H
“This specimen was pale and shiny, a perfect size and old-fashioned, a real retro-bagel. It’s chewy without being overly so.”
Bagel Talk
“The size and level of doneness was perfect, but the outside was positively crunchy, and crazed with fine cracks. By contrast, the inside was softer than most.”
Broad Nosh
“Bagels are of average size, darker than most, good flavor, no hole to speak of, provides a good chew. Odd spiraling fissures on the top, though”
Zabar’s
“Maybe following the current caramelizing fad, this average sized bagel was a very dark brown with an adamantine crust and a slightly salty flavor, almost meaty.”
Pick A Bagel
“Bulbous and slightly larger than usual, this bagel was unremarkable, and corporate seeming.”
Silver Moon Bakery
“The shape is odd and twisted, the taste is wheaty, the crust too thick and firm.”
I don’t follow your logic. he tried a bunch of bagels on the uws and compared them to bagels he had in other parts of NYC and declared the UWS the best. are you saying he didn’t delcare the UWS the best neighborhood for bagels?
His explanation of why the uws has the best bagels is that there’s a lot of competition. seems like a reasonable theory. Are you saying you don’t agree with that?
I think what I said above is about as clear as I can make it. People are welcome to disagree with what passes for my logic.
In any case, we have had previous bagel threads in which I have expressed (possibly equally illogical) opinions:
Summoning the splendiferous @SteveR, what did you think of Strathmore bagels bagels in your Stony Brook (a mere suburb of NYC, after all) days? I was introduced to bagels by a Bronx-raised friend and took to them. In the Stony Brook area I began eating them first at a miniscule shopping mall in Port Jefferson Harbor, then at Strathmore – at the latter for a decade. I liked both, but, hey, what did I know?
(I did know enough, though, to find knishes unbearably bland – but I was fresh off the batata-wada boat back then.)
I have to agree with @vinouspleasure, but that’s probably not a surprise given that I seem to recall you also asserted that the best bagels in nyc were actually in… Cambridge …
In any case, to the Eater article places, they must have eaten at a different Broad Nosh than I did, given that they said “provides a good chew” and my takeaway was “AWFUL, FLUFFY bagels. Travesty.”
Also, what is a “corporate seeming” bagel (Pick-A)?
(And I did wonder who goes to Silver Moon in search of a bagel.)
Since my Cantabrigian proclivities have been alluded to above, let me just say that the Eater comparisons are just phooey. Compare this amateurish picture:
I do think it’s silly to say brooklyn has the best pizza (even though it does) or the uws has the best bagels (I have no idea and I doubt the author has eaten enough bagels all over the city to really know) cause there’s a lot of ways to measure best and in the end, there’s no objective standard.
as for your logic, if it makes sense to you, all good, but I’d suggest not operating heavy machinery at this point in your life
edit: I just read your greater boston bagel thread, seek help immediately!
…
