eater declares uws has the best bagels in nyc:
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Just noticed there’s a bagel and co at 77th and York, right across from kossars, might make a good one-two punch one morning…
Thanks for sharing! I actually looked into Bagels & Co the last time I walked by. Next time, I will think about entering.
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.”
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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.)
Did you know Eagerman’s Bakery in Natick and Brookline?
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Where? I grow old, I grow old and I wear the bottom of my mind rolled.
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Since my Cantabrigian proclivities have been alluded to above, let me just say that the Eater comparisons are just phooey. Compare this amateurish picture:
with this detailed analysis, far beyond the capacity of any Manhattan mind, that only somebody with the intellectual heft of Cambridge could achieve
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!
Hey, I must defend @fooddabbler’s bagel analysis! I enjoyed it and I think many Greater Boston Onions also did.
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hopefully he knows I’m just pulling his leg.
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I fondly remember Eagerman’s! Also that they spelled Bagels Baigels.
That I didn’t remember!
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Im not arguing with anybody about anything but I didnt get the feel Sietsema was exactly enthusiastic about any of them…didnt make we want to rush to the UWS for my bagel. Whereas in the distant past munching on a onion, sesame or pumpernickel bagel hot out of the bag was a joy after a visit to Zabars and more recently the crunch of a seedy non-sweet bagel from Bagel Pub or Terrace is very satisfying.
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I omitted to say - from H&H!
Any recommendations for bagel chips?
I’m only in town every now and then, and the chips travel better.
Appreciate your responses.
As a lifetime New Yorker / Westchester resident, I’d always been able to find some good bagels. Since I don’t get in nyc much anymore. I decided to “treat myself” to some of the highly regarded in nyc and chose to order from Ess-a-bagel. My initial reaction upon seeing them was that they were everything that was wrong with newer bagels.Way too huge. Heating in the oven, out came an excellent bagel however. Somehow they still manage to get the taste/texture of smaller bagels (no easily done). Only thing is slicing in thirds gives two perfect ends and a middle that is too good to waste. Cut in 1/2 after heating (don’t bother toasting) is still very good, but a bit thicker than at its best, but definitely worth ordering
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