Wise Sons is now selling bagels, but not the bagel sandwiches, in the Saturday morning Palo Alto Farmer’s Market in downtown.
The Chronicle did a blind taste test of SF bagels, rightfully putting Beauty Bagels at No. 1 (a tie with Pearl 1601), and calling Wise Sons the “Kardashian of bagels.” I have to agree with the latter— the seeds make it seem like it should be good, but the seeds disguise the disappointment underneath—- a smooth and unblistered skin, and it doesn’t help that they’re unavailable fresh.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/restaurants/article/Who-make-s-the-Bay-Area-s-best-bagels-14038785.php
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I have no quibble with their rankings. Beauty’s are my favorite, rightly priced at $1.50 and the closed faced with cream cheese, salmon, red onion, capers at $7.75 is a bargain compared to $14 plus at some of the other places (their open face classic is $10.75).
Although I haven’t tried Pearl or Daily Driver, $3.50 is a bit precious for a bagel. The last time I ate at Wise Sons the quality had declined so much that I’ve sworn them off. Seems they are spread way too thin with all their shops and they’ve moved to a quantity over quality model.
Yeah, they’ve definitely declined. You’ll note blistering in the sesame bagel photo I took in 2016. A plain bagel I got last week from 24th st. had a smooth and uniform top, and the bottom was rougher but I wouldn’t say blistered— the bagged versions sold at grocery stores are the same.
One tip: if you go to 24th Street towards the end of the day on weekdays, you can usually get a good deal on bagels if there are any left. On a crummy evening last November, I got a few bagels at half off and the counter guy threw in a few extra for free. Not said that my experience will be your experience, but if you happen to be in the neighborhood it’s worth a shot.
Bialy tangent: Beauty has very good bialys, and so does As Kneaded Bakery on San Leandro (only open Sat/Sun & Wed. nights–bialys more likely on the weekends but they don’t have them every day). The As Kneaded ones are pretty big, though.
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And I would kill to have a decent bagel place near me in Hayward/Castro Valley. Posh Bagel is akin to Noah’s, and I don’t what they’re serving at New York Bagels on CV Boulevard but it ain’t anything like a bagel.
[moved to reply to @hyperbowler’s recent post-- please delete]
Maybe I’m senile, but I’ve been eating bagels from the House of Bagels since 1962 when the founders moved from New York to San Francisco at the same time as I did and would swear on a stack of Tanachs that they are the closest things around to what New York bagels USED to be, so maybe time travel is not such a good idea.
I think it was Chowhound co-founder Jim Leff who once said “You can’t get a good New York bagel in New York any more” and judging from the yellowing article linked below, New York bagels in New York haven’t been themselves for some time now. Be sure to read down to the discussion of “Union” (not onion) bagels.
Incidentally, SOME Safeways (but definitely not all) stock their bulk sandwich roll bins with HOB bagels for $7.00/dozen, and they taste a lot better at 58¢ each than at $1.55.
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The Beauty’s Bagel location on Telegraph Ave has bags of day olds at the counter ($4 / 6 count bag if I recall correctly). I usually grab a bag to keep in the freezer in a pinch, they are fine toasted.
If they are anything like real Montreal bagels, I assume you slice them before freezing, otherwise they will crumble.
I get two day old St. Viateur bagels via Goldbelly.com ($69 for four dozen shipped) and settle down to slicing 48 bagels in a sitting. (I bought a bagel guillotine just for this purpose.)
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Pre-freeze slicing is a good tip so you can throw them straight into the toaster
I really wish they would have shown a cross-section of the bagels in the piece!
I’ve gotten bags of the day-olds before, but I’m picky about the bagel varieties I like (ie, plain and sesame) and you don’t get a choice with the day-olds. Once, I bought a bag of what the cashier told me were plain and they were all sourdough.
I thought one always sliced bagels before freezing, for the reason brisket44 states above. That’s been my family’s MO for decades.
Not a bagel fan in general, but I love their rye bread. Especially when you can get it unsliced.
