Bagel purists will tell you that the best bagels exist only in New York. The New York Times will tell them they are wrong.
But if it’s not in New York, where? The New York Times wrote Monday that the best bagels are found in California, specifically in bagel stores throughout Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
‘Emily Winston’s bagels are some of the best New York – style bagels I’ve ever tasted. They are made by chance in Berkeley, ” the author of the article, Tejal Rao, wrote about Boichik Bagels.
Winston, who is a New York expat, opened her popular Berkeley bagel shop in 2019. At the time, she told SFGATE that she wanted to recreate bagels according to the model H&H Bagels, which closed the original Upper West Side location in 2011. Winston shared that her personal mission was to recreate that bagel from memory.
Among the other local places mentioned in the Times article were the Daily Driver of San Francisco, known for its wood-fired bagels, and Midnite Bagel, which first started as a pop-up inside Tartine.
One thing that Midnite Bagel owner Nick Beitcher shared about his bagels is that they are not meant to be like those of New York. Instead, he wants to celebrate the region by making a San Francisco bagel from leaven.
“To me, they feel like a San Francisco bagel,” Beitcher told SFGATE in 2019. ‘They use very good ingredients, very good technique and attention to detail. The idea is not to imitate a New York bagel. It is to try to contribute something else. ”
Even without New York City water, the Bay Area baggage was a hit, as more stores and businesses showed their own variations on the cult favorite. Last year, Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen began offering bagels on its menu and Daily Driver expanded by opening a kiosk outpost in Hayes Valley, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst, but operate independently.)