Bagel purists will say that the best bagels exist only in New York. The New York Times will say that they are wrong.
But if not in New York, where? On Monday, the New York Times wrote that the best bagels are found in California, specifically in bagel stores in 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 simply made in Berkeley, ”wrote the article’s author, Tejal Rao, about Boichik Bagels.
Winston, who is an expat from New York, opened her popular bagel store in Berkeley in 2019. At the time, she told SFGATE that she wanted to recreate bagels inspired by H&H Bagels, which closed its original location on the Upper West Side in 2011. Winston shared that his personal mission was to recreate that bagel from memory.
Among the other locations mentioned in the Times article were the San Francisco Daily Driver business, known for its wood-fired bagels, and Midnite Bagel, which started out as a pop-up inside the Tartine.
One thing Nick Beitcher, owner of Midnite Bagel, shared about his bagels is that they were not made to look like those in New York. Instead, he wants to celebrate the region by making a San Francisco bagel made from fermented yeast.
“To me, they look like a San Francisco bagel,” Beitcher told SFGATE in 2019. “They use really excellent ingredients, really excellent solid technique and attention to detail. The idea is not to imitate a New York bagel. It is trying to contribute with something a little different. “
Even without New York City water, Bay Area bagels have been a hit, as more stores and businesses produce their own variations of the cult favorite. Last year, Saul’s Restaurant and Delicatessen started offering bagels on its menu and the Daily Driver expanded with the opening of a kiosk in Hayes Valley, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. (SFGATE and San Francisco Chronicle are owned by Hearst, but operate independently of each other).