(To hear an audio recording of this article, click the link of the corresponding NFT at the bottom of the page.)

It was the occasion of Grant Gordon’s 40th birthday that brought me to LA for the second time in my life. A New York native like myself (Long Island to city pipeline), Grant left for the West Coast nearly a decade ago in search of women, work and weather, and in time would find all three: his dynamic musician-wife Ash Gordon; a career in commercials becoming his parents for Progressive; and an ambient temperature that, notwithstanding the hail and snow peaked mountains of the week’s visit, far outstrip the huddled shuffings of our homeland.

All this classic LA success, yet when asking Ash what my wife Jessi and I should bring from the East as birthday tribute, the response was telling: bagels, in any form, even as chips if the packing proved bulky.

Part of this request can be attributed to my recent personal history. From June 2020- June 2021 I ate a lot of bagels, 154 to be exact, all from different shops around the 5 boroughs. I then ate another 48 in September of 2021, something I would recommend no one do, even if you are trying to compose the most comprehensive bagel survey of New York City ever attempted.

The end result was EverythingIsEverything.NYC, which launched with 202 bagel reviews and still grows today as ardent fans email about one shop or another they’d like represented. Site visitors can navigate to shops with the interactive map, enjoy advanced metrics such as chew type and spread ripeness, and evaluate my personal character based on which shops I chose to bequeath awards.

The survey was couched within a larger project where Jessi and I walked 5 marathons a week for one calendar year around New York City - 7,000 miles total and a topic for another time. Suffice it to say that while marathon walking is a pointed curiosity, bagel consumption is an enduring passion, particularly to tri-state residents and all those claiming ancestry. The project quickly grew legs, earning coverage in the New York Times, NPR, the Washington Post, the Today Show with Al Roker, and perhaps my favorite, the AM tones of 1010 WINS.

*****

I had no initial intention of eating a bagel when I was in LA. I of course packed some store made bagel chips as a token offering for the birthday boy, but our travel itinerary had us in town three days prior to the party, rendering transport of the real goods pointless. Those first few days were spent casually fielding breakfast burrito recommendations and letting friends dictate dinner, until a chance encounter at The Red Lion Tavern sparked some professional curiosity within me.

Michael Gutierrez is a native Angelino and a keen observer of the local food scene. His barroom recommendation of Yang’s Kitchen in Alhambra for brunch sounded good come morning time, and the resulting meal of Japanese breakfast with Mochi pancakes had me texting my thanks mid-meal. 

As conversation naturally turned to my standard food obsession, I suddenly remembered an infamous article from exactly two years prior: “The Best Bagels Are in California” (Sorry New York)” by New York Times food critic at large Tejal Rao. The article stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy on this side of the nation, bringing out all the clickbait deriders and New York Tap Water Truthers. 

I found myself ever so slightly in the former camp, reserving any true opinion for some later time that might never materialize. It was in that moment, however, in the LA area and coming off several days of quality eating experiences, that the path toward a meaningful perspective on the topic presented itself, forcing my hand with the enthusiasm of possibility.

*****

Having now reason to push through the spin off articles and toxic bagel comment sections, I can safely say the story’s headline got us, folks.  While there are some light assertions to LA - and San Francisco’s - baking superiority, the article is largely a profile of various shops within the area. To be honest, not only do I find this outcome to be acceptable, I believe it’s very much in line with the historical tenure of bagel discourse. 

If we’re talking about which city puts the most self-worth into having the best bagels, it’s undoubtedly New York (no shade, Montreal, your psyche is assuredly healthier than ours). And when it comes to describing one’s feeling of passion, New Yorkers are a people of superlatives and smoke. My bagel shop is the best, your shop is trash, I’ve never heard a worse take and you’re embarrassing yourself right now. These four conversation shapes will play out with minor variation over the next five minutes, at which point someone will need to go back to work and it will be as if the whole exchange never happened.

It’s the fluffiness of the subject matter paired with the sense of local identity that keeps the tone both highly opinionated and totally inconsequential. The banter serves as a great chew toy for folks constantly needing to assert themselves at work, on the train, or on line for a bagel. For a city with a terminal superiority complex, unsubstantiated potshots are the capers to our lox.

*****

Using the article as a reference, I consulted with Michael on which shop would typify the LA experience. He presented a number of options, several of which were not in the article, but one stood out for both his personal experience and the persistent buzz within the city: Courage Bagels in Virgil Village.

As the original Times article states, Courage Bagels started as a farmer’s market pop-up in Silver Lake, growing in popularity until founders Arielle Skye and Chris Moss made the jump to the permanent location. Michael cautioned me that due to popularity, the line and order time could exceed one hour in total. As with any review, I tried my best to hold this information objectively, along with any other preconceived notions I observed in my thought process.

It was about a 25 minute drive from our AirBnB in Studio City to the corner lot shop. We arrived just before 12:30 PM on a Friday and the place was packed: 20-plus people on line for window ordering and full-up outdoor seating on the side street side. I let Jessi out of the car to secure a spot and went about the business of parking.

Once parked and on foot, I caught the first sign that this might be a noteworthy bagel experience. It was the aroma of bagel baking, apparent in the air over an avenue away from the store.

In the About section of EverythingIsEverything.NYC, I cover ten Bagel Axioms that summarize my experience with evaluating over 200 shops. Axiom 10 is “If you can smell bagels, you’re in the right place.” This assures the customer that the bagels are baked on site and were likely produced within a reasonable timeframe, perhaps even to the minute. It primes the taste buds and creates an expectation for the heartening experience unique to fresh bread.

In New York, maybe 10% of shops can maintain a persistent baking aroma. The smell almost never exists beyond the shop’s confines, perhaps due to the ventilation releasing floors above or into back alleys where rats hold control of the narrative.

To catch a whiff of baked goodness this far from the location was not only a potential portent of quality, but a signal on which to evaluate the whole experience. We were no longer playing by New York’s rules, and the points of comparison should be chosen judiciously.

I replaced Jessi on line and sent her back to the car. Not only had I parked in questionable street sweeping circumstances, but she also lives with the persistent autoimmune disorder Celiac disease, rendering her system incapable of consuming gluten. If ever there were a more star-crossed romance, I’d like to hear it. 

It took roughly 25 minutes until I was in position to place an order. My thoughts on this are summed up in Axiom 6 of the Ten Bagel Axioms. “While some bagels are worth waiting for, never underestimate the pleasure of a 30-second bagel transaction executed by a bagel store pro.” There were several shops in my New York survey that featured significant wait times, including my number 1 in Brooklyn, Old Brooklyn Bagel Shoppe. If I’m getting a hot bagel without toasting at the end of the transaction I will gladly wait 30 minutes, particularly if I’m arriving later in the day. That’s the bargain one strikes for being too lazy to rise early but still expecting peak freshness.

But beyond the arrival of one’s food, the management of customer flow is an essential part of the New York bagel experience. A City That Never Sleeps is a city that never stops, and bagels didn’t take the breakfast bread throne by being slow to the draw. New Yorkers want their order cheap, portable, and fast - how shops achieve the third is a matter of surprising variety. 

Is there a line or a huddling of customers? Do you receive a ticket, and is it before or after ordering? Does the order taker chaperone the preparation process, or do they transfer it off to a prep line? Do you pay up top or at order receipt? Where can I stand so I’m not in the way, oh and how much for this Black and White cookie?

It’s gotten to the point where some stores are even experimenting with electronic kiosks in the ongoing quest for peak efficiency. While I find it a touch at odds with the humanizing appeal of fresh baked bread, I have to respect the commitment to the New York hustle mindset. 

At Courage Bagels, I was warmly received at the window. I ordered two everything bagels with dill-chive cream cheese. Scallion cream cheese, which is my standard review spread, was not carried in store. The second bagel was for a friend at the AirBnB, as was an additional 6 assorted bagels plus one quarter pound tub of regular cream cheese. The sum total was an eye-opening but mathematically consistent $42 dollars, ending at $50.68 when factoring 20% tip.

As a matter of ordering experience, the payment keypad rests inside the cashier’s windowed domain, inaccessible to the customer. This means not only will the cashier ask you if you’d like to tip, but what the amount will be. While I would always tip 20% on an order of that financial scale, the sticker shock paired with the diminished agency played a flat note in the exchange. My first name and last initial were provided as tracking, thus commencing the order preparation phase. 

Now safely in the system, I took the opportunity to check out the store’s interior. With the exception of bathroom access - a rare perk for a bagel shop - the store offered little in the way of customer engagement, focusing entirely on baking and order prep. All relevant menu signage hung taped to the window adjacent to the cashier’s booth, penned cleanly in Sharpie on strips of rectangular parchment paper vertically oriented.

Taking the time to more carefully examine the offerings revealed some clear cultural distinctions from the New York menu philosophy. Most strikingly was the ability to order in “half” or “whole” format, served in open-faced fashion. It’s here that we can definitively take a sledgehammer to one pillar of the “fast, cheap and portable” NYC trilogy, with items like half a bagel with tomato on top, or the “Rip and Dip” option of an unsliced bagel and a side of butter going for six bucks a piece before tax and tip. Make no mistake, if New York shops could get away with half servings they’d likely jump at the chance, as the slight discount on price versus fully dressed sandwiches is more than made up for by the four dollar premium Courage can charge on a classic Nova bagel with the works - $17 dollars as compared to $13 on average in New York. 

Reviewing each sandwich option in turn, however, reveals a quality undeniably an afterthought to the New York formula: experimentation. Wild sardines, Alaskan salmon roe, and elaborate vegetarian compositions decorated the menu. New York contains its creativity to the spread department, where thoughtful flavors can be prepared in bulk and applied like spackle. The Courage philosophy speaks to an evolution of what the bagel could be.

If pizza bagels are distinctly bagels covered in marinara and mozzarella, Courage works at the forefront of “bagel pizzas” a craft that utilizes the bagel as an inherently unique bread type, capable of supporting advanced culinary experiences on its open face while contributing dynamic texture and flavor experiences as the diner moves from crusty shell to soft center and back again.

New York has seen this play out in its own backyard over the past several years at BagelFest, a yearly gathering of bagel makers from around the world. For two years running, the Best of Fest as judged by the crowd and the experts has gone to Pop Up Bagels of Redding, Connecticut, along with runner-up honors going to New Haven’s Bagelry at Olmo Kitchen. Both featured daring contest submissions such as chili crunch butter with trout roe and stracciatella with heirloom tomato spread, respectively. To my estimation, this is less about anything the New York bagel establishment is doing or not doing, and more to do with the public’s growing appetite for complex experience when consuming bagels in a considered, non-rushed context. The days of artisan bagel spots in the pizza vein of Roberta’s or Pizzana may be fast upon us.

*****

As my order wait continued, I turned the corner to observe the dining side of the street. About 10 tables took up the sidewalk’s shoulder, with half as many umbrellas positioned to shade the majority. The place was packed at 1 PM on a Friday, just one hour before closing. As indicated by the menu, the bagels were served in open-faced fashion, housed inside special, recyclable containers that only just fit the order depending on the unique bake shape. Here we can stress test another signature aspect of the New York bagel experience, the aforementioned portability. 

The number of times I’ve run into a bagel shop to order four to six custom bagels before heading to Bear Mountain or Rockaway Beach cannot be counted. You can throw them in a cooler or backpack for later, or eat them on the spot without hassle. Even the driver can get in on the action if their hangover needs immediate attention.

The open-faced bagel experience does not lend itself to adventure, despite the smart packaging. What it does offer is a quantum leap in social media presentation, something that’s debatably held back the entire culinary medium when compared to its saucy cousin, the pizza.

Take nearly any successful New York bagel shop and go to their Instagram page. The completed product is invariably photographed in one pose: cut in half vertically and folded on top of itself, creating a visual core sample of melded, gloppy decadence. See 3 or 4 of these photos in sequence and it’s clear that while the form registers high in appetite stimulation, it ranks low in aesthetics.

Contrast this with the open-faced stylings of the Courage Bagels Instagram, where even the half eaten products are appreciably more visually compelling and, stranger yet, somehow more appetizing. Served in this fashion, the entire art of plating is unlocked for the bagel. Vertically stacked bagel photos are a sumptuous curiosity; open-faced bagel photos, fully dressed with fresh ingredients, are an explosion of colors, shapes, smells and flavors. 

Obviously this matters on the business side, where shop owners can rep a great product and expect a certain percentage of customers to do the same at no cost to them. But in these contemporary times, it cannot be undersold how much aesthetics matters to the average consumer. Setting aside the standard impact of a well-plated meal on the immediate dining experience, the self-expression involved in curating a photograph is a real moment of creation for many. Should they choose to share it on social media, a whole new tier of dialogue about how they spent their Friday afternoon is available to them, from local friends comparing experiences to relatives across the country spamming drool emojis and everything in between. 

When every modern moment contains the potential for expression and connection, a product’s ability to inspire dialogue cannot be discounted, particularly in a genre as intimate and immediate as warm, baked bread.

*****

All these thoughts had ample time to percolate in the forty minutes between when I placed my order and when I received it. Forty minutes for two everything bagels with cream cheese and 6 assorted bagels with a small tub of spread. That’s on top of the 25 minute line.

But when I took that bag of bagels from the cashier, they were hot - like 6-AM-on-a Sunday-morning hot. Whether they were waiting to provide me the freshest bagels, were out of bagels and stalled in general, or prioritizing tickets exclusively in the order they were taken was unclear to me. 

What was clear as I walked past the line of sidewalk brunchers was a fundamental, philosophical difference between New York and Los Angeles dining, not contained to bagels alone but broadly apparent throughout culinary experience.

One of the precepts of a life lived in Los Angeles, learned through limited experience and gleaned through countless conversations, is that it takes thirty minutes to get anywhere in the city. This truism may have spawned from the line “Everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes” from the 1995 classic Clueless, made 50% longer due to traffic inflation. What’s implied in this statement is that you’ll be traveling to and from your destination by personal transport, most likely a car you’ll have to park at either end of the journey.

The need to exercise agency in one’s transportation cannot be understated when comparing the New York to Los Angeles experience. LA’s active attention required in transit and logistical considerations from first departure to home base far outstrip the mental bandwidth required to navigate New York’s public transit, particularly once the basics are learned. This is setting aside such considerations as unexpected traffic or drinking with your meal.

All this is to say that eating excursions in LA can rightly be treated as an event, or even an adventure depending on your familiarity with the part of town or style of cuisine. You spent a lot of hard earned mental capital to get to your destination, so what’s the hurry to get back in the car? And the prospect of having to brave the roads again when the check finally comes may leave you disinclined to continue your outing with friends at a second location.

New York’s diversity of obligation-free transit options creates more space for the dining portion of any outing to be a sidecar component or even an afterthought. When most any experience is a walk from your meal and travel is solved in an instant, the adventure of that day has the potential to multiply - or blur.

If I were ever to suggest to a friend that we go get bagels for brunch, they’d probably be concerned I was terminally ill. Not because I wanted to speak with them alone, but because the concept of sitting down for a long bagel meal with a friend in New York City is the type of judgment impaired suggestion that might come with experimental pain relievers. Not only are New York bagels fast food, but most stores aren’t equipped for any dining experience beyond a seed-covered metal table top you hover over while other patrons wait half-patiently for you to finish. An afternoon of bagels, park benches and a museum is a much more New York appropriate way to tell someone you’re dying.

Seeing now the possibilities of bagel brunch before me, cast on the sidewalks of Courage, I understood for the first time the context in which it made sense. A destination location in a town where the bagel is of some novelty. Ample seating space for you and your friends. A bent toward experimentation with an eye for aesthetics. And finally, an expectation that the food will come slowly, opening the door for conversation and savoring.

That, and the bagel should be good.

*****

I got in the rental car driver’s seat and updated Jessi on the state of affairs. We were past our planned return to the AirBnB but the task couldn’t wait the distance. Any bagel served hot at 1:30 PM deserves immediate attention.

The order came in a brown parchment bag sized distinctly for the purpose, an uncommon choice. What’s gained in novelty and ease of prep is lost in potential topping reuse, excess cream cheese management and general eating surface area - all hallmarks of New York portability. My name and order were written on the bag’s exterior in Sharpie “Mike V. - ET w/ dill CC.” 

I placed the bagel on the bag’s exterior and snapped a photo as a matter of process. Thus captured as a whole, I began to examine its properties.

As already established, the bagel was hot - hot enough to feel it through the parchment on my lap. This, combined with the overall browned nature of the shell and toppings, gave me a momentary concern that the bagel had been toasted without my request. For as to why this would be a concern, I refer you to Bagel Axioms 1 & 2: “Do not toast a bagel if you know it is hot or fresh // Toasting raises the floor of a bagel but lowers the ceiling.” The principle virtue of boiling a bagel is that it creates a gelatinous outer shell that keeps moisture inside the dough during baking. This is a marked contrast from most bread making methods, which seek to remove moisture from the dough. By toasting a fresh bagel, you’re not only neutralizing any crackly, toasty qualities the shell might naturally have, you’re eliminating any pillowy soft goodness contained within. 

Given that the six assorted bagels were equally hot through the bag, I drew the conclusion that they were all fresh from the oven. The toasty brown complexion was likely attributed to the fact that Courage describes its offerings as “Montreal / California inspired.” I could find no further elaboration online, but at this stage in the examination I surmised it meant the use of wood-fired ovens in the baking process, which lends an overall smoky char to the shell. Where it seemed to deviate from the Montreal tradition was the general bagel proportions. Whereas Montreal bagels trend small in ring thickness with large central holes, the examples purchased were larger overall and possessed no consistency to hole shape. 

Cream cheese filled the moderately-sized central hole, indicating generous application overall. Rogue topping flecks clung to the sticky surface. What wasn’t visually present was dill, or chives, or any vegetal complement to the spread. I would later learn back at the AirBnB that one spread order of the two was filled correctly and it wasn’t mine. In such instances of misfilled orders, I judge the provided cream cheese on its own merits and pass the review impact on to the Store category.

On the seasoning side, the exterior shell was visually consistent with a standard everything bagel blend: sesame and poppy seeds with garlic and onion flakes. While no distinct salt grains were present in the mixture, the overall sheen and texture of the shell suggested it was present pre-bake and dissolved in the creation process. The overall seasoning density was high and covered both sides thoroughly.

As I prepared for my first bite, I realized the commitment to the open-faced lifestyle. There was no vertical cut to create true sandwich halves, only the horizontal slice necessary to apply spread. Perhaps this wholistic approach was an indicator of the California influence. 

The moment of truth had arrived. I took a bite, closed my eyes and waited for thoughts or sensation.

It was good. Then it was very good.

Then it veered into uniqueness.

What emerged immediately was a crusty flakiness to the shell unlike any of the 200-plus bagels I’ve reviewed in New York, or experienced on trips to Montreal. It was much closer to wood-fired, artisanal pizza crust in nature, yet it protected and catalyzed an airy trove of fluffy dough that simply cannot exist within the context of pizza. Were I to will it by hand or by bite, I could easily cleave shell pieces the size of small coins off the bagel’s exterior, so fine was the distinction between outer and inner experience.

The seasoning array did everything it needed to do and more. The extra toastiness of the toppings is a quality found in just a handful of New York shops, and served to activate the onion and garlic in particular. The lack of salt grains meant there were no overt displays of saltiness, and while such punctuated bursts are often a pleasure of the Everything bagel experience, it did not play here as an omission.

The spread buttressed the dialogue beautifully, bringing a lithe tanginess that trended dairy forward, assuaging the charred seasoning’s finer spikes. Radiant bagel heat activated the cream cheese in a manner that’s not only unique to the medium but specific to fresh bagels versus toasted bagels. Whether it fortune or design, the resulting spread viscosity strode a line that was both fluid yet peaked, fostering a wholly manageable bite-to-bite experience absolutely essential given how the order was received: without the safety net of wax paper wrappings to capture gooey spread were it warmed just slightly higher. I didn’t even need a napkin.

I returned from the review trance that Jessi is all too familiar with and communicated my findings as best I could. There was much to cover, more than usual, and I filled several notebook pages with thought fragments. The synergies multiplied on the drive back, and cascaded on reunion with the rest of our party as I related firsthand the froth of pre-distilled thoughts. We split the still-warm assorted bagels, then turned all focus to the birthday celebration at hand. It was clear there’d be work to do back at home.

*****

So you may be wondering where I come down on the final verdict in New York vs. Los Angeles bagels. Despite my earlier assertion that New York is the city that decisively owns bagels as part of its identity, I do not hold the common opinion that any bagel outside the tristate area is trash. Having an ownership group that knows what a good bagel experience is goes way farther than any tap water PH balance or five borough lineage.

The sheer volume of bagel shops in NY as compared to LA trivializes the question somewhat, as even if the top 10 shops in LA stood square or edged out New York’s top 10, shops 11-50 would go decisively to New York, while shops 51-100 would be a match-up of #1 stores anywhere else in the country versus grocery store bagels.

What seems indisputable, however, is the inherent possibilities of the medium, paired with culinary skill and less market saturation, has led to the emergence of distinctly West Coast bagel pillars beyond the orbit of direct comparison. If New York bagels are fast, cheap and portable, LA bagels are slow, good and grammable.

Slow not from process but through customer tolerance. Good before cheap due to lack of competition. And grammable before portable to close the loop of contemporary consumption.

As trivial as it may seem, it’s that last pillar that could take bagels from bicoastal breakfast food to countrywide brunch staple over the next twenty years, spreading from college town to college town like so many breweries, each showcasing eclectic examples of regional cuisine beautifully plated on God’s gift to carbs.

Naturally, New Yorkers will hate it. And don’t think for a second they won’t let you know it.

*****

Final Score: Courage Bagels

Store: 3.25 / 5 (Add 1 point for LA sensibilities)

Bagel: 4.75 / 5

Cream Cheese: 4.5 / 5

Total

4.16 / 5 (New York sensibilities)

4.5 / 5 (LA sensibilities)

https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xc6b17e05d78228bc38ee100a99e7f2ca348ad2f8/2

(To hear an audio recording of this article, click the link of the corresponding NFT at the bottom of the page.)

It was the occasion of Grant Gordon’s 40th birthday that brought me to LA for the second time in my life. A New York native like myself (Long Island to city pipeline), Grant left for the West Coast nearly a decade ago in search of women, work and weather, and in time would find all three: his dynamic musician-wife Ash Gordon; a career in commercials becoming his parents for Progressive; and an ambient temperature that, notwithstanding the hail and snow peaked mountains of the week’s visit, far outstrip the huddled shuffings of our homeland.

All this classic LA success, yet when asking Ash what my wife Jessi and I should bring from the East as birthday tribute, the response was telling: bagels, in any form, even as chips if the packing proved bulky.

Part of this request can be attributed to my recent personal history. From June 2020- June 2021 I ate a lot of bagels, 154 to be exact, all from different shops around the 5 boroughs. I then ate another 48 in September of 2021, something I would recommend no one do, even if you are trying to compose the most comprehensive bagel survey of New York City ever attempted.

The end result was EverythingIsEverything.NYC, which launched with 202 bagel reviews and still grows today as ardent fans email about one shop or another they’d like represented. Site visitors can navigate to shops with the interactive map, enjoy advanced metrics such as chew type and spread ripeness, and evaluate my personal character based on which shops I chose to bequeath awards.

The survey was couched within a larger project where Jessi and I walked 5 marathons a week for one calendar year around New York City - 7,000 miles total and a topic for another time. Suffice it to say that while marathon walking is a pointed curiosity, bagel consumption is an enduring passion, particularly to tri-state residents and all those claiming ancestry. The project quickly grew legs, earning coverage in the New York Times, NPR, the Washington Post, the Today Show with Al Roker, and perhaps my favorite, the AM tones of 1010 WINS.

*****

I had no initial intention of eating a bagel when I was in LA. I of course packed some store made bagel chips as a token offering for the birthday boy, but our travel itinerary had us in town three days prior to the party, rendering transport of the real goods pointless. Those first few days were spent casually fielding breakfast burrito recommendations and letting friends dictate dinner, until a chance encounter at The Red Lion Tavern sparked some professional curiosity within me.

Michael Gutierrez is a native Angelino and a keen observer of the local food scene. His barroom recommendation of Yang’s Kitchen in Alhambra for brunch sounded good come morning time, and the resulting meal of Japanese breakfast with Mochi pancakes had me texting my thanks mid-meal. 

As conversation naturally turned to my standard food obsession, I suddenly remembered an infamous article from exactly two years prior: “The Best Bagels Are in California” (Sorry New York)” by New York Times food critic at large Tejal Rao. The article stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy on this side of the nation, bringing out all the clickbait deriders and New York Tap Water Truthers. 

I found myself ever so slightly in the former camp, reserving any true opinion for some later time that might never materialize. It was in that moment, however, in the LA area and coming off several days of quality eating experiences, that the path toward a meaningful perspective on the topic presented itself, forcing my hand with the enthusiasm of possibility.

*****

Having now reason to push through the spin off articles and toxic bagel comment sections, I can safely say the story’s headline got us, folks.  While there are some light assertions to LA - and San Francisco’s - baking superiority, the article is largely a profile of various shops within the area. To be honest, not only do I find this outcome to be acceptable, I believe it’s very much in line with the historical tenure of bagel discourse. 

If we’re talking about which city puts the most self-worth into having the best bagels, it’s undoubtedly New York (no shade, Montreal, your psyche is assuredly healthier than ours). And when it comes to describing one’s feeling of passion, New Yorkers are a people of superlatives and smoke. My bagel shop is the best, your shop is trash, I’ve never heard a worse take and you’re embarrassing yourself right now. These four conversation shapes will play out with minor variation over the next five minutes, at which point someone will need to go back to work and it will be as if the whole exchange never happened.

It’s the fluffiness of the subject matter paired with the sense of local identity that keeps the tone both highly opinionated and totally inconsequential. The banter serves as a great chew toy for folks constantly needing to assert themselves at work, on the train, or on line for a bagel. For a city with a terminal superiority complex, unsubstantiated potshots are the capers to our lox.

*****

Using the article as a reference, I consulted with Michael on which shop would typify the LA experience. He presented a number of options, several of which were not in the article, but one stood out for both his personal experience and the persistent buzz within the city: Courage Bagels in Virgil Village.

As the original Times article states, Courage Bagels started as a farmer’s market pop-up in Silver Lake, growing in popularity until founders Arielle Skye and Chris Moss made the jump to the permanent location. Michael cautioned me that due to popularity, the line and order time could exceed one hour in total. As with any review, I tried my best to hold this information objectively, along with any other preconceived notions I observed in my thought process.

It was about a 25 minute drive from our AirBnB in Studio City to the corner lot shop. We arrived just before 12:30 PM on a Friday and the place was packed: 20-plus people on line for window ordering and full-up outdoor seating on the side street side. I let Jessi out of the car to secure a spot and went about the business of parking.

Once parked and on foot, I caught the first sign that this might be a noteworthy bagel experience. It was the aroma of bagel baking, apparent in the air over an avenue away from the store.

In the About section of EverythingIsEverything.NYC, I cover ten Bagel Axioms that summarize my experience with evaluating over 200 shops. Axiom 10 is “If you can smell bagels, you’re in the right place.” This assures the customer that the bagels are baked on site and were likely produced within a reasonable timeframe, perhaps even to the minute. It primes the taste buds and creates an expectation for the heartening experience unique to fresh bread.

In New York, maybe 10% of shops can maintain a persistent baking aroma. The smell almost never exists beyond the shop’s confines, perhaps due to the ventilation releasing floors above or into back alleys where rats hold control of the narrative.

To catch a whiff of baked goodness this far from the location was not only a potential portent of quality, but a signal on which to evaluate the whole experience. We were no longer playing by New York’s rules, and the points of comparison should be chosen judiciously.

I replaced Jessi on line and sent her back to the car. Not only had I parked in questionable street sweeping circumstances, but she also lives with the persistent autoimmune disorder Celiac disease, rendering her system incapable of consuming gluten. If ever there were a more star-crossed romance, I’d like to hear it. 

It took roughly 25 minutes until I was in position to place an order. My thoughts on this are summed up in Axiom 6 of the Ten Bagel Axioms. “While some bagels are worth waiting for, never underestimate the pleasure of a 30-second bagel transaction executed by a bagel store pro.” There were several shops in my New York survey that featured significant wait times, including my number 1 in Brooklyn, Old Brooklyn Bagel Shoppe. If I’m getting a hot bagel without toasting at the end of the transaction I will gladly wait 30 minutes, particularly if I’m arriving later in the day. That’s the bargain one strikes for being too lazy to rise early but still expecting peak freshness.

But beyond the arrival of one’s food, the management of customer flow is an essential part of the New York bagel experience. A City That Never Sleeps is a city that never stops, and bagels didn’t take the breakfast bread throne by being slow to the draw. New Yorkers want their order cheap, portable, and fast - how shops achieve the third is a matter of surprising variety. 

Is there a line or a huddling of customers? Do you receive a ticket, and is it before or after ordering? Does the order taker chaperone the preparation process, or do they transfer it off to a prep line? Do you pay up top or at order receipt? Where can I stand so I’m not in the way, oh and how much for this Black and White cookie?

It’s gotten to the point where some stores are even experimenting with electronic kiosks in the ongoing quest for peak efficiency. While I find it a touch at odds with the humanizing appeal of fresh baked bread, I have to respect the commitment to the New York hustle mindset. 

At Courage Bagels, I was warmly received at the window. I ordered two everything bagels with dill-chive cream cheese. Scallion cream cheese, which is my standard review spread, was not carried in store. The second bagel was for a friend at the AirBnB, as was an additional 6 assorted bagels plus one quarter pound tub of regular cream cheese. The sum total was an eye-opening but mathematically consistent $42 dollars, ending at $50.68 when factoring 20% tip.

As a matter of ordering experience, the payment keypad rests inside the cashier’s windowed domain, inaccessible to the customer. This means not only will the cashier ask you if you’d like to tip, but what the amount will be. While I would always tip 20% on an order of that financial scale, the sticker shock paired with the diminished agency played a flat note in the exchange. My first name and last initial were provided as tracking, thus commencing the order preparation phase. 

Now safely in the system, I took the opportunity to check out the store’s interior. With the exception of bathroom access - a rare perk for a bagel shop - the store offered little in the way of customer engagement, focusing entirely on baking and order prep. All relevant menu signage hung taped to the window adjacent to the cashier’s booth, penned cleanly in Sharpie on strips of rectangular parchment paper vertically oriented.

Taking the time to more carefully examine the offerings revealed some clear cultural distinctions from the New York menu philosophy. Most strikingly was the ability to order in “half” or “whole” format, served in open-faced fashion. It’s here that we can definitively take a sledgehammer to one pillar of the “fast, cheap and portable” NYC trilogy, with items like half a bagel with tomato on top, or the “Rip and Dip” option of an unsliced bagel and a side of butter going for six bucks a piece before tax and tip. Make no mistake, if New York shops could get away with half servings they’d likely jump at the chance, as the slight discount on price versus fully dressed sandwiches is more than made up for by the four dollar premium Courage can charge on a classic Nova bagel with the works - $17 dollars as compared to $13 on average in New York. 

Reviewing each sandwich option in turn, however, reveals a quality undeniably an afterthought to the New York formula: experimentation. Wild sardines, Alaskan salmon roe, and elaborate vegetarian compositions decorated the menu. New York contains its creativity to the spread department, where thoughtful flavors can be prepared in bulk and applied like spackle. The Courage philosophy speaks to an evolution of what the bagel could be.

If pizza bagels are distinctly bagels covered in marinara and mozzarella, Courage works at the forefront of “bagel pizzas” a craft that utilizes the bagel as an inherently unique bread type, capable of supporting advanced culinary experiences on its open face while contributing dynamic texture and flavor experiences as the diner moves from crusty shell to soft center and back again.

New York has seen this play out in its own backyard over the past several years at BagelFest, a yearly gathering of bagel makers from around the world. For two years running, the Best of Fest as judged by the crowd and the experts has gone to Pop Up Bagels of Redding, Connecticut, along with runner-up honors going to New Haven’s Bagelry at Olmo Kitchen. Both featured daring contest submissions such as chili crunch butter with trout roe and stracciatella with heirloom tomato spread, respectively. To my estimation, this is less about anything the New York bagel establishment is doing or not doing, and more to do with the public’s growing appetite for complex experience when consuming bagels in a considered, non-rushed context. The days of artisan bagel spots in the pizza vein of Roberta’s or Pizzana may be fast upon us.

*****

As my order wait continued, I turned the corner to observe the dining side of the street. About 10 tables took up the sidewalk’s shoulder, with half as many umbrellas positioned to shade the majority. The place was packed at 1 PM on a Friday, just one hour before closing. As indicated by the menu, the bagels were served in open-faced fashion, housed inside special, recyclable containers that only just fit the order depending on the unique bake shape. Here we can stress test another signature aspect of the New York bagel experience, the aforementioned portability. 

The number of times I’ve run into a bagel shop to order four to six custom bagels before heading to Bear Mountain or Rockaway Beach cannot be counted. You can throw them in a cooler or backpack for later, or eat them on the spot without hassle. Even the driver can get in on the action if their hangover needs immediate attention.

The open-faced bagel experience does not lend itself to adventure, despite the smart packaging. What it does offer is a quantum leap in social media presentation, something that’s debatably held back the entire culinary medium when compared to its saucy cousin, the pizza.

Take nearly any successful New York bagel shop and go to their Instagram page. The completed product is invariably photographed in one pose: cut in half vertically and folded on top of itself, creating a visual core sample of melded, gloppy decadence. See 3 or 4 of these photos in sequence and it’s clear that while the form registers high in appetite stimulation, it ranks low in aesthetics.

Contrast this with the open-faced stylings of the Courage Bagels Instagram, where even the half eaten products are appreciably more visually compelling and, stranger yet, somehow more appetizing. Served in this fashion, the entire art of plating is unlocked for the bagel. Vertically stacked bagel photos are a sumptuous curiosity; open-faced bagel photos, fully dressed with fresh ingredients, are an explosion of colors, shapes, smells and flavors. 

Obviously this matters on the business side, where shop owners can rep a great product and expect a certain percentage of customers to do the same at no cost to them. But in these contemporary times, it cannot be undersold how much aesthetics matters to the average consumer. Setting aside the standard impact of a well-plated meal on the immediate dining experience, the self-expression involved in curating a photograph is a real moment of creation for many. Should they choose to share it on social media, a whole new tier of dialogue about how they spent their Friday afternoon is available to them, from local friends comparing experiences to relatives across the country spamming drool emojis and everything in between. 

When every modern moment contains the potential for expression and connection, a product’s ability to inspire dialogue cannot be discounted, particularly in a genre as intimate and immediate as warm, baked bread.

*****

All these thoughts had ample time to percolate in the forty minutes between when I placed my order and when I received it. Forty minutes for two everything bagels with cream cheese and 6 assorted bagels with a small tub of spread. That’s on top of the 25 minute line.

But when I took that bag of bagels from the cashier, they were hot - like 6-AM-on-a Sunday-morning hot. Whether they were waiting to provide me the freshest bagels, were out of bagels and stalled in general, or prioritizing tickets exclusively in the order they were taken was unclear to me. 

What was clear as I walked past the line of sidewalk brunchers was a fundamental, philosophical difference between New York and Los Angeles dining, not contained to bagels alone but broadly apparent throughout culinary experience.

One of the precepts of a life lived in Los Angeles, learned through limited experience and gleaned through countless conversations, is that it takes thirty minutes to get anywhere in the city. This truism may have spawned from the line “Everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes” from the 1995 classic Clueless, made 50% longer due to traffic inflation. What’s implied in this statement is that you’ll be traveling to and from your destination by personal transport, most likely a car you’ll have to park at either end of the journey.

The need to exercise agency in one’s transportation cannot be understated when comparing the New York to Los Angeles experience. LA’s active attention required in transit and logistical considerations from first departure to home base far outstrip the mental bandwidth required to navigate New York’s public transit, particularly once the basics are learned. This is setting aside such considerations as unexpected traffic or drinking with your meal.

All this is to say that eating excursions in LA can rightly be treated as an event, or even an adventure depending on your familiarity with the part of town or style of cuisine. You spent a lot of hard earned mental capital to get to your destination, so what’s the hurry to get back in the car? And the prospect of having to brave the roads again when the check finally comes may leave you disinclined to continue your outing with friends at a second location.

New York’s diversity of obligation-free transit options creates more space for the dining portion of any outing to be a sidecar component or even an afterthought. When most any experience is a walk from your meal and travel is solved in an instant, the adventure of that day has the potential to multiply - or blur.

If I were ever to suggest to a friend that we go get bagels for brunch, they’d probably be concerned I was terminally ill. Not because I wanted to speak with them alone, but because the concept of sitting down for a long bagel meal with a friend in New York City is the type of judgment impaired suggestion that might come with experimental pain relievers. Not only are New York bagels fast food, but most stores aren’t equipped for any dining experience beyond a seed-covered metal table top you hover over while other patrons wait half-patiently for you to finish. An afternoon of bagels, park benches and a museum is a much more New York appropriate way to tell someone you’re dying.

Seeing now the possibilities of bagel brunch before me, cast on the sidewalks of Courage, I understood for the first time the context in which it made sense. A destination location in a town where the bagel is of some novelty. Ample seating space for you and your friends. A bent toward experimentation with an eye for aesthetics. And finally, an expectation that the food will come slowly, opening the door for conversation and savoring.

That, and the bagel should be good.

*****

I got in the rental car driver’s seat and updated Jessi on the state of affairs. We were past our planned return to the AirBnB but the task couldn’t wait the distance. Any bagel served hot at 1:30 PM deserves immediate attention.

The order came in a brown parchment bag sized distinctly for the purpose, an uncommon choice. What’s gained in novelty and ease of prep is lost in potential topping reuse, excess cream cheese management and general eating surface area - all hallmarks of New York portability. My name and order were written on the bag’s exterior in Sharpie “Mike V. - ET w/ dill CC.” 

I placed the bagel on the bag’s exterior and snapped a photo as a matter of process. Thus captured as a whole, I began to examine its properties.

As already established, the bagel was hot - hot enough to feel it through the parchment on my lap. This, combined with the overall browned nature of the shell and toppings, gave me a momentary concern that the bagel had been toasted without my request. For as to why this would be a concern, I refer you to Bagel Axioms 1 & 2: “Do not toast a bagel if you know it is hot or fresh // Toasting raises the floor of a bagel but lowers the ceiling.” The principle virtue of boiling a bagel is that it creates a gelatinous outer shell that keeps moisture inside the dough during baking. This is a marked contrast from most bread making methods, which seek to remove moisture from the dough. By toasting a fresh bagel, you’re not only neutralizing any crackly, toasty qualities the shell might naturally have, you’re eliminating any pillowy soft goodness contained within. 

Given that the six assorted bagels were equally hot through the bag, I drew the conclusion that they were all fresh from the oven. The toasty brown complexion was likely attributed to the fact that Courage describes its offerings as “Montreal / California inspired.” I could find no further elaboration online, but at this stage in the examination I surmised it meant the use of wood-fired ovens in the baking process, which lends an overall smoky char to the shell. Where it seemed to deviate from the Montreal tradition was the general bagel proportions. Whereas Montreal bagels trend small in ring thickness with large central holes, the examples purchased were larger overall and possessed no consistency to hole shape. 

Cream cheese filled the moderately-sized central hole, indicating generous application overall. Rogue topping flecks clung to the sticky surface. What wasn’t visually present was dill, or chives, or any vegetal complement to the spread. I would later learn back at the AirBnB that one spread order of the two was filled correctly and it wasn’t mine. In such instances of misfilled orders, I judge the provided cream cheese on its own merits and pass the review impact on to the Store category.

On the seasoning side, the exterior shell was visually consistent with a standard everything bagel blend: sesame and poppy seeds with garlic and onion flakes. While no distinct salt grains were present in the mixture, the overall sheen and texture of the shell suggested it was present pre-bake and dissolved in the creation process. The overall seasoning density was high and covered both sides thoroughly.

As I prepared for my first bite, I realized the commitment to the open-faced lifestyle. There was no vertical cut to create true sandwich halves, only the horizontal slice necessary to apply spread. Perhaps this wholistic approach was an indicator of the California influence. 

The moment of truth had arrived. I took a bite, closed my eyes and waited for thoughts or sensation.

It was good. Then it was very good.

Then it veered into uniqueness.

What emerged immediately was a crusty flakiness to the shell unlike any of the 200-plus bagels I’ve reviewed in New York, or experienced on trips to Montreal. It was much closer to wood-fired, artisanal pizza crust in nature, yet it protected and catalyzed an airy trove of fluffy dough that simply cannot exist within the context of pizza. Were I to will it by hand or by bite, I could easily cleave shell pieces the size of small coins off the bagel’s exterior, so fine was the distinction between outer and inner experience.

The seasoning array did everything it needed to do and more. The extra toastiness of the toppings is a quality found in just a handful of New York shops, and served to activate the onion and garlic in particular. The lack of salt grains meant there were no overt displays of saltiness, and while such punctuated bursts are often a pleasure of the Everything bagel experience, it did not play here as an omission.

The spread buttressed the dialogue beautifully, bringing a lithe tanginess that trended dairy forward, assuaging the charred seasoning’s finer spikes. Radiant bagel heat activated the cream cheese in a manner that’s not only unique to the medium but specific to fresh bagels versus toasted bagels. Whether it fortune or design, the resulting spread viscosity strode a line that was both fluid yet peaked, fostering a wholly manageable bite-to-bite experience absolutely essential given how the order was received: without the safety net of wax paper wrappings to capture gooey spread were it warmed just slightly higher. I didn’t even need a napkin.

I returned from the review trance that Jessi is all too familiar with and communicated my findings as best I could. There was much to cover, more than usual, and I filled several notebook pages with thought fragments. The synergies multiplied on the drive back, and cascaded on reunion with the rest of our party as I related firsthand the froth of pre-distilled thoughts. We split the still-warm assorted bagels, then turned all focus to the birthday celebration at hand. It was clear there’d be work to do back at home.

*****

So you may be wondering where I come down on the final verdict in New York vs. Los Angeles bagels. Despite my earlier assertion that New York is the city that decisively owns bagels as part of its identity, I do not hold the common opinion that any bagel outside the tristate area is trash. Having an ownership group that knows what a good bagel experience is goes way farther than any tap water PH balance or five borough lineage.

The sheer volume of bagel shops in NY as compared to LA trivializes the question somewhat, as even if the top 10 shops in LA stood square or edged out New York’s top 10, shops 11-50 would go decisively to New York, while shops 51-100 would be a match-up of #1 stores anywhere else in the country versus grocery store bagels.

What seems indisputable, however, is the inherent possibilities of the medium, paired with culinary skill and less market saturation, has led to the emergence of distinctly West Coast bagel pillars beyond the orbit of direct comparison. If New York bagels are fast, cheap and portable, LA bagels are slow, good and grammable.

Slow not from process but through customer tolerance. Good before cheap due to lack of competition. And grammable before portable to close the loop of contemporary consumption.

As trivial as it may seem, it’s that last pillar that could take bagels from bicoastal breakfast food to countrywide brunch staple over the next twenty years, spreading from college town to college town like so many breweries, each showcasing eclectic examples of regional cuisine beautifully plated on God’s gift to carbs.

Naturally, New Yorkers will hate it. And don’t think for a second they won’t let you know it.

*****

Final Score: Courage Bagels

Store: 3.25 / 5 (Add 1 point for LA sensibilities)

Bagel: 4.75 / 5

Cream Cheese: 4.5 / 5

Total

4.16 / 5 (New York sensibilities)

4.5 / 5 (LA sensibilities)

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