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What Bagel Crisis?

If you can’t find a good one, you’re in the wrong town

by
Marc Tracy
November 11, 2011
An Ess-a-Bagel bagel.(angela n/Flickr)
An Ess-a-Bagel bagel.(angela n/Flickr)

The New York Post reports on the “Great Bagel Crisis” afflicting New York City in the wake of H&H’s shutdown (not that H&H’s bagels were actually particularly good, but, well, never mind). Apparently, Zabar’s has found a new bagel supplier, but it won’t name names: if anyone knows who this is, please leave it in the comments or email me (I once heard that Zabar’s used to get its bagels from the tragically defunct Columbia Bagels, which closed in 2004). The article notes there are still places where you can get a good nosh, including Absolute and Ess-a-Bagel. Interestingly, the most “authentic” bagel in the city, in terms of fealty to what they made in Poland a century ago, can be found at the Park Slope, Brooklyn, establishment Bagel Hole, whose proprietor is an Italian guy.

Or, you could just go to a city with better bagels. Reports the Post: “Jewish-food authority [and Tablet Magazine food columnist] Joan Nathan (an H&H fan) thinks bagels are better in her current hometown of Bethesda, Md., than in New York. ‘We have very good bagels—we don’t have a crisis,’ she says.”

That was my H&H, suckers.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.