Food & Wine recently published a list of the “Best Bagels in America,” and one of our own made it to the top! Absolute Bagels, located at 2788 Broadway (between 107th and 108th Streets), was the very first to be listed.
The long-running, cash-only spot also earned an easy place on our list for its incredibly fresh, right-out-of-the-oven, hand-rolled bagels.
photo by @imma_eat_this
Food & Wine’s list included almost 50 eateries, many of which are located far from the bagel capital of the world (which would be New York).
While it’s fine to recognize bagels from “elsewhere,” the author had some pretty coarse words about the current state of our holey treats.
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Claiming the quality of our official city food has declined over the years, he cites a slew of up-and-coming bakers in other locations who’ve begun to catch up. “A funny thing happened, while New York began settling for mediocrity: a new generation of American bakers figured out just how easy it was to get into the game. Best of all, most of them have their own ideas about what a modern American bagel should look like,” writes author David Landsel.
Landsel also mentions being a native New Yorker, though he doesn’t “believe the city deserves any kind of preferred status.”
Be that as it may, he was kind enough to include these additional NYC bagel spots in his list:
- Bagel Hole in Park Slope, Brooklyn
- Bagel Oasis in Fresh Meadows, Queens
- Bergen Bagels (two locations in Brooklyn)
- Bo’s Bagels in Harlem
- Ess-A-Bagel in Midtown East
- Gertie in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
- Murray’s Bagels in Union Square
- Sadelle’s in SoHo
- Tompkins Square Bagels (two East Village locations)
- Utopia Bagels in Whitestone, Queens
And these of out-of-state bagel places using the “New York” name in some capacity … tsk tsk!
- Brooklyn Bagel Bakery (Los Angeles, California)
- New York Bagel & Bialy (Lincolnwood, Illinois)
- New York Bagels (Ferndale, Michigan)
And if you get tired of waiting in line for your bagel, just walk down to W. 100th and Broadway to Lenny’s bagels – Absolute’s lesser known cousin. Essentially the same bagels (I think the same owners, or related owners) minus the constant fresh from the oven turnover.
Jeff the bagel lover:
Lenny’s Bagels, which is at 98th street, not 100th street, are different, and smaller than those at Absolute. They are good, but not as good as those at Absolute.
I have no idea if the owners are the same, but I’d guess not.
Furthermore, at least in 2020, Lenny’s was running out of many varieties by the mid-afternoon, while Absolute wasn’t.
Anybody who puts Sadelles on the best bagel list loses all credibility.
Absolute deserves the recognition. Did anyone ever imagine a time when H&H Bagels wouldn’t make the cut? A shadow of their former self.