Borough Vegetarian

Brooklyn Bagel - Oddly Enough, a Queens-Based Mini-Chain

Brooklyn Bagel has become a hot bagel store, with three locations in Astoria, Queens and one Manhattan location in Chelsea.  I've sampled Brooklyn Bagels two or three times (the Broadway location in Astoria), and while it doesn't quite rival Brooklyn and the city's best - the Bagel Hole - it is a great bagel option.

The cream cheeses are wonderfully light and they have unique flavors that they rotate weekly.  The bagels also have that nice crunchy exterior.

The only slight critiques I have about these bagels are that they are a little too large for my taste and the interiors are more fluffy than chewy.  In addition, I don't know why I ordered a whole wheat everything bagel the last time (the bagel pictured throughout this post), which was a little too dry for my taste as well.  But despite these minor concerns, Brooklyn Bagel is absolutely worth is a trip!

Brooklyn Bagel

35-05 Broadway, 36-14 30th Avenue, and 35-9 Ditmars Blvd. in Astoria, Queens

286 8th Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan

All of the Astoria locations are 4-5 blocks from stops along the N/Q line, and the Chelsea location is closest to the C/E trains at 23rd Street.

Black Seed Bagels - Delicious Downtown Bagels

Bagels and pizza - two staples that make living in New York City a daily (well, weekly or monthly if we are following current health conventions) delight.  My latest search for amazing bagels took me to Black Seed Bagels, a hip Montreal-inspired bagel spot on Elizabeth, between Kenmare and Spring.  

I was slightly wary of the attention that Black Seed has garnered, but they definitely served up some delicious bagels that reached the sweet spot of a hard/crisp exterior and soft interior.  The vegetable cream cheese was also pretty good, and my understanding is that the sandwiches they make (which I haven't tried) are quite good as well.  I also like the smaller size bagels, which still give you more than enough food.

While Black Seed has not displaced my ultimate bagel favorite, the Bagel Hole, it is definitely up there and a lot more accessible than Park Slope!

Black Seed Bagels

170 Elizabeth Street

Nolita, Manhattan

Easily accessible from several train lines, including the B/D at Grand St., J/Z at Bowery, 6 at Spring, or the F at 2nd Avenue or Delancey St.

Behold - The Bagel Hole Bagel!

I love bagels.  All kinds of bagels.  Grocery store bagels, frozen bagels, bagels that are functionally thick bread.  Well, I don’t like sweet bagels.  But all savory bagels are winners in my book.

As such, it’s a huge problem to live in New York, where bagels are not only plentiful, but decent-to-excellent bagels also abound.  Ever since I moved to New York, I have been on a bagel expedition throughout the boroughs.

The great thing is that I haven’t yet exhausted all of the “good” bagel places that you read/hear about AND I have already found very tasty bagels from Utopia Bagels in eastern Queens to Terrace Bagels in central Brooklyn.

My favorite bagel place to date is indisputably the Bagel Hole in Park Slope (I’m sorry my other bagel friends).  The Bagel Hole bagel is shockingly good - such that I would regularly also buy the bags of 6 day-old bagels for my freezer when I’d pop in for fresh bagels during a weekend (granted, I did say I will eat ANY bagel, but these day-old ones are still SO good). 

The Bagel Hole bagel is great because it is decently sized (i.e., not insanely huge), has a crisp/firm exterior, and the interior is chewy.  The Bagel Hole bagel is also great because these firm no-toasters churn out fresh bagels throughout the day, and when you get a fresh bagel (ask for what has just been baked), the cream cheese will slightly melt inside leading to that much more of an amazing bagel experience.

Gosh, I miss living within a mile of the Bagel Hole.

The Bagel Hole

400 7th Avenue (btwn. 12th and 13th Streets)

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Easily accessible via the F/G stop at 7th Avenue