First-timers at the Brooklyn Bagel Bakery, a squat factory in a part of town now better known for burritos and Filipino sinigiang, are often put off by the display in the cramped retail vestibule, glass cases full of blueberry bagels and strawberry bagels, cranberry bagels and chocolate bagels, banana-nut bagels and other affronts to the proud tradition Brooklyn Bagel has been carrying on since Sandy Koufax still pitched in his native borough. The most crowded bin is the one holding the puffy, blown-out, oversweetened plain bagels more or less identical to the ones at suburban bagelries. Has Brooklyn Bagel sold out? Posterity will have to decide. But the signature product survives here as Hearth-Baked Bagels — just another flavor here perhaps, like pumpernickel or jalapeño-cheese, but these plain bagels are dense, chewy, taut-skinned and properly boiled before baking. They are still the best bagels west of the Hudson.
—Jonathan Gold
IF YOU WANT TO EAT A REAL BAGEL ... YOU HAVE GOT TO GET OVER TO BROKLYN BAKERY ON BEVERLY BLVD. THEY HAVE BEEN THERE FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS.WOW!!! AND ONCE YOU HAVE EATEN ONE WITH A LITTLE CREAM CHEESE ..YOULL BE IN EATERY HEAVEN. MOST BAGELS AFTER YOU FREEZE THEM.. HAVE NO TASTE AFTER YOU TOAST THEM. NOT SO WITH BROOKLYN BAKERY BAGELS. OH YES ..THEY SELL LOX AND CREAM CHEESE ALSO. SO LONG .. EAT GOOD. ABI GEZUNT (BE HEALTHY)
The best, most authentic, bagels across the range of their offerings are from the 42nd Street Bagel in Claremont. Take it from someone who grew up in Brooklyn.
("Across the range of their offerings" is an important clause. The hearth baked bagels from Brooklyn Bagels, reviewed above, are nothing to be sneezed at.)
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