As my internship neared its end and my summer in San Francisco was wrapping up, I found myself running short on time to make pilgrimages to new and better bagel places in the Bay Area. My coworkers, however, made things easy for me last week when they brought their favorite Bay Area bagels into the office for me to try.
On Wednesday I tried Beauty's Bagel Shop and the Authentic Bagel Company, both hailing from Oakland. Although it's difficult even for me to eat two whole bagels for breakfast, I was determined to give every bagel its fair chance in these unforgiving bagel-lympics. East Bay, several of my coworkers adamantly insisted, was akin to some kind of Bay Area bagel Nirvana.
Beauty's Bagels, pictured above, came first. These bagels are boiled and then baked in a wood-fired oven, inspired by the exotic bagels of Montreal. My manager, who brought in the Beauty's Bagels, swears by the Montreal-style bagel. Beauty's Bagels, according to their website, are designed to be "chewy on the inside with a nice crust and tons of seeds on the outside."
This was my first experience with the so-called "Montreal-styled bagel," so I'll admit that I wasn't sure what to expect. There was certainly a generous coating of poppy seeds on the bagel I chose, and I was intrigued by the bagel's shape, smaller and more ring-like than a New York bagel, with a larger central hole. Montreal-style bagels are baked in a wood-fired oven, giving them an intriguingly unevenly charred surface, glossy from honey.
When I took a bite, I was impressed. The bagel was different than what I was used to, denser and sweeter than the New York bagels of yore. Still, it was satisfying in a way that few—if any—of the bagels I had eaten in the Bay Area had been before it.
After I finished my bagel, surreptitiously trying to clear poppy seeds from both my teeth and my keyboard, I decided that I would visit Montreal as soon as I could to experience an authentic Montreal bagel for myself. Montreal is, after all, only a 6 hour drive from my home in North Jersey—perfect for a Winter Break road trip. I'm looking for a road trip companion, so If you speak conversational French and relish the thought of subzero temperatures measured in celsius in the Canadian winter, feel free to reach out.
The next bagels I tried were from Authentic Bagel Company, also in Oakland. Authentic Bagels was born of a dream: The dream of two brothers, Jason and Mark Scott, who moved to California from Rhode Island. The Scott brothers, they write on their website, relied on a tweaked version of their grandmother's bagel recipe to create their own product.
Their bagels had some promise, with a nice coating of everything—sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onions, and salt—and a good shape. The skin, however, lacked the texture and crackle that I look for in a good bagel. When I bit in, the bagel was a little too bread-like for my taste. This makes some sense, given that the "bagel brothers" worked to blend their knowledge of "an East Coast bagel with the San Francisco sourdough tradition."
I love bagels and I love San Francisco sourdough, but the two are best left separate. Bagels are many things, but the best bagels transcend other, inferior forms of carbohydrate.
Another coworker brought in a third bagel contender two days later, on Friday. These bagels came from Burlingame's Bay Area Bagels. My coworker, a truly dedicated bagel lover who took to boiling and baking her own bagels after leaving the East Coast, brought in the Bay Area Bagels after an aborted attempt at at-home bagel creation.
The bagels were fairly mediocre; they reminded me of Dunkin' Donuts in some ways. They were good enough for a mid-morning breakfast at work, but I can say fairly confidently that I'll probably never make the trip to Burlingame to try them in person.
Last week I tried more bagels than any other week of the summer, and I am truly grateful that my coworkers care enough about my passion for bagels to bring in their own favorites. I never thought that I would miss working full time, but here I am, writing this post from my bedroom in New Jersey and thinking wistfully of my summer working at Salesforce.