Stuy Town Locals Blame Hot & Crusty for Killing David's Bagels

After 21 years in business, beloved David's Bagels on 1st Avenue and 14th Street closed at the end of August. According to Vanishing New York, the landlord opened a Hot & Crusty franchise next door and refused to renew David's lease. In retaliation, a group of devastated neighbors have banded together to hit the Crusty where it hurts, with a weblog BLAZING WITH CAPS: "It is TERRIBLE and a downright SHAME...It hurts that they are gone because of your corny EYESORE of a “Hot and Crusty” that doesn’t even serve a decent bagel nor an “OK” pizza. In addition, it is NAUSEATING to walk by your pizzeria to see your Spanish guys leave half-made UNCOOKED pizzas to linger in the sun for long periods of time. Leaving the uncooked pizza dough in the sun while the chintzy layer of sauce dries up, is plainly NOT HEALTHY, UNSAFE and UNBELIEVABLY UNAPPETIZING." But what really burns is that David's lovers must now traverse five blocks to the owner's other location.

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By John Del Signore in Food on September 16, 2008 12:43 PM

Comments [rss]

TinyPaws

The blog edited the "Spanish" part out.

Looks like they realized it was an accident, and bore no bigotry behind it. That's my guess since it seems irrelevant.

So now we can focus on the real topic at hand. That topic being a chain eatery bullying out a longstanding business that many people DID enjoy. Twenty plus years is a long time to survive, in this town especially, so something about their food products clearly worked and made people happy... It's just sad to see more of these chains pop up and those little places we liked disappear into thin air.

The David's on 19th is not the same. It never was. They don't have the same turnaround nor equipment. We've done taste tests : )

There will always be wars about what a good bagel is, and where in the world to get it. But there is no denying that David's served some yummy round bread with a hole in the middle, warm and soft on the inside and chewy and crusty on the outside... call it a bagel or not, whatever it was, it was just what I needed on many a cold day... I'll miss that raisin bagel.

JMH

"In addition, it is NAUSEATING to walk by your pizzeria to see your Spanish guys leave ..."

I find bigotry slightly more NAUSEATING.
I don't think it's really necessary to identify the employees (presumably incorrectly) as Spanish, but it's pretty clear that the focus is on the assertion that they're "leav[ing] half-made UNCOOKED pizzas to linger in the sun for long periods of time" rather than on their ethnicity.

pierrevonbaron

similarly, don't get the relevance of their ethnicity. maybe their tapas are better than their pizzas?

Spirit of 76

[17] Are you saying I shouldn't be allowed to buy bacon & Muenster on a bagel, with a bowl of clam chowder on the side? Drat.

CrazyDEX

Man, I was so afraid David's was going to be another victim of the Manhattan strip mall developers. They truly had the best bagels in the area. Fuck H&C! I asked them for a dough ball once wouldn't even sell me one. 19th street is too damn far for me to go to get a bagel. Anyone know a good one further south?

snessnyc

LESS than 2 blocks uptown is La Bagel at 1st Ave. betw. 15th & 16th. And they're kosher, which means no abominations like bacon on a bagel (there should be laws about things like that). Of course, all you frickin' whiners will complain that they're not open on Saturdays. Get over yourselves.

whethergirl

hot and crusty is not an improvement on davids. but the 18th st location will sometimes deliver to the upper EV, so everyone can be super lazy.

chomp on 14th btwn 2nd and 3rd is pretty great. they have h&h bagels and the best iced coffee.

feff

I work six blocks south of David's bagels on 14th street so it was already a trek to this location. Walking up to the other davids on 20th street or essabagel would mean a half an hour round trip!

Hot and Crusty bagels are a poor substitute...bring back Davids!

In the meantime, does anyone know of any other good bagel places in the East Village?

Avaz383

This is just plain depressing. Sure, there is another location a few block away, but it's somehow not as good as the 14th st, 1st ave location. I will be crying myself to sleep tonite mourning the loss of my favorite bagel place in the city.

p.s. essabagel essasucks.

Snoopy

Soop it looks like you should get some exercise and walk a bit further than your fridge for a bagel. No offense but I might consider buying stock in Lenders after seeing their client base.

soopaman

i get the frozen Lenders bagels. Just a short walk to the freezer and always nice and warm

spiritross

First off

its not likely that Hot and Crusty place will stay in business very long, there are so many better places to get pizza in that area

Second

There is another David's Bagels at 19th St. and 1st Ave

Let it go people

aveB4life

ess a bagel sucks, hot and shitty sucks. just make the trek to davids on 19th, still as good, still as nice as ever.

Tgirl

there are like, seven or eight places that sell pizza w/in a 2 block radius of this corner. THATZ wats stupit -

smokedgouda

I find the same pizza as described disgusting, but someone is buying it because it's all over the city.

nomnomnom

Wah wah wah. Why can't they just go to Ess-A-Bagel? It's like 6 blocks away. Perfect to burn off a few of those bagel calories.

McFister

Blame the tasteless idiots who eat a Hot and Crusty.

whitecastlerock

fuck em...

Splicer

Perhaps the use of the word "Spanish" to describe all Spanish speaking people is a bit much. However, if they really are Spanish, then that's OK.

"Hot and Crusty" doesn't sound too appetizing.