Results tagged “bagel”

Move over "Best Pizza" debate, there's something new we'll never all agree upon! Best Bagel. Serious Eats sent carb-lovers to the three most "bagel-happy boroughs" (allegedly Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens) to pick up some fresh samples and conduct a blind taste test. To keep things equal, they were all consumed plain and untoasted. Spoiler alert: Dunkin' Donuts didn't come in last. For shame, New York. For. Shame.

It's conventional wisdom that the most important ingredient in New York bagels is NYC tap water. So today a south Florida company, The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., has started selling bagels that owner Steve Fassberg claims taste just like our bagels—because they're made with "Brooklyn water." The effect isn't achieved by a tap water pipeline from Brooklyn, but by an elaborate water filtration system, enclosed behind a glass wall in the restaurant. Fassberg, a Flatbush native, tells the Sun Sentinel, "We have scientific proof to back up every state of the process." And the man behind the water system, Alfie Lipshultz, declares, "By the time it gets past our systems, it's Brooklyn water. We make it ultra pure to begin with and then we reinsert those nuances that make it Brooklyn water." He declined to elaborate on just what those nuances are, but we detect strong notes of B.S. and chutzpah. Back in 2006, the owner of Terrace Bagels hauled 150 gallons of filtered New Jersey water to Brooklyn, made a batch of bagels, and declared, "The bagels came out just as good. In towns in New Jersey you can’t find a decent bagel. I don’t know if that’s the water or the people that make them."

Well, that was quick: the Upper West Side location of H&H Bagels reopened this afternoon, after being seized by the government for non-payment of taxes early this morning. The State Department of Taxation and Finance this afternoon told the CityRoom that the retail location of H&H and its Hell's Kitchen bakery owed more than $100,000 in back taxes. Clerks at the UWS bagel store have returned to laying out lox slices and buttering those poppyseed selling plain, unadorned bagels like there's no tomorrow, and have been specifically instructed not to talk about the temporary seizure. A woman at H&H's flagship (identifying herself as “Blanca, just Blanca”) said the seizure was “a misunderstanding that has been cleared up." The tax department differs; CityRoom explains, "so many tax warrants, or liens, had piled up by Friday that the department was still struggling to provide a full accounting to reporters." H&H hopes to have everything cleared up by today, so that no more locks will be hoisted upon on the House of Lox.

Finally: Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto tells us how he really feels about brunch. In an interview with the NY Times, Musto discusses his Sunday rountine, which includes checking the gossip ("I check my e-mail and I check all the gossip. I have to constantly update my blog, and try to be a kind of ringmaster to the circus freaks who find me, and who I love"), visiting his mother and relatives in Brooklyn, and maybe movie night with friends. But when asked if he does brunch, he lets loose: "I hate brunch. I hate hearing the word “brunch.” It was this trendy construct that people decided to buy into. And are still buying into. I manage with a bagel and coffee and can wait until lunch, not bogus three-egg omelets." Best not to ask him about linner.

Passover ended last night at sundown, so it's party time for observant Jews; that means plenty of pizza, pasta, and bagels, among other yeasty items they've denied themselves for the past eight days, in remembrance of the exodus from Egypt. According to the Times, today's the biggest day of the year for many local bagel makers, some of whom simply close shop during Passover, when leavened products are eschewed by Jews. But the article oddly spotlights Terrace Bagels, which the paper of record misidentifies as a "Park Slope" eatery. Terrace Bagels is in Windsor Terrace, a neighborhood not exactly known as a big Jewish community. So it's no wonder the manager there only observed a "slight drop" in sales during Passover, which he attributes "more to people going away for vacation because school is out." On the Upper West Side, of course, it's a different story; the 72nd Street Bagel shop owner says he usually does "one and a half times" the usual business today. His staff has been up since 4:30 a.m., and by the time you read this, they're probably already out of everything bagels.

     

The eyes of the art world are on The Armory Show and its impressive roster of satellite art fairs, but let us take a moment to point out R. Nicholas Kuszyk's show at McCaig Welles Gallery in Williamsburg, which opens this weekend. We do this not only because one of the best street murals on our daily route was executed by Kuszyk on the wall of the Bedford Bagel Store, but also because his robotic theme seems especially fitting given the sudden ascendancy of robots to the L train command.

With the price of flour down so low that even PETA activists can afford to hurl the stuff at Lindsay Lohan, you might think bagel and pizza costs might drop a bit. But most pizzeria and bagel shop owners in NYC—who raised their prices earlier this year in response to skyrocketing flour cost—have not been passing the savings along to their customers. Vinny Camporeale, owner of the East Village pizzeria Vinny Vincenz, tells the Daily News, "Our rent goes up every year—customers aren't aware of that." Who knew!? Now Camporeale's "seriously thinking" about raising the price a third time this year, from $2.50 to $2.75. At least at Montague Street Bagels in Brooklyn Heights the bagel price has reverted to 90 cents, down from the summer price of $1. Assistant manager Preston Joseph declares, "It's the right thing to do. We're not con men." Hear that, Vinny, you rapacious pizza fleecer?