Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Phony Bagelmania Has Bitten the Dust


I know it seems odd that after a week in northern California I should be talking about bagels. A case of recency trumping primacy (there are many good things to eat in San Francisco - the bagels are not among them).

After returning home to South Florida, I was intrigued to read on the Florida Chowhound board of a new bagel place opening up in Delray Beach called "The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co." The pitch is that they claim to have found a way to duplicate, through "purification and modification," the supposedly magical effects of the New York public water supply on bagel-preparation.[*]

Opinions among the chowhounds seem decidedly mixed, with some pronouncing them the "Best bagels in S. Fl.," while others declared them "really nothing special." As is somewhat typical, many of the posters (particularly the cheerleaders) are first-time posters, miraculously roused to action by the appearance of a new bagel place.

Anyhoo ... I happened to be up in Palm Beach this morning, and Brooklyn Water Bagel was only a brief detour on my drive back to Miami. I stopped in and they do indeed have lots of fancy metal tanks on display which create the Brooklyn holy water. Other than that, it's a modified fast-food setup where you order at the counter, pour your own coffee or soft drink, and get a card which plugs into a little device on your table to tell them where to deliver your order.

I had requested a lox eggs & onions with a toasted poppy seed bagel, but alas, their toaster was behaving over-aggressively and had been put on time out for the morning. Considering they just opened a week ago, I was not going to hold this against them; besides, it gave me a better opportunity to sample their bagel au naturel, and they assured me the bagels were still warm from the oven. There was another mild snafu a few minutes later when, instead of getting a LEO with a bagel on the side, I instead got a LEO stuffed within said bagel (which was a different but very similarly described menu item). I can deal with that in stride too. It's all about the bagel anyway, right?

As for that bagel. I was underwhelmed. It had a nicely crusty exterior, but otherwise it struck me as too fluffy and risen, and too dry. In fact, for a bagel fresh out of the oven, it felt oddly stale. I can't imagine driving all the way from Miami to Delray even for an authentic Brooklyn bagel, but this one certainly wouldn't be worth the schlep.

But maybe I'd just forgotten what a good bagel tasted like - an easy thing to do amidst all the imposters these days. So as I continued driving south, I recalled another small detour along the way - Sage Deli in Hallandale. Lacking Brooklyn Water Bagel's fast-food franchise aspirations, Sage is an old-school Jewish deli that bakes its own bagels on premises, and also offers the full gamut of the usuals - several different smoked fish, corned beef and pastrami, deli salads, knishes, blintzes, etc. They also had what I recalled to be some of the best bagels in South Florida, though it had been some time since I'd had one. I grabbed a quick sesame bagel (toasted with a working toaster!) topped with scallion cream cheese at the counter, and was reminded what a good bagel should be. Crusty on the outside, but still chewy and even a bit dense on the inside - substantial, serious and not in any way fluffy. It's not a New York bagel, but it's as close as I've gotten here in South Florida - even without any Brooklyn water.

The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co.
14451 S. Military Trail
Delray Beach, FL 33484
877.224.3580

Sage Deli
800 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Hallandale, FL 33009
954.456.7499

Sage Bagel on Urbanspoon


[*]Having been open a week, Brooklyn Water Bagel's website already optimistically has a link for "Franchise Info" though it's a dead link.



13 comments:

  1. Try the bagels at the Epicure in Miami Beach.

    Also taking the opportunity to say Hi..!I have a food and wine blog published in Miami, come visit when you can!

    http://lindaraxa.blogspot.com

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  2. "Crusty on the outside, but still chewy and even a bit dense on the inside - substantial, serious and not in any way fluffy"

    WELL SAID- They are the best I've had down here. Especially when they are fresh out of the oven

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  3. I'll have to get the name of the place in the Aventura area that the owner of my company gets bagels from. We call them "steroidal bagels" because these things are massive. Nice crust and really chewy on the inside. Dense enough to give your jaw a nice workout too.

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  4. @Blind Mind & The Chowfather: Yeah, sounds like Mo's. I switched to there after I got tired of the lousy service at Sage. Sage's bagels are better when they're not overcooked, but Mo's are pretty good. And the people who work there are a lot friendlier.

    Good to know it's not worth the trek to Delray to hit up this new place.

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  5. Totally disagree! Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company's bagels are the best in Florida, including Sage (which I found the food to be ok and service horrible!). i will be back to Original.

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  6. Ive confirmed that it is indeed Mo's. I love those bagels. Sometimes I just sprinkle a little salt on a plain one. Do they make everything bagels there? Ive only had sesame and plain...

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  7. Sage and Mo's in Aventura are the two best consolations to the real NY deal....

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  8. I'm a Sage fan, and closer to home, The Bagel Emporium is a fave (with Roasters and Toasters nova).. BE was better though under previous ownership. The water idea is fun but sounds badly executed in so many ways.

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  9. The best bagels in South Florida are in a little placed called Brothers of Brooklyn in Miami Lakes. Authentic New York, all the way. I've yet to try the Brooklyn Water bagels, but will do so one day. Love the Clash reference in the title of this post, btw.

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  10. Ari - I'm so glad someone picked up the Clash reference! Will have to look for Brothers of Brooklyn.

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  11. The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is just a gimick and they are trying to get rich quick by franchising impostor NY bagels. These bagels are nothing like real NY bagels. I have had better bagels from other places that use "Florida" water. The only way to get a real NY bagels is to go to NY or have them sent to you by FedEx.

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