So, I spent May in New York City, and Mom came and visited so I could show her around NYC. She was obsessed with trying a New York City bagel to see if it was much different than Montreal bagels (she’s from Vancouver).
In the end, we decided that they were fine in NYC, but not special, and not as dense and chewy as some of the Montreal varieties. Still, I like me a bagel. It kind of reminds me of childhood, as my parents would bring home a bag of them from a bakery or even the supermarket as a treat.
It seems strange to me that in Australia they’re a bit rare, and rare enough that Brooklyn Boy Bagels seems to be one of the few places that specialise in bagels. I stumbled across this pop-up shop on Victoria Street, on the site of where Cellini’s Cafe and Pasta Bar used to be (I believe they still have a location in the QVB). It’s only around for a month or so, maybe a little longer; it’s apparently been popular. I stayed clear of the scary looking rainbow bagels and had me an ‘everything’ with a very generous serve of bourbon and bacon-flavoured cream cheese.
It was good. Maybe I’m too used to bagels to find it a novelty, but not a big enough bagel fanatic to note how much better these are supposed to be than other bagels in Australia. And for $12, for a large latte, and a bagel with cream cheese: man, is the Eastern Suburbs and Sydney ever an expensive place to hang out.