NY Bagel Cafe

It is known that New Yorker’s brag – about their restaurants, bars, music, museums etc being the best. It is easy to dispute a lot of their claims, but in one regard there is no denying a supreme taste. And that is that their bagels are a delicious cut above the rest. The New York bagel is famous world over, and for good reason. The perfect New York bagel has to have the right blend of crunchy and chewy, warm from the oven. The puffy warmth of a fresh bagel with that perfected outer texture has become a culinary institute of the Big Apple, and is a clear winner with American consumers. But where to get it outside of New York City limits?

Helping to spread the best in bagels across the States is NY Bagel Cafe. Having achieved success in New York the franchise also has locations now open in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Texas, Florida, California and Virginia, and is set to expand elsewhere. In each location the bagels are quality assured. They pride themselves in using the best ingredients – powdered barley malt instead of liquid malt – the bagels are rested for 12 hours to enhance the flavor and allow for optimum crust, they are then kettle boiled and hearth baked. The end result is a true NY style bagel, with a perfected outer crust and inner chew. So no matter the location, the taste of New York can be enjoyed miles from the Big Apple.

There are other varieties – the Montreal-style bagel being a prominent counterpart with a slightly different baking method, containing malt and sugar and boiled in honey infused water to produce a sweeter version than the New York style bagel. Chicago-style bagels are baked with steam. In London the typical bagel famous in the East side of the city is courser and more savoury. There are also methods in places further afield which bear less and less resemblance to the New York favourite: saltier and crispier in Finland, fatter & twisted in Turkey, nan-style in China. Who knew?

Despite the range of style, for Americans at the end of the day the winner of the taste contest will always be the archetypal New York influenced bake of the bagel. And we can be grateful to enterprises like NY Bagel Cafe & Deli for making it available throughout the country – a New York export to be thankful for.