Searching for Bagels in Texas

Something about the slogan “New York Bagels – the best bagels in Texas”, makes me chuckle every time. As a New Yorker moving to the southwest, one of my biggest gripes was that the bagels do not compare to New York… that is if you can even find a real bagel here in the first place.

Before moving to Houston last July, I spent the year working in Oklahoma, where bagels literally don't exist. Not only this, but it is like a foreign concept to even ask for them. I dare you to ask a grocery store attendant if they sell bagels, because they may very likely get on the loudspeaker for assistance, at which point they might as well be announcing “Jew in aisle five, Jew in aisle five!”

Trust me, I experienced it firsthand.

On occasion, I was pointed to the bread aisle, where they merely had Lender’s bagels, which taste just like – bread. And forget asking for lox. I tried this once in Oklahoma too, and was given a combination lock. I wish I were lying. The ONLY other option was Panera – which is a great sandwich shop, but their pastry-like bagels just don’t quite cut it.

After my experience in Oklahoma, I was skeptical about the options that Houston would provide. I started off eating at Einstein’s Bagels – which, compared to the Lender’s bagels I had been eating for the past year, were quite good, but still far from being a “New York bagel”.

I was then invited to brunch one morning at a place called “The Bagel Shop” and I thought “if it says bagel in the title, it can’t hurt to at least check it out”. Well let me tell you, I arrived at this so-called “Bagel Shop” only to discover that the full title is in fact “New York Bagel & Coffee Shop”. If I said I was ecstatic, that would be an understatement. But, I must say I tried my best not to get my hopes up until I actually tried their bagels. (I learned this after trying New York Pizza in Oklahoma – using “New York” in the name, definitely does NOT make it authentic.) Well, from the minute I walked into the New York Bagel Shop in Houston it took less than 2 seconds for almost all my doubts to dissipate and for my excitement to increase to even newer heights.

The guy at the counter was speaking quickly, with his heavy New York accent, ushering people in and out of the restaurant, as the line of people waiting was growing out the door. The staff was all wearing shirts that said “New York Bagels – the best bagels in Texas”. And I could almost guarantee that every single Jewish New Yorker in the greater Houston area was congregated in this one small restaurant.

And, I am elated to inform you that the “bagel shop” outdid every expectation I could have possibly had. I ordered a white fish salad sandwich on a sesame bagel… and left with a pound of white fish and at least a dozen bagels to go. It is now a weekly tradition (or obsession) for me and my friends to meet there for brunch on a Saturday/Sunday morning, and it is worth every second you have to wait.

So you may be wondering why New York bagels are so much better than those everywhere else. Well, I’ll tell you. New York bagels are not only larger, but they taste nicely baked on the outside and warm and chewy on the inside. It should not taste like sandwich bread – if I wanted sandwich bread, I would have ordered cream cheese and lox on toast. Real bagels are boiled before they are baked – and some claim that New York water (wudder) is what makes them taste so authentic. I have been told that the “New York Bagel Shop” in Houston gets their ingredients from New York. True or not, I still find it amusingly ironic, that New York Bagels… are the best bagels in Texas.