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Old School NYC bagels?

You know what I am talking about. Dense. Visible holes. Not huge. Crusty. Fully cooked inside. Chewy.

Where can you get them now? Discuss.

Here is my current favorite bagel place, though they are more of the revisionist type:

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/02/23/nyc-dining-ess-a-bagel/

8 Comments:

Zingermans in Ann Arbor, MI

The last good bagel I had was in 1981, at a deli on the UES. They wouldn't tell me where they got them, and closed shortly thereafter. I probably should do some outer Brooklyn research, though, before I give up altogether. Right now, Montreal has the best bagels.

Bagel Hole -- 7th Ave and 13th Street - Brooklyn - old school dense, chewy boiled bagel.

Academy Bagels, 107 and Broadway

the gold standard of the NYC bagel. no ifs, ands, or buts.
http://www.handhbagel.com/

phooey, i take it back. i haven't had a bagel in years, mostly because they just weren't so good anymore. i just googled "ed levine bagels" and found his rec for "absolute bagels". i am so there.

Would someone explain to me what the difference between H&H Midtown Bagels East and H&H Bagels is? Who is the original?

When I went to H&H Midtown Bagels East tonight, they told me they are NOT affiliated with the other two H&H stores. -- that they have been in business 25 years and the other stores are younger operations (15-16 years)

One thing is for sure they have separate web presence and their branding is different.

The two "H&H Bagel stores", the one on 81st and Bway and the 46th West side store are this site:

http://www.hhbagels.com

H&H Midtown Bagels East (on 2nd ave and 81st) is this site:

http://www.hhmidtownbagelseast.com/

A couple of years ago, I read a New York Times article listing six bagel places that were "worth their salt". Since then, I've been to three of the six (I live in CT): Bagelry, Oasis Bagel, and Murray's Bagels. Bagelry was great for a while but appears to have changed hands. Their earlier efforts were reasonable size and had a wonderful taste. The new ones (different store name now) are huge and lousy. Scratch the Bagelry from our list. Bagel Oasis in Queens took a special trip, but the bagels were not so hot. Today we went to Murray's and were shocked to see the size. Mammoth! Our benchmark remains the old Bagelry gems and Murray's bagels, at least so far, don't seem to be anywhere near as exceptional. I'll try a few more, but don't have great hopes. So I suppose the next stop will be Absolute Bagels up on Broadway, though I've heard their bagels are huge, too. Is the great old New York bagel a thing of the past or is there still a good place hiding somewhere in the city?

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