When last I wrote about bagels, my husband Jeff and I had fallen madly in love with the slightly burnt, Montreal-style variety at Courage Bagels in LA’s trendy Silver Lake district. The lines that stretched down the block and half-hour-plus waits on weekends signaled that we weren’t the only ones who felt that way.
But as great as this bagel was, to Jeff, who grew up in New York City, the bagels at Maury’s and at our beloved local purveyor, Manhattan Bread & Bagel, more closely resembled the classic crunchy, seed-encrusted bagel he remembered from childhood. Since the latter bakery is within walking distance of our house, a bagel craving can be satisfied within minutes—and the lines are more manageable.
But our quest continued, driven partly by the high bagel bar set by the New York Times article I referenced in my previous post that claimed that the best New York-style bagels were now made in California. We felt it was our duty to taste-test a few more bagels. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it!
While bagels have become as ubiquitous as pancakes and oatmeal on many breakfast menus, Jewish delis continue to be on the endangered list. Greenblatt's, LA’s oldest deli, survived wars, economic downturns, and demographic shifts, but the pandemic proved to be one challenge too many. It closed up shop suddenly in August after 95 years, another in a line of delis that have called it quits in the last decade—including Carnegie and Stage delis in New York, and Junior's and Lenny's in Los Angeles.
Happily for Jewish deli lovers, just as Greenblatt’s was closing, a new deli came to town. Originally slated to go into the space once occupied by by Lenny’s (which took over the location from Junior’s), Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen, a San Francisco-based company that opened 11 years ago, opted instead to locate its newest outpost amid the booming restaurant scene of revitalized downtown Culver City, home to Sony Pictures, NPR West, and, once upon a time, MGM.
Last Sunday we dropped by for some bagel sampling. It was actually Jeff’s second visit. He’d met a friend for lunch the previous week. They’d split a pastrami sandwich on rye, and his friend had a bowl of matzo ball soup, while Jeff had a bagel. Both weren’t too impressed with the food—his friend thought it just “okay”—but for Jeff, the bagel was the real deal.
"It's not much of a Jewish deli," he said. "But boy do they make great bagels."
Of course, I had to see for myself.
I immediately liked the interior, the bustling counter, the comfortable indoor-outdoor seating, the wall of family photos. (I was told these really were pictures of the family, not the kind of stock photos of early 20th century immigrant Jews often seen on the walls of other bagel-hawking establishments.)
The chain—there are nine locations, including seven in the Bay Area, this one, plus an outlier in Tokyo, Japan—was started by two brothers, Evan and Ari Bloom and a friend, with Evan serving as CEO, and, according to the company website, “widely regarded as one of the leaders in the modern Jewish food movement.”
I assume that “modern Jewish food movement” has something to do with the single-page menu—in contrast to the usual book-length version favored by traditional Jewish delis.
The Culver City location offered such non-traditional items as a reuben sandwich with kimchi, a tuna melt with horseradish aioli, and the Double-Stack Pastrami Burger, complete with pastrami “jam,” aioli, red onions and pickles on a griddled challah bun.
Such items would likely never show up on the menu of an old-line deli but make sense in one whose mission statement says it serves “California-inspired Jewish deli food with roots in tradition and an eye on the future.”
The website did mention a babka “filled with 72% bittersweet Guittard chocolate and lots of real butter,” which really was as good as it sounds, especially when heated just enough for the chocolate to melt.
But the bagels, in my opinion, are the stars of the show—and here the deli sticks to tradition. They come in seven flavors—sesame, poppy, plain, onion, salt & pepper, cinnamon raisin, and everything—plus a bialy. No blueberry, chocolate chip or pumpkin bagels here.
Wise Sons’ website details the multiple-step process of making the bagels—from pre-fermenting to mixing to hand-forming to proofing to boiling in a malt syrup-infused water bath to coating and/or seasoning them to baking in a convection oven. As a home baker who has tried with mixed success to create a palatable bagel, I know that crafting a good one to sell to the masses has got to be a labor of love, as well as a business.
And these are really good.
I opted for a classic smoked salmon open-face sandwich on a sesame bagel. The toppings were so flavorful, I couldn’t really taste the bagel, but my husband’s heavily poppy-seeded bagel and cream cheese provided just the right amount of crunch, chew and flavor. We took home a few and only wished we’d bought more.
I didn’t grow up in the Big Apple as Jeff did, with an abundance of great Jewish delis from which to choose, but there are some pretty wonderful ones here in LA—Langer’s, Canter’s and Brent’s, to name a few. Still, to find another one opening up just a few miles from our house, especially at time when so many delis—and other eateries—are closing, is a small miracle.
We can’t wait to go back for more bagels and babka! And maybe that pastrami burger!
Have you eaten any great bagels lately in LA or anywhere? I’d love to hear from you.
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See you soon!
I really want a bagel with cream cheese and lox now.
I don’t know RUTH. I took the bait and went to Courage Bagels, waited in line for 10 minutes and bought a bakers dozen of every flavor so I could share and sample them with family and friends. They were all really over the top with an amazing texture and flavor. I’m gonna try your suggestion of Wise Bros in Culver City but I’m still quite impressed with my first sampling. Doesn’t really fit in my diet but it sure is a great way to cut thru the Covid doldrums
Of course, Manhattan Bagel in our own hood is just classic and I’ve known and worked owners Michael & Lynn Keegan for decades since they opened their doors. I know how ‘religious’ he is about doing bagels right, and besides, you have to when you are located across the street from the only synagogue in Manhatttan Beach. His Challah offerings on Fridays and holidays are excellent, but could use a drop more egg, IMHO.