The Best Bagel in L.A.!*

Worth a drive and a long line to get these crunchy Montreal-style treats

A slightly burned sesame bagel from Courage Bagels in Silver Lake had us fighting over the seeds! (Photo by Jefferson Graham)

A recent New York Times article had everyone I know buzzing about bagels.

“The Best Bagels Are in California (Sorry, New York),” read the headline. Several of the places author Tejal Rao raved about were in the L.A. area—among them Pop’s Bagels, Gjusta, Bueller’s Bagels, Yeastie Boys, Maury’s, and Courage Bagels.

The article provoked a lot of debate on social media—after all, many Angelenos are transplanted New Yorkers, and New York is virtually synonymous with great bagels. Some say it’s the water. Others credit a refrigerated slow rise and the boiling process.

My husband Jeff, who grew up in New York City and loves nothing so much as a good bagel, suggested a taste test or two. So on Sunday morning we stopped by Courage Bagels in Silver Lake. They’re famous for their Montreal-style bagels and are best known for their slightly burnt variation. This was particularly intriguing to Jeff, who feels that his toast is never completely cooked unless it’s a bit burned.

After Phil Rosenthal, the host of the Netflix series “Somebody Feed Phil,” enthused about Courage Bagels on his Instagram, Jeff shot him a note to ask if he thought they were everything they were cracked up to be. “That and more,” Phil replied.

We came prepared for a wait because of the high praise heaped on this bagelry and a line on the store’s website that warned as much: “It’s bagel madness right now since the NYT article was published.”

Line outside Courage Bagels in Silver Lake (Photo by Jefferson Graham)

The store, in a location that was once a bakery serving Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Mexican locals, is unmarked, but it was hard to miss the line snaking the length of a block from the unassuming takeout window in front. After waiting for almost an hour in a queue of patient, masked patrons, many with adorable, well-behaved dogs, we finally arrived at the front of the line to order from Isabella, who apologized for the long wait.

“If you come on Monday or Thursday, you won’t have to wait,” she said. “And you can order ahead.”

There weren’t a huge number of choices—the mini bagels were gone and the hand-lettered sign said “no loose bagels today!” —meaning, no taking home an extra dozen for friends or the freezer. There also weren’t the nontraditional types of bagels available at our local bagel shop, Manhattan Bread & Bagel, such as blueberry, jalapeño and cranberry flax—just the classic varieties: sea salt sesame, poppy, everything, burnt everything, onion and plain.

Good enough for us. Jeff got a burnt everything with cream cheese and I got half a smoked salmon sandwich on an unburnt poppy seed bagel—open-face—with cream cheese, tomato, onion, capers, dill, pepper, olive oil and lemon. While we waited for our order, I got an earful from a Montreal native on what differentiates her hometown bagels from those found in New York.

“The biggest difference is the water, and they are more compact, crunchy and dense,” she said.

And how did the bagels at Courage compare to Montreal’s?

“I think they’re spot on,” she said.

We swung by Maury’s afterwards, thinking we’d do a quick comparison. Unfortunately, the bakery was sold out of bagels by 11 a.m., though we purchased some frozen bagels to sample later. Anna, the woman taking orders, told me Maury’s bagels are softer than Courage bagels and made in an East Coast style, with a focus on flavor and attention to detail.

As for the asterisk* in our headline above, it stands for this: We’ll be back on the road soon for more bagel taste testing, so stay tuned for future updates.

Jeff digging in to a burnt everything bagel and cream cheese at our picnic lunch near Silver Lake Reservoir.

Meanwhile, here are our verdicts on Courage bagels:

Jeff says it clearly is the best bagel he’s ever had in L.A. As good as New York?

“Well, it’s been a long time since I was there, and since I can’t compare them back to back, it’s hard to make that declaration. But the best I’ve ever had here.”

As for me, I loved my lox and cream cheese sandwich, but the toppings were so flavorful that I couldn’t quite taste the bagel (it did have a good crunch though!). The burned sesame seed bagel Jeff and I split later with a bowl of soup might have been the best I ever had—so good that we found ourselves fighting over the blackened seeds that spilled onto the tablecloth. Now that’s a good bagel!

Open-face lox and cream cheese sandwich from Courage Bagel

What’s the best bagel you ever ate—and where did you eat it? Please let me know in the comments or in an email.

Thanks for reading this edition of Ruthtalksfood. Please be sure to sign up to receive future newsletters. My next one will be about Passover, which arrives Saturday evening, March 27 and will be our second during the pandemic. Will you be having an in-person seder or drinking your four cups of wine on zoom? I’ll let you know what we’re doing next time.