Downtown Bagels

Ha. I bet you thought I found a new spot downtown that has bagels. Nope. Why can't I find a good bagel downtown? The ever elusive everything bagel with cream cheese is really a source of frustration for me. Anyone have any leads? Am I overlooking a gem? Or out of luck?

Nancy's Bagels is a very short drive from downtown on the lower end of Frankfort Ave. 2101 Frankfort Ave.895-8323.
Doug

Ha. I bet you thought I found a new spot downtown that has bagels. Nope. Why can't I find a good bagel downtown? The ever elusive everything bagel with cream cheese is really a source of frustration for me. Anyone have any leads? Am I overlooking a gem? Or out of luck?

HA. No help here. HA. Bet you thought I'd have a clue for you.

I hear that Dooleys is coming back downtown in the next few months

[Robin Garr]

Nancy's Bagels is a very short drive from downtown on the lower end of Frankfort Ave. 2101 Frankfort Ave.895-8323.
Doug

Nancy's bagels, unfortunately, are not good. They're bread - gummy, odd bread - but they're not bagels. Even the shape is wrong. Dooley's bagels come a little closer, and a spot called Sid's, formerly over in St. Matthews at the place now occupied by Bazo's, had very good ones. Not that this helps us now.

Atomic Saucer, a little artisanal coffee shop at 1000 E. Oak St., where Germantown starts running into the Highlands, has (or used to have) bagels that they get frozen from NYC. They're not really New York's best bagels, but they come closer to the real thing than anything else I'm aware of in Louisville, and I believe you can get them with a schmear of cream cheese.

Unfortunately, we're really not in the right part of the world for real bagels to be commonplace, because most people (including, apparently, the bakers at Nancy's) don't know what they are.

Here at DCE we have been trying out various bagels. We had Nancy's (I agree with you Robin) and we've also tried those same NYC frozen bagels they have at Atomic Saucer.

We haven't finished experimenting. We're still looking.
I'm from Chicago and have had awesome bages my whole life. I only wish I could find some here in Derby City.

In the meantime we have some Nancy's & NYC frozen bagels and we use fresh Nancy's Cream Cheese over here at 331 E. Market.

It just seems that if we have fourty starbucks and multiple locations of other local coffee places downtown, someone must surely sell bagels somewhere. I guess I've been used to being out of town so much in many different locations, waking up and finding a good cup of coffee and a good bagel. I wouldn't have a problem driving to atomic saucer, but I've tried them a few times, and they seemed all bread, like a dinner roll quality, as in didn't seem boiled at all. This is really sad, but I woke up from a dream the other morning in which I was lamenting, in my dream, the lack of availibility of an everything bagel with cream cheese around here, driving everywhere to find one. I do like the bagels at, is it breadworks?, over on bardstown by douglass loop and heine bros.
b

Hey Matthew, that's fantastic news, I'm sure you'll find something great, good luck on cornering the market.
b

[Robin Garr]

I wouldn't have a problem driving to atomic saucer, but I've tried them a few times, and they seemed all bread, like a dinner roll quality, as in didn't seem boiled at all.

I agree. When we went to Atomic Saucer, I had to go up and look in the freezer to reassure myself that the packages really did come from NYC. The Bronx, actually. I'm guessing, though, that it's a mass-market factory producer. They're certainly not like what you get at a good deli in NYC. But they're more bagel-like than Nancy's. I just don't understand why places like Heine Bros. and Highland Coffee sell Nancy's, but I have to assume it's because most people in Louisville don't know the difference and don't care.

As a recently transplanted New Yorker I have been on a fruitless bagel quest here in L'ville. Thanks for starting this thread. The seach for bialys is even worse. I had one from Whole Foods the other day that tasted like a misshappen English Muffin.
Matthew, you might try H&H Bagels in NY. I get them delivered now and again. I don't know if it would be economic sense as they are pricey- but they are awfully good.

[Robin Garr]

The search for bialys is even worse.

I'm afraid you're even worse out of luck on that one than you are with bagels.

Whenever I go to NJ, I bring back bags of bagels. I vacumn seal and freeze them (seems to work the best) and dole them out, while not the greatest, it beats anything local. I always get a lox, bagel and cream cheese for the road, too. My son says I could not drive home without my "fix"! Next trip, I'll let you all know if you want some!!

Anybody make their own? I mean what do you do when you have that jones for a bagel? I know it's usually 8 am or so, and I assume it's a wee bit early for gin & tonic. Maybe that's the only solution: diversion. Focus on an immaculate omelet. Your favorite orange juice. Toast. Butter. Trukey bacon. See, I've almost forgotten that I started out talking the glory of an everything bagel with cream cheese. Man, now I'm back where I started.
b

I have made bagels in the past - they are pretty labor intensive and I was not wild about the quality. Like Robin, I think it's the NYC area water that makes the best bagels!

[Robin Garr]

I have made bagels in the past - they are pretty labor intensive and I was not wild about the quality. Like Robin, I think it's the NYC area water that makes the best bagels!

Two separate issues here. I'm with you on "labor intensive," and the bagels I've tried making in the past have come out kinda small and misshapen. Hey, sort of like Nancy's!

But I think the story about it being the NYC water is just BS. I think it has more to do with practice, and commercial bagel production lines that simmer and bake on an assembly line process. As someone in the thread indicated, the simmering in water step is critical. So is the use of a little malt syrup in the dough.

Hmm, I might have to try this again. Fred Reinhardt's excellent pro baking book has a good recipe ...