"Ess" Them by the Dozen

A trip to NYC wouldn't be complete without a true New York bagel. Much like the great debate on pizza, there is much discussion as to what makes a good bagel. My favorite (and fortunately my friend's favorite too) is Ess-a-bagel. So, we decided to make a stop there on the way to the Yankees game...now that is my kind of Saturday!

"Ess" in Yiddish means "eat," and you certainly won't find me arguing with that glorious concept: eat-a-bagel. Ess-a-bagel makes all of its bagels on the premises in both locations. This ensures that no matter what time you go, there will always be fresh bagels available. Sometimes, they are so fresh that they are almost too hot to handle when you sit down to eat them. This is the reason that toasting is looked so down upon by the employees. I couldn't agree more. Why ruin perfection?! They are soft and chewy in the inside and nice and crunchy on the outside.

Everything at Ess-a-bagel is in excess. The bagels are massive and they are overflowing with toppings, no matter if it's a lot of schmear, lox, or tuna salad. I ordered the whole wheat bagel with plain cream cheese, and my friend got a sesame bagel with butter. Both had so much that we ended up scraping some off. But they were still divine.

Aside from the dozen varieties of bagel flavors, there are also dozens of schmear flavors ranging from veggie to scallion tofu to (and I'm not even joking with this) Oreo. There are dozens of "appetizing" - i.e. tuna salad, egg salad, whitefish salad, etc. and dozens of other goodies like pastries and knishes. You get the idea. Everything I've ever ordered there has been delicious, with one exception...the egg sandwiches. Because they don't have a griddle, they make their "eggs" in the microwave. If you're dying for an egg & cheese that badly, bypass Ess-a and head to your local bodega.

Ess-a-bagel seems quintessentially "New York" to me, and that's part of its appeal. Its wood-paneled walls and decor haven't been touched in decades. There are sesame and poppy seeds all over the floor, but rather than being dirty, it somehow gives the place more character.

For some added amusement, watch for the crotchety employees to speak a few words of Japanese to the hoards of tourists who found Ess-a-bagel in a guide book. And then watch the tourists' reaction...priceless.

Ess-a-bagel
831 3rd Avenue
b/t 50th & 51st Street
website
Menu Pages listing

Worth the Schlep for this Schmear

While New York is the culinary capital of the country (at least in my opinion), it goes without saying that this city is notorious for two foods that are seldom replicated as well anywhere outside the Tri-state area: bagels and pizza. Rumor has it that this is because of the quality of the water here. I once heard about a pizzeria in LA that has NYC water delivered daily to make better, more authentic NY pizza. But now, we're going to turn our focus to bagels.

There are a handful of bagel/smoked fish places in New york, familiar to both the locals and the tourists. But, it's really exciting to find a new bagel place to add to the list...and that's just what I did. Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish just opened this past fall, yet has a feel that suggests it has been around almost as long as such New York icons as Russ & Daughters and Barney Greengrass, which both opened in the early 1900s. Zucker's shares the same owners as the well-known Murray's Bagels in Chelsea, but these two have very different atmospheres.

In addition to a large variety of bagels, the menu runs the gambit from smoked fish to dozens of schmears to deli meats. I went a different route and got an egg & cheese sandwich on a bagel. In most bagel places except kosher ones, you'd normally see bacon or sausage available to go on the sandwich, but since I don't eat pork, I was excited to see both turkey bacon and chicken sausage on the menu too. The bagels were very fresh, and were more on the crunchy side than chewy. I personally prefer more chewy bagels, but Zucker's were still very good.

Zucker's may be pretty far downtown, but it's definitely worth the schlep, especially if you work in the area (very close to both WFC and City Hall), or if you have visitors and are showing them around downtown.

Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish
146 Chambers Street
b/t Hudson & Greewich Streets
Menu Pages listing