I don’t know if I’ve piped in here before… But here in Seattle bagels are also all the rage. We have a favorite place, favorite because we’re loyal to them. But the places are everywhere and everybody’s raving about them. We used to bring a couple of dozen back from NYC and now we don’t have to. Yay!
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Impressive!! Looks really delicious.
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St. Rafs this morning. I happened to be near there. Wanted Belle’s too, for comparison, but I was lazy and there were too many people in line.
1 onion, 1 everything and 1 “salt” and pepper (
)
First off you all know I’m a traditionalist. You can tell by how I rank these places. That said, these are definitely on the more artisan side. But I like them a lot.
The onion and everything bagels were nicely crisp on the outside, good chew. Loaded with seasonings on both sides and I do like that. (that is not traditional - usually toppings are on one side – has to do with old school ovens) They may be a little light in the interior. I kind of favor a little more density, but these were outstanding.
I will ignore the abomination that is salt & pepper. First of all if you don’t load it with coarse salt, it’s not a salt bagel. No fine ground. This one had no detectable salt, but nice flecks of … pepper. Yeah hard pass.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve had bagels. And even longer since I’ve had Belles so I don’t quite remember them. I think they may be denser than this but I do not recall. So I will not judge. I will just say that these are damn good.
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You of keto? Or is this a cheat day?
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Off. Been off for a couple of weeks. Going back on Tuesday.
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I enjoyed Belle’s bagel too.
Bagels are controversial and I can’t explain the bases for my bagel opinions but based just on neural network mental excitement here is how I rank bagel places I go to:
-favorite-
Saint Raf’s
Belle’s
Maury’s
Courage
-less favorite-
Seems controversial because during the storm of the century, Tropical Storm Whatever, there were folks lined up at Courage at 7 a.m. I like Courage and was planning to go there but not to wait in line in the rain at 7 a.m.
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Well Barney is The Sturgeon King…
Question for you SoCal’ers. Do your bagels have seeds etc. all over the bagel? Ours do and I love it. Where we buy ours, the owner said 'isn’t that part of why people buy them?
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I never paid that close attention, but I’m pretty sure the ones we get from NYB&D generally have the toppings all over.
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@Gr8pimpin - very good to get your take on the St. Rafs!
As I recall you and I have very similar bagels prefs so now I am looking forward to trying these 
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Definitely! So many different preferences out there.
When it comes to a Bagel, for me it’s kind of what is most like my Jewish roots back east. And some places I don’t think they make a traditional bagel, but I still love them. As tasty great bread. Lol
Hmmm. I think they are on one side. Old school.
I like those. Definitely my top 5. They are very traditional. I think they still use the I&Joy recipe there.
My top may still be Belle’s but it’s been a year or two since I’ve had them so I may feel differently today.
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Maybe some of the toppings get pushed around during transit. 
I recently had 2. There were def exponentially more topping on one side, but I could’ve sworn both sides had SOME. I’ll check when I’m home.
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I love those things they call “bialys”. They are definitely the old I&Joy version of a bialy.
I think I have only had a bialy once. IIRC, it was at La Guardia airport. I rather enjoyed it. 
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First time I went to NYC with my husband we had a bialy. Loved it. We had a bagel shop in SF that sometimes had them.
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Heard these guys are making great bialys and they deliver nationwide. Looks very legit like the ones we used to get growing up in Queens.
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Yeah that looks like a real bialy.
For the folks that don’t know:
The ones at NY Bagel & Deli are not by any stretch real Bialys. But they’re very tasty.
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Just go to NYC already lol! Go wild with the bagel shops and appetizing counters to your hearts content!
A fresh from the oven bagel with cream cheese is the stuff that dreams are made of.
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When I think about food in New York, the first places I think about are Ess a Bagel and Russ & Daughters.
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Our friend lives in what I call the Upper Upper West Side and we would get them at Absolute Bagels.
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