Other than maybe pizza, there’s no more quintessential New York food than the bagel. At it’s best, its the perfect chewy, slightly sweet & crunchy vessel for nearly any topping. But that doesn’t mean all toppings are equal. The classic cream cheese is always hard to beat. Then there’s every New Yorker’s favorite hangover helper the bacon, egg & cheese.
But to me the bagel in it’s most perfect form is topped with its Jewish cousin Lox. New York has an abundance of great cured and smoked salmon and and it’s salty flavor and chewy texture are the perfect compliment to the perfect bagel.
Great bagels can be found throughout the city. But the three guys below stand out as the spots I keep coming back to for more:
Murray’s Bagels (500 6th Avenue & 242 8th Avenue, Manhattan) On top of perhaps the perfect bagel, Murray’s also has the best selection of smoked fish. In addition to the classic Nova Scotia, they offer their salmon NINE additional ways. I’m partial to the traditional, but other favorites are the Pastrami and slightly richer Sockeye.
Black Seed Bagels (170 Elizabeth St., 176 1st Avenue & 200 Vesey Street, Manhattan) It feels a little weird putting these guys are on here because the bagels they serve are actually a hybrid of Montreal & New York style. But they’re just too good not to include. This is the one place I skip the traditional Lox and instead head for their signature Beet Cured. They also do monthly collaborations with other chefs that don’t involve salmon, but have yielded some pretty cool sandwiches.
Frankel’s Delicatessen (631 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn)ย This is the one on the list I can walk to on a Saturday morning and I end up here several times a month. And I order the same thing every time: The Number ONE. Pastrami Salmon, Scallion Cream Cheese and Dill Cucumber. My preference is an Everything Pumpernickel bagel. But there’s no wrong answer here.
PRO TIP: ACME SMOKED FISH (30 Gem Street, Brooklyn) Acme Smoked Fish doesn’t actually sell bagels. Nor is it even a shop. It’s a smoked fish processing plant in Greenpoint that supplies the lox to Frankel’s and many of the other top delis in NYC. While it’s normally closed to the public, on Friday mornings from 7am-1pm you can buy their fish WHOLESALE including chef’s specials not available anywhere else. It’s New York’s best kept secret in smoked fish!
