Can I find a good Seattle bagel at... Zylberschtein's Delicatessen & Bakery

"Hashem doesn't owe us anything. The obligation runs the other way."

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Area is home to around 63,400 Jews, give or take, based on recent U.S. Census data. That’s about 1.6 percent of the total population, so, not that much.

Still, the Jewish population in the region has boomed in recent decades after measuring around 37,000 at the start of the 21st century. In fact, according to a 2015 study, the number of Jews in the Greater Seattle Area increased 70 percent since 2001, and the Jewish population was outpacing Seattle’s overall growth numbers, which is saying something given how much the region has attracted newbies in recent years.

Invariable, that kind of cultural influx was sure to bring with it other things beyond temples and Bar Mitzvah caterers. Jews, infamously, love to eat. Also infamously, Jews love bagels.

Josh Grunig was part of that 21st-century Jewish Seattle influx, arriving in 2012 to work at Grand Central Bakery, according to his bio. From there he started his own pop-up bakery (Pocket Bakery) and then a brick-and-mortar one (Standard Bakery).

Then, in 2018, he decided to go full-steam ahead with bringing a Jewish deli to Seattle. After successfully raising enough money via a Kickstarter campaign, Zylberschtein's Delicatessen & Bakery opened in North Seattle’s Pinehurst neighborhood in 2019.

“Zylberschtein’s is the full realization of my dream to be a small neighborhood bakery and deli,” Grunig told Eater Seattle in 2019. “This is what I have always dreamt about, building community through food. Using local ingredients and looking back at my family recipes is the main focus. Now I just want to be an exceptional neighborhood spot.”

Since then, it’s hard to find a list of Seattle’s best bagels that don’t include this Jewish deli, including those made by Eater Seattle, Seattle Met, Seattle PI, Do206, and food writer and chef J. Kenji López-Alt. There are a handful of Seattle bagel purveyors that seem to be considered the gold standard amongst locals and Zylberschtein's is among them.

And so, as a Jew who also arrived (initially) in Seattle in the 2010s, I feel a compassionate interest in seeking out and supporting Zylberschtein’s. On the other hand, if you’re going to send up the signal that you are the Seattle spot for Jewish cuisine, the bar is going to be high. The Jews who flocked to Seattle in the last two decades came from places where their bagels set a standard. And it’s one thing to consider a bagel made by some goy attempting to schmooze their way into the space, but it’s another thing altogether to stamp your Jewish bona fides on one.

If you’re gonna have a menu that includes potato knish, chopped liver, and matzo ball soup, you’re setting a tone. We come from Jewish mothers and grandmothers, not to mention hometown delicatessens, who have already perfected those items in our minds.

Can you possibly live up to that?

In the 2009 Coen Brothers film “A Serious Man,” Larry Gopnik is a Jewish man dealing with a crisis of faith as his world crumbles around him. He seeks out advice from a series of rabbis, telling one of them, “I want an answer!"

“Sure! We all want the answer!” responds the rabbi. “But Hashem doesn't owe us the answer, Larry. Hashem doesn't owe us anything. The obligation runs the other way.”

Is it Zylberschtein’s responsibility to prove to me that it upholds the high expectations that come with being a Jewish deli, even in Seattle, or is the onus on me to trust that they are the bagel purveyor they claim to be? Can the roughly 63,400 of us around here simply accept what we’ve been told?

Or at the very least, are their bagels good enough to require ongoing trips up to Pinehurst from all of us centrally located Seattle folks? Let’s find out.

And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.

WHAT I ORDERED

• Untoasted everything bagel with chive cream cheese.

• Untoasted plain bagel as-is.

• *A previously ordered plain bagel as-is from my failed first attempt last week.

THE EXPERIENCE

Given the drama that occurred in my initial visit to Zylberschtein’s when they RAN OUT OF BAGELS BY 10:30 A.M. ON SATURDAY, I made sure to get there bright and early. I showed up at 8:00 a.m. and was pretty surprised to see no line at the cashier window. Like, literally not a person.

This says less about Zylberschtein’s and is more of an indictment of the people of Seattle. Can you imagine rolling into a bagel shop at 8:00 a.m. in New Jersey and not expecting it to be 12 people deep?

This time, the order process was smooth and simple. I had my bagels within minutes and was on my way. I made sure to check the bag before driving all the way home this time…

UPON FIRST GLANCE

Something I’ve noticed about bagels in Seattle is that they tend to be on the smaller side. Zylberschtein’s is no exception as the plain bagel was essentially the size of my closed fist. That’s small. And it also made me think about it from a value perspective.

You can still find great bagels back east for under $2. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it remains the expectation that your bagel will cost you less than $2. That’s not the case once you get out into the world, which might be part of the reason places fail to measure up to New York and New Jersey. Not only are the bagels, more often than not, subpar, but they cost more (the plain ran $2.50 here, specialty flavors go for $3.50). It’s not THAT much more, and I’m not trying to single out Zylberschtein’s over this because I’ve eaten plenty of worse bagels, but I suppose I’m just thinking out loud about value propositions and how that’ll be in the back of my mind every time I notice how small the bagels are here.

In terms of how they look, I’d say the plain has some good color but I have concerns about the texture. The everything bagel is loaded with toppings but my eyes do notice the curious lack of something that we’ll get to in a minute.

Also, on both occasions that I visited Zylberschtein’s, the bagels have been pretty uneven, with one plump side and one skinny side. That’s not inherently bad if you’re just eating the bagel as-is, but if you’re cutting into it to make a sandwich or add some schmear, it creates a bit of an imbalanced eating scenario. The bite from the plump side is going to be way different than the bite on the skinny side. Having to think about those kinds of equations isn’t something I’m used to doing with a bagel.

TOP

In the plain bagel from the prior week, a got slight crispiness from biting into the top, but I didn’t perceive much of a crunch. This week’s plain bagel followed through on the crispiness but also had a slight crunch, which improved things. It wasn’t the crackly top that I’d most want, but there was enough texture there to appease.

What we need to talk about, however, is the top of the everything bagel. As you can see, it’s loaded with most of the essential items you’d expect to find on an everything bagel. Sesame seeds, poppy seeds, garlic, onion.

I didn’t mention salt because, as far as I could tell, there is none.

You can get a hi-res look at their everything bagel here and confirm it for yourself.

Is this a thing? I can’t say I’ve encountered many authentic everything bagels that don’t have salt. Especially because the lack of salt throws off the whole flavor balance. Without a sprinkle of salt, the char of the baked seeds and onion overpowers the rest of the flavors. It’s not terrible, it just tastes…off.

I don’t know if this is some kind of health decision but in terms of what makes an everything bagel an everything bagel, I can accept that you don’t want it to be a salt bomb, but to remove salt entirely from the equation is to make it something that it isn’t.

INSIDE

I found the interiors of the bagels to be fluffy with a medium give, which is usually a best-case scenario when I’m trying new bagels. There’s a pillowy fluffiness that is extremely hard to replicate and very few places can pull it off, but as someone who wants the inside of the bagel to find that balance between cloud-like softness and chewy goodness, I felt like this texture was where Zylberschtein’s shined.

That said, I could not help but notice a distinct rye flavor and smell that came off the bagels. I’ve seen other people describe it as a sourdough-like taste. Either way, it’s not really supposed to be here. An ideal bagel doesn’t have a bready flavor. It has the undefinable “bagel flavor” that’s barely a flavor at all (I know that doesn’t make sense but it’s the best way I can describe it). I found myself distracted by the breadiness of the interior, which at times felt like I was tasting rye bread instead of a bagel.

BOTTOM

You want the bottom of the bagel to be the crunchiest part of the experience. A foundation that holds everything above it in place and offers up a crispy, crunchy experience that gives you a little texture bomb.

I found the bagels here to have a firm bottom (teehee) with some crispiness, but lacking the kind of crunch I want. Perhaps if the bagel cooked for a little bit longer, it could have developed that hard shell that really puts things over the top, but alas.

FINAL THOUGHTS

When I began this project, I knew that I was probably going to start with Zylberschtein’s, given how it’s one of the region’s few Jewish delis and is such a mainstay on everyone’s list of the best bagels in Seattle. My expectation was that I’d enjoy it enough to establish a solid baseline from which the rest of the bagels could be measured against.

Two trips and three bagels later, I can’t help but feel a little bit like Killmonger in Black Panther:

Look, I have a very strong suspicion that there are much worse bagels awaiting me on this journey. But in terms of the hype, I can’t say that Zylberschtein’s is the can’t-miss option I was hoping it would be. The bagel itself is fine. The oblong shape gives it character but makes for an awkward eating situation. The lack of salt on the everything bagel is unconscionable.

I’m going to eventually put together a kind-of ranking system that will put all of Seattle’s bagels in their proper perspective. Until then, I’ll end every review with two questions that, to me, sum up the totality of the “Seattle’s bagels are on par with NYC’s bagels” contention.

Is It Good Enough For The Goys?

Absolutely. I think Zylberschtein’s is exactly what goys want out of their Jewish deli experience. A decent-enough bagel that is better than whatever they can buy in a grocery store, coupled with some culinary options that allow them to dip their toes into Jewish culture without going full gefilte fish.

It’s also smartly placed in North Seattle, a bagel desert that elevates the reputation of the shop and its bagels. It’s the best bagel for miles, quite literally.

Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?

Let me put it this way. As a Northeastern Jew with a bagel affinity living in the Pacific Northwest, I’m willing to put in the effort to find a good one. And if I found a bagel worth it, I would happily drive a decent distance in order to procure it regularly rather than settle for some schmegegge bagel around the corner.

I live about seven miles south of Zylberschtein’s. It’s a drive that would take me around 15 minutes each way. It’s not a huge schlep but it’s not nothing either.

I thought the bagel was decent and, if I found myself in the area again, I would stop by and get one. But am I going to hop in the car every weekend just to get my bagel fix there? No, I’m not. And that says it all.

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If you want to make sure I review any specific bagels (or let me know how much you disagree with me), you can email me at seanmatthewkeeley@gmail.com.