Can I find a good Bainbridge Island bagel at... Coquette Bake Shop
Bainbridge is known for pickleball, but what about it's bagel game?
Welcome to It’s A Shanda, one Northeastern Jew’s quest to find a decent bagel in Seattle (and beyond). If you’re interested in taking this journey with me, make sure you subscribe so you never miss a review. Consider a paid subscription to get special bonus content. If you want to ensure I review any specific bagels (or want to let me know why I’m wrong), you can email me at seanmatthewkeeley@gmail.com or leave a comment below.
Before I wrote about bagels all the time, I used to work for a real estate company that focused on active adult communities, otherwise known as communities for adults 55 and older. Tasked with writing about the many, many, many communities around the country and what makes them so appealing, I would often find myself digging into the amenities that they offered. That was my introduction to the sport of pickleball.
This was back in the halcyon days of 2018 when pickleball, a sort of combination of tennis, racquetball, and ping-pong, was really just starting to emerge. All over the country, communities were swapping out tennis courts for pickleball courts, professional leagues started sprouting up, and people were sharing the gospel of the “fastest-growing sport in America.”
It was also how I learned that pickleball was created on Bainbridge Island. As the story goes, the game was created by former Washington lieutenant governor Joel Pritchard and two friends, Barney McCallum and Bill Bell. There are conflicting stories about the origin of the name, with Joan Pritchard, Joel’s wife, saying the motion of the game reminded her of the pickle boat in crew, though it’s also been said the game was named for the family dog, Pickles.
On a recent day trip to Bainbridge, I felt like it finally clicked for me why and how pickleball came to be here. Walking through the Winslow neighborhood, I saw a lot of commonality between the local scene and what I would see in vibrant active adult communities. The game’s fun-but-not-too-intense vibe seemed to fit well with the island’s lifestyle. That vibe extends into other aspects of life as well.
It’s that upscale-but-lowkey atmosphere that seems primed for a good bagel. While preparing for my visit, I did a quick search to see if there were any worth considering during my short trip. While there are several places that sell bagels, the only one that really stood out was the Coquette Bake Shop. What limited Bainbridge bagel resources were available all seemed to point in their direction. It was also intriguing to see that they only made bagels Friday through Sunday and that it was common for them to sell out.
Thanks to a cold winter and dissatisfaction with the local bakery scene in Jacksonville, Oregon, Tristen and Jerry Childers launched the original Coquette Bakery out of a barn on their farm around 2010.
The farm life can be a tough one and the couple had a fond appreciation for vacations on Bainbridge Island. So much so that, around 2013, they swapped locations with Tristen’s sister and made the Puget Sound island their new home.
“Denika had always dreamed of working on a farm, and I was exhausted,” Tristen told Bainbridge Island Review. “Bainbridge is a great fit for our three kids. My parents live two houses down from us, and we’re a ferry ride away from an amazing city.”
A brief stint selling baked goods at the farmer’s market got word of mouth going and it wasn’t long before demand necessitated a dedicated location. Coquette Bake Shop & Creamery was reborn in the form of a cart and kiosk in the Winslow Mall.
From the beginning, they sold New York-style bagels along with milk chocolate chip cookies, baguette sandwiches, and other pastries. Pretty soon they expanded those offerings to include crossiants (which they earned plenty of praise for), puddings, and other baked goodies.
In early 2023, they made the move into their current space in the Winslow Green retail center. There, they have indoor and outdoor seating that make Coquette a morning destination for locals and those making the trek into town from the ferry. It offers “a vibe that channels your inner coastal grandmother,” according to The Infatuation.
While the location might not be as “prime” as the original spot, it offered a lot more room and opportunity.
“The silver lining in all this is that when one door closes another door opens,” Jerry told The Island Wanderer in February. “I’m in the business of bringing joy to people’s lives one latte and one croissant at a time… I’ll be fine here.”
Around this time, it seems like the hype around Coquette’s bagels started to grow, at least locally. So by the time I arrived in town on a recent Saturday, I was intrigued. I probably shouldn’t have been too surprised when, at 11:30 a.m., I rolled up to the counter to order some of their finest bagels and was told they’d been long sold out at that point.
If you’ve learned anything about me at this point, it’s that whether your bagels are hard to get due to demand or long lines, I will find a way.
And so, I returned the next Friday, catching an early ferry to make sure I was on the island not long after the shop opened. I arrived at 9:00 a.m. this time and would not be denied. The bagels were present and accounted for in a small tray atop the counter.
It was time to find out if Bainbridge Island’s best hope for a good bagel was worth the ferry trip.
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED
Everything bagel with plain cream cheese.
Plain bagel as-is.
THE EXPERIENCE
Winslow Green is exactly the kind of quaint community hangout spot you’d expect to find on Bainbridge. The welcoming green space and gazebo lead you toward the retail shops, which are underneath what must be some highly coveted apartments. Coquette is located right in the middle of it all and the courtyard seating out front fills up pretty quickly in the morning as every person in Winslow descends on the bake shop (at least that’s how it seemed).
I was very happy to see the bagels atop the counter and it seemed as though all flavors were still available. Pickins were slim in terms of numbers so I don’t imagine they get too many orders for a dozen. But I was able to get my usual plain and everything options. Cream cheese comes as an add-on in the form of a little packet, so that was something to note.
I got the sense that they definitely limit the amount of bagels they make each day. For what it’s worth, I happened to look back at the counter around 9:45 a.m. and it appeared that they were sold out. It made me wonder why, if that’s a given, they wouldn’t want to make more bagels in order to meet the demand. But that’s also a question I have for a lot of Seattle-area bagel places these days.
UPON FIRST GLANCE
I’ve had a few bagels here that seem a little small to me, but this was the first time I was dealing with something so flat. Like, noticeably flat. To the point where I assumed something might have gone wrong here.
This past week I wrote a post for paid subscribers about how we define what a bagel is, which was motivated in part by these bagels. The flatness was just the start, and it ended up making me question everything I thought I knew about bread circles.
TOP
It was a little hard to get past the flatness but, putting that aside for a moment, the initial look at the top of the plain bagel was positive. The golden brown color was nice, though it was pretty soft to the touch with some slight bubbling. Things got weird on the sides where, thanks to the extremely flatness of the bagel, it was almost sharp. I’d never handled a bagel with an edge before (I never tried “squagels”).
The everything bagel was similar. Very flat. Soft to the touch. It was a lighter brown, which I think tends to happen with everything bagels due to a concern of burning the onions and seeds. There was a decent seed hand, though.
BOTTOM
This is where the flatness of the bagel really hampered things. I didn’t detect much cornmeal on either and I appreciated that there was some seeding on the everything. The bottoms of the bagels were both soft and I noticed an oily coating, as if they had been brushed with olive oil. It made my hands a little greasy.
INSIDE/BITE
The plain bagel has a crispness on the rip and I have to say there was a decent crunch on the bite. It seemed like the bagel’s lack of bulk ended up helping to create crunchy “corners,” weird as that might sound. The interior was very doughy as well.
While it had a bagel-y smell on the inside, I was struck by the greasy feeling on my hands. When I took in the entire sensory experience, including the flat, crisp exterior, doughy interior, and oily coating, it almost reminded me more of focaccia than a bagel.
For the everything bagel, I had a challenge ahead of me when it came to the cream cheese application. The bagel was so thin that cutting into it offered a razor-thin possibility that I wouldn’t absolutely destroy the thing. Sure enough, slicing into the bagel was a nightmare. Not only did I end up with a weirdly small top but because of the oil, my hand was crusted with more everything toppings than the bagel.
The cream cheese itself was blah and it called out for the bake shop to make their own. But the bagel itself was still a crispy bite. It was a salt-forward bagel, but I’m not sure if that’s just because I took most of the toppings off on the cut. I definitely noted some crunch on the bites and I have to admit I finished the whole thing.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Granular specifics may vary but I think we all have a generally understood definition of what constitutes a bagel. At the very least, to borrow a phrase, you know it when you see it. Coquette's offering certainly resembles a bagel and has a lot of the characteristics that we would associate with a bagel. But I’m not sure I can say that what I ate here was, in fact, a bagel.
This was a bagel-esque focaccia roll. A bagaccia? A fogel? Whatever the name might be, it was very much its own thing.
And here’s the wildest part. I kinda liked it. I mean, it wasn’t a great bagel by the standards we use here to rank them, but it was, for the most part, more enjoyable to eat than many of the other bagels I’ve had in the region.
One caveat that I want to note is that when I look at the pictures of bagels on Coquette’s social media channels, they look different. They look like normal bagels. So there’s a possibility here that I caught them on the worst day possible, or on a day in which they decided to do some experimentation. Invariably, a Second Schmears review will be in order at some point.
Is It Good Enough For The Goys?
Look, by all accounts the Bainbridge Island goyim love this place, and with good reason. I didn’t try any of the pastries or breads but they looked great. And given the dearth of bagels on the island, this is still the best they’re gonna get without a ferry ride. I think they wisely limit their numbers each day in order to keep the hype going. But it was clear that a morning stop at Coquette is required for many islanders and should be a stop for visitors as well.
Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews
Look, I’ve got a rep to protect. So I can’t in good conscience say this is a great bagel, especially when I’m not sure it qualifies as a bagel. But I have to be honest, and the honest truth is that I enjoyed eating…whatever it was. I was keenly aware that I was eating something bagel-adjacent, but I also knew that I would gladly choose to eat it again over some of the other options available in the region. I’d be curious to hear what others have to think about it, especially if they discover a product more in line with bagel standards.
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (7/24/23)
OUTSIDE SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS
The Bagelry (Bellingham)
Howdy Bagel (Tacoma)
Coquette Bake Shop (Bainbridge Island)
Otherside Bagel Co. (Bellingham)
Whidbey Island Bagel Factory (Mt. Vernon, Whidbey Island)
Thanks for actually reading this far. If you enjoyed my Seattle bagel review and want to read more of them, make sure you’re subscribed to It’s A Shanda. Know someone in the Greater Seattle Area (or beyond) who would appreciate way-too-detailed reviews of local bagels? Please forward the link their way.
Well, you have to come back to B.I. Because there is a new bagel shop that everyone is oohing and ahing about, called Briny Bagels in Rolling Bay neighborhood. They are only open on Thursdays and Saturdays. I personally have never had them, because I ‘m not wild about bagels, but it sounds like you are. Enjoy! Alisa