Can I find a good Seattle bagel at... Eltana

Montreal-style bagels, we meet again.

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. If you want to make sure I review any specific bagels (or want to let me know why I’m wrong), you can email me at seanmatthewkeeley@gmail.com.

I do not understand the appeal of Montreal-style bagels.

They’re like normal bagels but…less of them.

They tend to be thinner than the New York-style bagel, which…is that a good thing?

They’re boiled in honey-sweetened water to make them sweeter. Okay. I mean, if I wanted a donut, I’d order a donut.

I can’t say I’ve ever had bagels in Montreal or at any establishment that is supposed to have the very best Montreal-style bagels, such as St-Viateur Bagel or Fairmount Bagel. I’ve had Montreal-style bagels in various places across the U.S. and I’ve pretty much never come away thinking they’re good. If anything, Montreal-style bagel places tend to do weird things like put oats on everything bagels or be one of those places with rainbow bagels (more on that soon).

So admittedly, I already come in biased anytime I’m going to try Montreal-style bagels, because, as of yet, I have yet to understand their appeal. My bias, unfortunately, doubles when it comes to Eltana because the first time I ever went to one of their locations, I thought it was a chain not unlike Einstein Bros. or Brueggers.

Blame the drab, suburban look of the building for their Wallingford location for the mixup. There was just something about the color scheme and feel of the property that made me assume I was walking into a corporate bagel shop. I have thought in the time since that my preconceived notions might have influenced the way I perceived the bagel I got that day and did not enjoy.

So much was I against this “corporate brand” that when I saw J. Kenji López-Alt had included them on his list of the best bagels in Seattle ( “as good as New York”), I flipped a gasket on the Seattle subreddit.

What can I say, I am emotional about bagels. And I still stand by that Mt. Bagel sentiment even though they’re gone.

I’ve since come to realize that Eltana is no corporate behemoth. They are, in fact, a two-store operation right here in Seattle, with one location in Capitol Hill and the other aforementioned Wallingford outpost.

The Capitol Hill spot was the original home of Eltana, opening in 2011 with their wood-fired bagels (which are Montreal-style but they don’t like to use that term) and a menu full of Eastern Mediterranean flavors.

“Most of the West Coast’s bagels are either not really bagels because they’re not boiled before being baked, or they’re New York style, very doughy and salty,” Eltana co-owner Stephen Brown told Seattle Met in 2011. “Seattle bagel shops are really sandwich shops, serving sandwiches on round breads with holes in the center.”

Shots fired, sir. Though to be fair, he wasn’t wrong (and perhaps still isn’t?)

Looking back with 2022 Seattle bagel scene eyes, you can see how Eltana was considered one of the original local bagel purveyors expected to help create a schmear scene the city could call its own.

Things went so well for Eltana that they announced a Wallingford expansion by 2012. Brown told Capitol Hill Seattle at the time that “our plans will take us beyond Seattle.” Soon after, Brown told Seattle Met that Eltana planned to become one of the vendors in the upcoming Seattle Center House food court.

Whatever those grand plans were at the time, they seemed to have changed along the way. While the bagel company did have a stand in what would become Seattle Center Armory, that’s long gone. However, they have apparently opened an outpost in Japan, of all places, as part of a Boeing-related partnership.

If there’s more to Eltana’s world domination plans out there, I haven’t seen it. A Capitol Hill Seattle blog post from 2017 notes “four Eltanas across Seattle with plans for more around the region” but I believe that includes the aforementioned Armory stand and a closed South Lake Union outpost.

All of which is to say that it tells an interesting story about a bagel place that many Seattleites seem to hold dear. Now that we’re in the “golden age of Capitol Hill bagels,” and Seattle bagels as it were, many point to Eltana as one of the places that kickstarted that trend. They appear on just about every “best bagels in Seattle” write-up, including Eater Seattle, Seattle Met, Dished, Do206, SeattlePI, and the aforementioned J. Kenji López-Alt list.

They were also a pretty cool presence during the CHOP protests, refusing to board up their windows and working to help support systemic change beyond just giving out free food.

On the business side, their grand expansion plans never came together for whatever reason, with half of their locations closing. And when you look at the comments, there’s perhaps no bagel place in Seattle more divisive, with opinions ranging from “best in the city” and “amazing” to “worst bagel in this or any other city” and “sucks.”

So, setting aside preconceived notions and previous experience, I trekked to the Capitol Hill location to get the original Eltana experience in order to find out who’s right and whether or not this Seattle institution’s reputation is well-earned.

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

WHAT I ORDERED

• Toasted everything bagel with za’atar scallion cream cheese.

• Untoasted plain bagel as-is.

• Untoasted salt bagel with za’atar scallion cream cheese.

THE EXPERIENCE

Part of the charm of visiting Eltana is that you’re going to get an authentic Capitol Hill walking experience as part of it, pretty much no matter which direction you come from. Walking inside you’re greeted with high, industrial ceilings over a lot of wood-centric details meant to invoke the wood-fired cooking style they employ. There’s also a mini wall of bagels featuring all of their flavors, including rainbow bagels (🚩).

(Look, if you’re going to tell me that the rainbow bagels are in honor of Capitol Hill’s thriving LGBTQIA+ community, fine. But rainbow bagels have long been a scourge of bagel purists seen in trendy and non-traditional bagel shops and they always send up an alarm about a bagel place’s bona fides. They’re also very passé.)

That aside, the massive garage-style window that opens next to the seating area helps connect the shop with the city outside. And the place is certainly buzzy, with lines of customers coming and going almost the entire time.

UPON FIRST GLANCE

Why are these bagels so small? What is happening here? Is this some kind of prank?

Like, I’ve been to places with smaller bagels than the norm but this is kinda ridiculous, especially considering there doesn’t seem to be any kind of discount for the diminutive stature of these little guys ($2 each).

They’re so small I ended up getting a third one to try because the first two barely scratched the itch.

TOP

My understanding of Montreal-style bagels is that they are boiled in water with honey and then wood-fired in order to give them a crunchier crust and a deeper, richer crust flavor. None of the bagels I bite into had any crunch whatsoever on the top, so I’m not really sure what to make of that. I did detect a slight sweetness to the crust, but I wouldn’t say that was a good thing. I remain very perplexed by this desire for a “sweet” bagel.

The plain bagel had some strange “wrinkles” on the top. I don’t think it impacted the taste or anything, but again, there was definitely no crunch here.

The everything toppings appeared to be mostly sesame seed, poppy seed, and salt. If there were any garlic or onion in there, they were pretty sparse. So, not sure we can even say that’s an everything bagel. It’s more of a “most of the stuff” bagel.

I actually found the salt bagel to be the most satisfying from a topping perspective. Salt bagels are tough. You have the old-school mentality to drown the sucker in salt so that eating it is like pouring a salt lick into your mouth. And then you have the reactive salt bagel, which just offers a dusting. This salt bagel actually had some substance, giving off that quintessential salt flavor without making your eyes water.

INSIDE

It appears to be a point of pride for Eltana that their bagels are denser. Look, I can be a big fan of a dense bagel, but density alone isn’t enough. The interior of the bagel was certainly doughy but it was also slightly bready. A good dense bagel has some moisture in there to give it some “bounce.” These bagels were dryer and erred on the side of breadiness, which, I think, we’re trying to avoid.

For those who know, one of the keys to this experiment is that we want to experience the bagels as-is. We want the bagels to stand on their own and speak for themselves. That’s why I order untoasted bagels whenever possible. I realized after the fact that Eltana automatically toasts their bagels (🚩🚩). So when it came to getting the third bagel, it was requested as untoasted, to which the cashier said, with a look of surprise at the request, “We find that our bagels get softer when toasted” ((🚩🚩🚩).

So it probably should not surprise you to learn that the untoasted salt bagel had an almost-staleness to the interior, which they’re presumably masking when they toast them. Look, I’m not a “toasted bagels are trash” purist or anything, but anytime you “need” to toast your bagels before serving them to me, it’s a flag.

As for the schmear, I got the za’atar scallion cream cheese. Gotta say, big fan of za’atar. It’s a great flavor that really came through. As for the scallion, I could see a few bits of scallion peppered in there but hell if I could taste any of them. Had I not known I would have assumed it was plain. This is a recurring issue in the Seattle scallion cream cheese scene.

BOTTOM

Much like with the top, the bottoms of the bagels didn’t provide much, if any, crunch. Not much more to it than that, really.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s a place in Skokie, Illinois called Kaufman’s that serves bagels on the smaller side. However, those bagels excelled in every other way to make up for their diminutive size. I bring this up to make it clear that when it comes to bagels, size doesn’t ultimately matter. Or at least, if you’re on the smaller side, so long as you know what you’re doing with it, you can still provide a very enjoyable experience (Are we still talking about bagels here?).

However, the flip side is that if you’re going to serve me a Lilliputian bagel, and it’s also not giving me crunch or flavor or a fluffy interior, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. You’re creating a challenge for yourself that’s already hard to overcome without giving me many reasons to consider spending $2 on a tiny bagel when I can get a better, and larger, one elsewhere for the same price.

Is It Good Enough For The Goys?

Apparently. As I mentioned up top, Eltana has a pretty devoted following here in Seattle, even if those who dislike it seem just as devoted. Just as many people have told me they love Eltana as those who have told me they hate it. I think the Mediterranean flavor profiles that they offer help create a unique overall experience that you’re not going to find in too many local spots. And hey, if you love rainbow bagels, they’ve got you.

Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?

Much like I did when I saw the size of these things, I can’t imagine too many Northeastern Jews acting differently. And while that place Kaufman’s is considered an institution in Skokie, home to a sizable Jewish population, I can say that whatever qualms the locals have about the bagel size are dissuaded by their quality. I just didn’t come away from Eltana feeling like there was enough “there” there to return.

Plus, I really cannot stress enough how tiny these bagels are.

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? Forward the link their way.