Can I find a good Seattle bagel at... Grateful Bread
"Dont tell me this town ain't got no heart. you just gotta poke around."
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In October 2022, A Taste of Denmark Bakery in Oakland closed its doors permanently. The neighborhood fixture had been rebranded in recent years but was originally known as Neldam’s Bakery. Danish immigrant Axel "George" Neldam opened the business in 1929. When it celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2004, the festivities were attended by then-Mayor Jerry Brown.
George’s son Milo worked at the bakery and so did his grandson Rod. But when Milo sold his stake in 1988, Rod broke away from the family business, becoming a regional sales representative for Baxter Manufacturing Co., which made industrial rack ovens. When he and his wife Judy moved their family to Seattle in the 1990s, he started working with the local restaurant community and noticed a bagel renaissance happening. Given his background in baking and access to industrial ovens, it seemed like a no-brainer to join in.
"We were setting up people with bagel shops who had no experience," Rod told Puget Sound Business Journal in 2004.
"I said, 'Shoot, why don't we do this?' " Judy said.
And so, in 1996, they opened Grateful Bread in Wedgewood in what was originally a 7-Eleven. For Gen Z readers, the name is a reference to the Grateful Dead, which was fronted by Jerry Garcia, who once played at the Neldams’ Bay Area high school. And anyone who has ever been there will know that there’s a photo of Garcia on the wall and a wood cutout of him out front.
The initial spot did so well that they decided to open a second location in lower Queen Anne in 1998. However, that shop failed to take off and closed eight months later.
It took a while but Grateful Bread finally did expand for good, opening a sister spot in Duvall, about 40 minutes east of Seattle, in 2014. They also opened The Grange Café there in 2007, cementing their culinary footprint in the Eastside town.
Still, much like Neldam’s Bakery before it, Grateful Bread remains a neighborhood staple for those in Wedgewood looking for a morning coffee, loaf of bread, pastries, and a variety of bagels and schmears. Even as Starbucks, Top Pot, and other chains have surrounded the store, it remains a go-to spot for locals, many of whom swear by their bagels.
But when it comes to this newsletter, there’s only one person to swear to…
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED
Toasted everything bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese.
Untoasted plain bagel as is.
THE EXPERIENCE
Grateful Bread certainly lives up to its reputation as a real neighborhood haunt. When I got there on a Sunday morning, the tiny lot was a revolving door of cars cramming into parking spaces and maneuvering around families walking from their nearby homes. The line reached out the door and I was immediately worried that the morning rush might have claimed all the good bagels for themselves. Thankfully, those fears were assuaged.
They have a solid selection of all the flavor favorites and I was able to get my usuals. Because they don’t do scallion cream cheese, however, I opted instead for the herb and garlic.
UPON FIRST GLANCE
At first glance, the color of the bagels had me worried. The plain was brown enough, if slightly on the lighter side. The everything bagel, though, was what I wrote in my notes as “sickly brown.” More of a tan than a brown, really.
The cream cheese application was also a little slight, at least from where this Northeasterner is sitting. Though that would come to be a blessing.
TOP
The top of the plain bagel was very shiny. There were slight bubbles and cracks as well as a few interesting quirks in the exterior. But there wasn’t much in the way of crispness and it was pretty rubbery when I would try to bend it.
The everything bagel’s taupe coloring might have been helped here with a heavy seasoning hand. That’s not the case though, as the seasoning is pretty slight. I did detect a little salt, at least.
BOTTOM
No cornmeal ring of doom here, so that was a positive. The bagel had one of those bottoms with massive crevices (teehee), much like we saw at Ben & Esther’s. It’s not what I’d traditionally expect to see but it can be helpful when looking for some crunch. That said, the everything bagel’s bottom did have a little bit of crispness but the plain did not.
INSIDE/BITE
I tore into the plain bagel and found that it was a pretty effective rip, though there wasn’t any kind of crispiness or crackling. The interior was soft and dense but lacked the pillowy fluff I’d love to see. There was an ever-so-tiny crunch on the bite and it was slightly tough in a good way. The inside of the bagel center was fairly chewy, too. I got the authentic bagel smell that I would hope for, no sourdough here.
The qualities of the everything bagel were a bit tougher to suss out because that herb and garlic cream cheese was so deeply unpleasant and overpowering. I was picking whole chunks of uncooked garlic out of there in order to make it workable, but even then, I just found the taste so off-putting. The pungent flavor overwhelmed the bagel and truly made it an unappetizing experience.
As for the bagel itself, as the color indicated, it was slightly undercooked. It offered a very doughy bite and not much in the way of crunch.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It seems like there are many ways where Grateful Bread is a true local institution and I bet many of their bready offerings live up to the hype. The bagels, however, did not. I’d probably have to go back at some point and try a bagel with plain cream cheese because that herb and garlic spread was so upsetting. But even then, I’m not sure I’ll be in a rush to head back to Grateful Bread. I’ll probably just keep on Truckin’.
Is It Good Enough For The Goys?
I don’t think there’s any denying that the Wedgewood locals love Grateful Bread and are happy to grab a bagel with their morning coffee or cinnamon roll. I’d encourage them to consider the 15-minute walk to Bagel Oasis instead, but supporting either local business over one of the chains works.
Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?
As the Grateful Dead might put it, there’s “nothin’ shakin’ on Shakedown Street.”
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR
Grateful Bread
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I’ve probably eaten more gb bagels than anywhere else in Seattle and I can confirm I’ve had a similar experience… at times. What’s truly wild about gb is they can be very inconsistent. I would at least consider giving them another try.