Can I get a good Seattle bagel at... Hey Bagel
The game has changed.
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 ensure I review any specific bagels (or want to let me know why I’m wrong), you can email me at seanmatthewkeeley@gmail.com.
“There was a tension between me trying to chase this dragon in this dream of this bagel that I want versus, ‘Hey, this is great. Everybody loves it. Stick with it.’”
That was Andrew Rubinstein, founder of Rubinstein Bagels, explaining to Eater Seattle in July why he’d sold his ownership stake in the business to start fresh with a new venture.
It sounded like a very bold move. While the Seattle region has a fair share of regional bagel chains (Westman’s, Blazing Bagels, Eltana), Rubinstein has emerged as the one that best balances reach and quality. With two Seattle spots (SLU and Capitol Hill) and a Redmond location, they’ve only just begun putting their footprint on the region.
So it was fascinating to hear that the namesake of the business decided this was the ideal time to walk away and start over.
I tend to think of Rubinstein Bagels as the midline of Seattle bagels. Everything above it in my rankings is pretty good. Everything below it is, at best, suspect, and at worst, inedible. I still swing by from time to time because it’s convenient but I often tell people that the bagels are “fine.”
I couldn’t help but wonder, given its namesake’s background and comments, if that was part of it. Did the need for uniformity and scale take some of the joy out of the bagelmaking process?
In interviews with Seattle Met and Eater Seattle, Rubinstein cited a desire to be more available for his family and closer to home in Sammamish, but also discussed a desire to tweak his recipe and figure out how to bring artistry back into the process.
“I’ve changed some of the hydration, I’ve changed my fermentation times and my processes of rolling and shaping them,” he told Eater Seattle. “What I want is more craft…more bizarre-looking bagels at times.”
Rubinstein’s new venture, Hey Bagel, got off the ground in a hurry over the summer. As word spread and enticing Instagram images started getting noticed, they did a couple of Eastside pop-ups which were hugely successful with long lines and sell-outs.
“I’m back where it began, slaving away in my kitchen, going through rounds of trial and error,” said Rubinstein in a June IG post. “I'm on the hunt for a wickedly twisted variation of my past creations. As I’ve grown, I’ve tasted all sorts of bagels, chowed down on loaves of different breads, and had some kickass experiences. Now, I want to blend all that together into one epic concept.”
By November, Rubinstein started doing “bagel drops” where people could pre-order online and then pick up their bagels at a specific location. They’ve gone well enough that, one month later, there are several bagel drops scheduled all over the region, including a few in Seattle.
If you read my last post, you know that I was one of the lucky few to get their hands on some of those bagels during the Issaquah drop. I had some fun recounting the experience as if it were some kind of high-stakes illegal operation. And to be fair, showing up at a random parking garage to get something out of the back of a stranger’s car sure felt like something I wasn’t supposed to be doing. But I defintely wasn’t alone and it spoke to just how excited people are to get their hands on these bagels.
It all makes for quite a story, but the question is, as always, are the bagels actually good?
Let’s find out.
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED
Plain bagel as-is
Everything bagel with green onion cream cheese.
THE EXPERIENCE
As noted, I went over the experience of picking up the bagels in my previous post. It was pretty fun and you get to meet the owner/driver/delivery person while you’re getting a bag full of fresh bagels. You also get to look around and see all the other people deranged enough to buy bagels out of a parking garage. These are our people (I should note most of the drops appear to be in actual businesses, not just autonomous municipal structures).
UPON FIRST GLANCE
There’s a TikTok trend making the rounds about how sometimes when you’re flirting with someone, they flirt back at you way stronger than expected, throwing you off your game.
That’s kinda how I would feel every time I’d stop by Hey Bagel’s Instagram account. I’d just be casually going about my day, minding my own business, and then all of a sudden I’m face to face with this.
Jesus.
As soon as I peered into my bag of a half-dozen bagels, I knew that they were probably going to live up to the lofty expectations I already had. If you’ve seen enough bagels, you kinda just know. Y’know? And I knew.
(For the record I got two everythings, a plain, a sesame, a salt, and a salt-poppy (which we’ll get to)).
TOP
The top of the plain was a beautiful golden brown with darker spots from the bake. The hand roll was tight and the shape of the bagel was mostly even, though slightly oblong. The top was very crinkly to the touch and extremely firm in spots. The exterior was also very blistery and bubbly. All signs pointed to this being a crunchbomb.
The everything bagel was a bit more oblong, with one side bigger than the other. The coloring was very golden brown. The bagel top was firm to the touch with some crispness as well. There was a strong seed hand at work here. I noticed salt (AS GOD INTENDED) and it appeared to me that the sesame seeds were toasted, which was a nice touch.
BOTTOM
The plain bottom had a solid Cornmeal Ring of Doom, which, despite the name, we know is not always a bad sign. There were some intriguing crevices in different spots, promising some textural notes. The bottom was very firm to the touch and knockable.
The bottom of the everything bagel was also firm and knockable. It was also very well-seeded, which is always appreciated.
INSIDE/BITE
I tore into the plain bagel with an incredibly tough rip that crackled throughout. The interior gave off a pleasant sourdough-y smell. True to expectations, the bite was super crispy all over. It was a very consistent experience as well, as the bagel offered so many texture points that every bite provided a great balance. The interior of the bagel was very fluffy and buoyant, which meant it bounced back after every bite. There was no collapsing here. The chew was tough in the very best way. I also noted that while the bagel wasn’t hot out of the oven, it felt extremely fresh.
Slathering the green onion cream cheese onto the everything bagel, I did lose some seeds due to the cutting and schmearing. However, plenty of seasoning did remain. Speaking of, that cream cheese was absolutely loaded with green onion. The flavor paired really well with the everything seasoning. The flavor of the seeding was also very balanced.
While the cream cheese wasn’t a firm block, it was cold and sturdy, mostly staying in place as I ate the bagel. Also, it made for a great fallen-seed mopping mechanism.
The bagel itself offered a crispy crunch all the way through. Again, lots of texture points and very few, if any, uninteresting bites. It also rebounded well after each bite, which you don’t always get with a schmeared bagel when the moisture breaks down the interior. That wasn’t the case here as all the ingredients maintained their integrity.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As I said, I got six bagels in my order. I picked them up at 11:00 a.m. on a Wednesday. I got home around noon. All six of those bagels were gone by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. I suppose we could have frozen them but, honestly, even that felt blasphemous. These bagels needed to be eaten. They demanded it.
(All of the bagels were really good, but the salt-poppy may have been the most intriguing. I’ve heard a lot of people say they don’t like poppyseed bagels and I think it’s because they often don’t have enough flavor. But by adding salt into the mix, that completely transformed the profile. Highly recommended.)
If you can’t already tell, I loved these bagels. More than that, I have no qualms saying these are some of the best bagels I’ve ever eaten. I don’t know what the future holds for Hey Bagel and what happens when they finally open a brick-and-mortar shop, but right now, in this moment, this is the best bagel in the Seattle area and it’s not even close. I’ve already placed a new order for an upcoming bagel drop and I highly suggest you do the same.
Just do me a favor. For the love of God, don’t toast these bagels. Ever. They don’t deserve that and neither do you.
Is It Good Enough For The Goys?
THE GOYIM SHOULD BE SO LUCKY. On one hand, I want you to tell every goy you know that this is what they should expect and demand from every bagel they eat. On the other hand, supplies are currently very limited and do we really want them hogging the goods? Let them eat cake.
Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?
You guys know how I feel about Bagel Oasis, Little Market, Old Salt, and Mt. Bagel. That hasn’t changed. But as soon as I ate the Hey Bagel bagels, I knew that we were working on a different level here. This is the bagel we’ve all been waiting for.
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (12/4/23)
OUTSIDE SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS
The Bagelry (Bellingham)
Howdy Bagel (Tacoma)
Coquette Bake Shop (Bainbridge Island)
Good Bagels Cafe (Anacortes)
Otherside Bagel Co. (Bellingham)
Whidbey Island Bagel Factory (Mt. Vernon, Whidbey Island)
Thanks for actually reading this far. If you enjoyed my 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.
$3.25 per bagel is insane! In DC I pay $16.99 for 13 bagels from Goldberg’s. They are not quite at the level of Barney Greengrass, but even in Manhattan Barney charges $24 for a bakers dozen.
Absolutely my favorite bagels...but the Gruyere and caramelized onion bialy is just beyond incredible to me. The smells, the textures, the flavors - cannot wait to get my hands on them routinely when he opens the shop!