Can I find a good Seattle bagel at... Loxsmith Bagels
What price, schmears?
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.
It would be a lie to say that this bagel journey I’m on hasn’t been a disappointment so far. One, because of the bagels I’ve had at places that come highly touted by the Seattle bagel literati. Second, the realization that my low expectations for what I would find out there seem to have been confirmed.
I’m doing my best not to carry those assumptions with me but every time I bite into a bagel from one of these “best in Seattle” spots I find myself right back here. Sometimes it’s easier to leave those expectations at the door and sometimes it isn’t. When it came to Loxsmith Bagels, I found that my expectations were constantly evolving, even with each bite.
Unlike all of the places I’ve visited before now, Loxsmith is a bit of an enigma amongst its “best in Seattle” brethren. While the others have established brick-and-mortar shops and longtime homes, Loxsmith seems to be a perpetual pop-up yearning for something more.
From what I can tell, Matthew Segal started Loxsmith in 2016 and spent much of the years since popping up all over town, mostly in Capitol Hill where it made waves at Montana and Nacho Borracho.
Segal, who moved to Seattle in 2001 from Miami, told Seattle Magazine in 2018 that the local bagel scene at the time was “mediocre at best. It’s all about the lifestyle of the place, not the bagel itself.” His goal was to create bagels that could be enjoyed on their own or “as a vehicle for cream cheese and the house-cured lox [that] he built his name around.”
When it came to how his bagels are made, he told Capitol Hill Seattle in 2018 that “I do everything. I roll ‘em. I cure all the salmon. I cut all the veggies. I make all the bagels. There’s really nowhere to get a bagel like what I make.”
He also referred to most other Seattle bagels as “bread circles.”
“I don’t want to come across as a hater,” he told CHS. “But I do like to at least acknowledge the fact that nobody is doing what I’m doing, so that’s why I’m doing it.”
Now, I can’t pick up tone in a printed interview, but it’s hard not to note some brash cockiness. And that’s not a bad thing! I agree that the Seattle bagel is (still) “mediocre” and is mostly made up of “bread circles.” So if you think you can do better, by god, get out there and prove it!
A former sushi chef, Segal also reportedly found his niche by focusing on smoked fish. Given the Pacific Northwest’s propensity for quality wild king salmon, it seems like a no-brainer to become the best lox purveyor in Seattle. Loxsmith has made its mark in that space while other local bagel shops seem to treat it like an afterthought.
Either because of their bagels or lox or both, Loxsmith’s reputation grew fast. In 2018, it was announced that they would finally open a brick-and-mortar location in Ballard. However, by early 2019, those plans were kiboshed. Per Seattle Eater, Segal had taken his talents to Pioneer Square where a different brick-and-mortar spot was potentially in the works. However, that never materialized either and Loxsmith returned to the pop-up circuit.
When I went in search of Loxsmith, I found them popping up at Harried & Hungry, a sandwich shop in Georgetown, where you could only order bagels on the weekend. However, it appears I caught them at another crossroads as they are said to be attempting another brick-and-mortar shop, this time in Beacon Hill. Though it should be noted that the original timeline of April gave way to May which got pushed to September and is now listed as “Coming Soon” on their website and a recent Instagram comment says that they’re hoping for a “fall” opening, so we’ll have to wait and see if this time the schmears stick.
Meanwhile, the accolades keep rolling in. J. Kenji López-Alt said it was one of the best bagels in Seattle, though anyone who has read my previous reviews knows that his “as good as New York” picks are dubious, at best.
All of which is to say that the question I found myself wanting to answer is, if these bagels are as good as everyone says they are, how come Loxsmith hasn’t locked it down with a permanent location (or six) by now?
Let’s see if we can 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 scallion cream cheese.
Untoasted plain bagel as-is.
THE EXPERIENCE
There’s a bit of a scavenger hunt quality to the current location of Loxsmith. The nondescript sandwich shop resembles a wholesale catering business so it’s easy to miss. There’s no signage for Loxsmith other than a sidewalk placard and a couple of menus on the counter. The confused look in your eyes when you walk in seems to inform the staff that you’re here for bagels and they hand you one of those menus.
As expected, it’s very fish-forward. And I’m sure that’s great, but as you know, that’s not why we’re here. So I place my usual order (see above) and immediately notice something.
The prices.
Plain bagel? $2.75.
Everything bagel? $3.75.
Wanna add cream cheese to that? An extra $2.75.
Jesus Christ, that’s an expensive bagel.
For reference, Eli’s Bagels, my hometown hero which serves a bagel that puts anything in Seattle to shame, charges $1.20 for every bagel, no matter the flavor.
Want a dozen bagels from Loxsmith? That’ll run you $26 (plus two freebies). A dozen from Eli’s? $14.40 and they’ll throw in THREE freebies.
As an aside, Loxsmith charged $5 for a cup of coffee out of a drip container that you had to pour yourself. Not a fancy coffee drink. Not something that had to be made special. A cup of regular drip coffee. Five. Dollars. WTF?
As I was waiting for my order, I kept doing the mental math over and over trying to figure it out. Is this the problem right here? I know $3 for a bread circle doesn’t sound like too much to ask on paper, but in bagel terms, that’s highway robbery.
I’ll admit, I suddenly found myself not wanting to like the bagel. The audacity! And yet, I wondered, can they get away with that because it’s actually good, and a good bagel in Seattle is worth whatever you say it is?
UPON FIRST GLANCE
Price-gouging concerns aside, the bagels look solid at first glance. The everything bagel has a nice seed distribution, except that, once again, there is no salt. My mind remains boggled on that trend. I don’t know why Seattle hates salt on its everything bagels.
The cream cheese application is solid. Not too little, not too much. Some places try to overcompensate by giving you more cream cheese than any human should ingest in a month, but not here.
The plain bagel is shiny, lacks bubbles and cracks, but does have an interesting imperfection in the roll that gives it character. It’s not entirely smooth, which bodes well.
TOP
On the bite, the bagel actually has some crispiness, but there’s no crunch. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about the crunchiness of Seattle bagels but I have yet to find it. That said, it’s a good bite. The top remains firm throughout.
INSIDE
One of the first things I notice after taking a bite is the smell of the inside of the bagel. It smells like a bagel. I know that sounds weird. But pretty much every other bagel we’ve discussed here smelled like something else, like sourdough. This is the first one to smell the way a bagel is supposed to smell.
The inside is dense but in a good way. It’s not stale. Ideally, we’d want it to be a little more pillowy but this is about as good as I’ve come across out here.
Because the cream cheese is cold and there isn’t an overwhelming amount, it doesn’t go oozing out all over the place when you bite. It remains very sturdy throughout the entire meal. An impressive feat.
That said, the scallion cream cheese is scallion in name only. Like so many other ones out here, it just tastes like plain cream cheese and the scallions are there for show.
Specifically for the plain, I found it to be a good “ripping bagel,” as in it was good for ripping off bits and eating that way. That’s not something I’ve had the chance to enjoy much so far.
BOTTOM
The bottom was fairly similar to the top in terms of crispness without crunch. There was a softness to the plain bagel’s bottom. Ideally, we’d always prefer a bagel bottom with a little crunch on it, but we take what we can get in Seattle.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If we’re just taking bagel bona fides, I have to admit that Loxsmith is the first bagel I’ve had on this journey that I would consider getting again. I felt like the crisp exterior, enjoyable dense interior, and strong cream cheese application helped me to understand why Loxsmith perseveres and maintains such a strong reputation in the Seattle bagel community. If and when the Beacon Hill shop opens, I will consider making a stop.
I’m still left wondering why this place hasn’t been able to lock it down after all this time. They have a better bagel than all the places I’ve previously visited but all of those places have strong retail locations. I know Loxsmith has a thriving bagel club program and a loyal following. Just not sure why that hasn’t translated to more.
Is It Good Enough For The Goys?
I think the Goys are already big fans of Loxsmith. For a bagel place with no place to survive this long and also maintain rave reviews and a sterling reputation, it speaks to the quality of the food. Wherever Loxsmith goes, it seems, the crowd continues to follow.
Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?
Gonna admit, this is a tough one. On one hand, I think the food says yes. I’m not going to say the bagel is as good as New York (Sorry J. Kenji). But with Mt. Bagel gone, this could end up being one of the best bagels in Seattle. And given that they’ve not only got solid bagels but also a strong smoked fish game, that should put them in strong consideration when your Jewish mom visits.
And yet…the prices. I feel like if I were to show the prices to my relatives back East they’d be horrified. And maybe that’s just what Loxsmith is doing now to generate cash flow for their eventual brick-and-mortar opening. But that’s also what ends up making me think twice about getting in the car to order again.
If and when the Beacon Hill spot opens, I’ll visit and see if the prices have leveled out and how that impacts the bagel quality. But until then, I’m left with a fascinating conundrum about the value of a good bagel in Seattle.
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