Can I find a good Seattle bagel at... Macrina Bakery

They excel at bread but can they make a good bagel?

Dec 16, 2022

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.

Macrina the Younger was a 4th-century mystic who started a community of women dedicated to living a simple life of prayer and service. A saint in many Christian beliefs, her life has been characterized as one of sanctity and asceticism, the abstinence of sensual pleasures in pursuit of spiritual goals.

That description makes her an interesting namesake for a bakery known for its delicious bread and decadent pastries. Sensual pleasures are at the core of what has made Macrina Bakery a staple of the Seattle culinary scene for three decades.

On August 27, 1993, the first Macrina opened its doors in Belltown. The cramped shop must have seemed somewhat unassuming, offering a dozen varieties of bread as well as a few assorted pastries. However, founder and chef Leslie Mackie had big plans for the bakery.

“To me, making bread is being an artist,” says Leslie. “In France, bakers are revered because bread is such a central part of the family and community. The long, slow fermentation process that the European master bakers utilized intrigued me, and I spent years experimenting, mixing science and intuition.”

The original location, which started with “six employees, a French Bongard oven as our centerpiece, a stack of convection ovens, one mixer, an espresso machine, an antique display case, and a lot of ambition,” was only the beginning.

By 2001, there was a Macrina in Queen Anne. In 2007, they merged operations with Pagliacci Pizza to streamline the business. In 2008, they moved their bread kitchen, wholesale production, and office to Sodo. By 2016, they moved their production HQ to Kent, along with a new cafe. In 2018, they opened their fifth location in Capitol Hill. And earlier this year, plans for a Maple Leaf location were unveiled.

“Everything is just very deliberate,” Mackie told Capitol Hill Seattle in 2018. “Our growth is predicated on creating a more consistent product, making a great place to work, and making great baked goods, soups, and sandwiches for our customers.”

Being a bakery that’s open in the morning, it was only natural that bagels would enter the picture at some point. Thanks to an obsession that Macrina president Scott France brought with him, Macrina’s MadRy Organic Sourdough Bagels were born in 2020.

“I love bagels, and so do my kids,” says France. “I thought Macrina could do a really great bagel, and I started making them with Madeline and Ryan. After several years of tinkering with the recipe, refining it, going to a bagel class, and testing so, so many samples, I finally had something to take to [head baker Phuong Bui] and the production team who perfected the process. I loved being on the floor working side by side with the bakers to develop a bagel I’m proud to name after my kids.”

Per Macrina’s site, “our MadRy Organic Sourdough Bagels are hand-rolled, given a slow, cool 24-hour ferment, and have just a hint of rye, which adds to their depth of flavor. The caramelized crust has a glossy sheen and the airy interior has a tight, springy crumb that balances the mild tang of sourdough with just enough malty sweetness.”

Macrina is something of an institution here in Seattle for its bread, cookies, scones, and other leavened goodies. But how do the bagels stack up? Let’s find out…

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

WHAT I ORDERED

Toasted everything bagel with chive cream cheese.
Untoasted plain bagel as-is.

THE EXPERIENCE

The first thing I noticed when I entered Macrina and scoured the display case was that the bagels were kinda hard to find. Whereas the breads and pastries are front and center (as they should be), the bagels were tucked in the corner, stacked on top of one another. They weren’t hidden, per se, but they certainly weren’t being highlighted.

As soon as I placed my order I realized that this wasn’t going to be the authentic deli experience. Macrina serves their bagels pre-sliced and with cream cheese on the side. As we learned with Little Market, that’s not necessarily a deterrent. However, when I ordered the everything bagel with chive cream cheese, it was automatically toasted, which as we know, is never an ideal start.

UPON FIRST GLANCE

Looking at the plain bagel, I was definitely struck by the bubbly exterior. Curiously, those bubbles stretched around the entirety of the bagel, which you don’t usually see. While the blistering is usually a good sign that the bagels were slowly fermented to bring out the flavor, I’m curious what it means to see that so starkly on the bottom.

The bagels also had a very uniform look that I associate with mass production over custom rolling. The wide roll and huge hole in the middle were pretty prominent as well. The coloring was very nice, with medium and dark browns depending on the bake.

TOP

The top of the everything bagel certainly offered some intriguing possibilities. The dark brown spots offered crunchy potential and a light squeeze seemed to confirm that. The seeding was a decent mix, with a prominent usage of black sesame. No salt in the everything mix, which I’ve just accepted at this point.

The top of the plain bagel was a little lighter and offered a very uniform look. It also offered some crunchy potential with a light squeeze. There were a couple of salt flakes on the top, and I couldn’t tell was purposeful or just some salt bagel run-off. But I’ll take it.

BOTTOM

The bottom of both bagels included those bubbles and blisters that you usually only see on the top, so that was curious. No cornmeal ring of doom was present, but there also wasn’t too much sturdiness. Knocking on the bottom didn’t offer the solidness that I’d ideally want. That said, the everything bagel seeds went all the way around, which is always appreciated.

INSIDE/BITE

Biting into the everything bagel, the first thing I noticed is that there wasn’t much to it. While the exterior offered a little bit of a crunch, the interior was chewy without any kind of fluffiness, which means there isn’t a lot for your teeth to dig into. It’s a firm and tough bite, but the interior disappears quickly as soon as you get to it.

As mentioned, there was a little bit of crunch there, so it’s not as though there’s no texture. But that’s really the only thing about it. Not much in the way of flavor (salt, as always, would have helped). The bagel essentially becomes a cream cheese delivery system, so make sure you load up on it.

As for that cream cheese, it’s fine, but the chive is display-only. No chive flavor was present.

As for the plain, it too offered a firm bite. I also ripped into the bagel with my hands and it was an extremely tough tear. Sometimes that can be a good thing but in this case, it seemed to be because of the same issue with the everything. Despite a little bit of crispiness, the exterior’s firmness and the interior’s lack of substance caused the bagel to collapse.

Biting into the untoasted plain was somewhat unpleasant. The exterior was very rubbery. Coupled with a soft, bready interior, it made for a bite that was pretty inoffensive in a boring way. I certainly understand why they automatically toast their bagels now.

Speaking of the bready interior, Macrina doesn’t hide from the fact that their bagels are sourdough, so it’s no surprise to get a strong sourdough smell from the interior. To each their own, but that’s not what I’m really wanting from a bagel. If I wanted sourdough, I’d order one of their fantastic loaves of bread.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is perhaps too much to ask a bakery that is so good at making bread and pastries to be able to switch gears and offer an authentic bagel that can stack up with some of the best in the city.

I know that I’m damning them with faint praise but Macrina’s bagel is best described as inoffensive (so long as you get it with cream cheese).

What I kept thinking while eating them was that these are very good simulations of a bagel. They’re sourdough, they’re not fluffy, they’re not particularly crunchy, and they don’t really have much flavor, but they still somehow approximate the look and feel of a bagel enough to pass for one.

Is It Good Enough For The Goys?

Getting a bagel at a bakery does feel like a pretty goyish move, but I can’t blame anyone, especially if Macrina is your morning haunt. I’m not going to say that this should be someone’s first choice for a bagel, but despite all its flaws, I’d still choose this one over Eltana, Blazing Bagels, or Dingfelder’s.

Is It Good Enough For Northeastern Jews?

I’m gonna have to say no, unfortunately. There are just too many things going on here that don’t match the expectations of an authentic Northeastern bagel. I can’t speak for Kent but if you’re near any of the Seattle locations, there’s probably a better bagel relatively close by.

MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR

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.

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