Mensch Madness 2025: The Chompionship

Finally. Two Seattle bagel shops enter. One leaves... as chompion.

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UPDATE: Voting for the Round is over. Substack’s polling system will keep it open through Wednesday, but the final vote has been tallied.

We made it. After four rounds, hundreds of social shares, and thousands of votes, we’ve arrived at the Mensch Madness 2025 Chompionship.

It’s been quite the journey to get here, full of shocking upsets, last-minute reversals, and back-and-forth battles. But only two Western Washington bagel shops remain in the quest to determine the best of 2025…according to you.

It’s time to see which Western Washington bagel shop will reign supreme. Remember, voting will be open through Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. PST. (Substack is a bit lacking in the poll end-time customization department, so I’m manually recording the winners even though the polls remain open.)

Hey Bagel’s dominant run continued in the Fakakta Four, though it faced its most formidable challenge yet from Tacoma’s Howdy Bagel, which put up a strong showing. Like with the lines outside their U Village shop, Hey doesn’t seem to be slowing down much in this tournament. Andrew Rubinstein’s second bagel act has gone from viral pop-up to mega-hyped storefront in record time, and taking home the Mensch Madness title would be the cream cheese icing on the cake.

Emerging from the other side of the bracket is Backyard Bagel, another Seattle bagel biz in the midst of a meteoric rise. Aaron Emas was delivering bagels in fancy boxes just two years ago, and he’s since sped-run the farmer’s market circuit to storefront pipeline, setting up shop in Fremont where it already feels like they’ve always been there.

Both are worthy of the prize, but only one can be the 2025 chompion. Who will it be?

Remember, you can cast your votes until Tuesday, April 8, at 11:59 p.m. PST. The winners will be announced next Thursday.

And by all means, if you want to make a case for why others should vote for one or the other, sound off in the comments!

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