Mt. Bagel returns & the Seattle bagel game just changed

The presumed champion has returned to claim its crown

Credit: Mt. Bagel

Before I began this newsletter, I already knew how it was going to end. I was going to do my due diligence and eat all of the bagels in town but there was no way I was going to find anything better than what Mt. Bagel was doing.

And then they up and moved to Bend, Oregon, throwing the entire process into chaos.

Last week, I found out that not only is Mt. Bagel returning to Seattle after their sojourn, but they’re going to be up and running within the next few months.

If you were lucky enough to order their bagels before they left, then you already know what the deal is.

If you missed out the first time around, consider this your head’s up. Assuming nothing has changed, Mt. Bagel’s bagels weren’t just hands-down the best in Seattle, they’re among the best bagels I’ve ever eaten in my life.

You know how I feel about “Our City’s Bagels Are Better Than New York’s” headlines. It’s never true. Except, in the case of Mt. Bagel, it was. And now that they’re returning, combined with Bagel Oasis, Little Market, Oxbow, Loxsmith, and Old Salt, we’ve got ourselves a legitimate bagel scene.

It’s not yet clear if they’re going to open a brick-and-mortar shop or if they’ll continue doing the online order-only system. Hopefully the former because the latter usually required you to time things perfectly placing your order two weeks ahead of time to claim a dozen. And anyone who tried to get one of their bagels during a pop-up appearance will tell you that line was insane.

I understand why they might want to keep things that way, but they’re earned the right to have a bagel shop that people can point to and tell their out-of-town friends that’s a must-visit.

As for what this means for our bagels rankings, I’m going to review them for sure and I’ll try to go in with a clean slate. I find it hard to imagine they won’t take over the top spot, but then again I will be honest if things have slipped or the situation has changed.

As a person who enjoys eating bagels and lives in Seattle, I could not be more excited. As a person who writes a newsletter ranking Seattle’s bagels, I am extremely nervous to see how Mt. Bagel still stacks up and what it means moving forward. I was pretty sure I knew how the Seattle bagel scene stacked up. Until now.

In the meantime, I’m going to do a second round on a few bagel places that I’ve already reviewed in order to determine if I just caught them on a bad day or if they are what I thought they were. Look for that next week.