Second Schmears: Revisiting Oxbow
How does a rye bagel stack up against Seattle's best?
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As we enter 2024, the Seattle bagel scene has come a long way since September 2022 when I first reviewed Oxbow. Then the new guy in town, Sea Wolf’s offshoot impressed customers (including myself) with its modern Montlake digs and crispy bagels. At the time, I considered theirs among the best in the city.
Between then and now, I discovered Little Market, Mt. Bagel returned, Old Salt dropped anchor, Aaron’s Bagels arrived, and Hey Bagel was born.
Oxbow came up during a May 2023 blind taste test that I did between them and Little Market. I was a little disappointed with the Oxbow bagel, noting that it was out of step with some of the others I had gotten from them over the previous year. I’ve been back a few times since with varying results.
Still, I never did an official Second Schmear review. Given how much has changed, along with my shifting thoughts about their offerings, the start of the new year seemed like the ideal time to revisit Oxbow for a fresh review (especially since I was spurned to end 2023).
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED
Everything bagel with scallion cream cheese.
Plain bagel as-is.
As with all previous Second Schmear reviews, we keep things relatively simple this time around. I’ll review this version of the visit and compare it to the first trip to find out what might have changed.
For what it’s worth, the price of an Oxbow bagel has crept up from $3 to $3.15 since the initial visit, and it seems like they’ve also changed the process, making their bagels less blistery (I noticed this on the blind test as well). Whereas the old version was a crackly-looking golden brown, the present version is a more uniform dark brown with some intriguing crevices from the hand roll.
The top of the bagel was extremely firm and crisp to the touch. I would say the bottom met the “knockable” standard and promised some serious crunch. This has always been a constant throughout the years for Oxbow.
Ripping into the plain, I got a lot of crispiness and every bite offered a lot of crunch. In my initial review, I noted a sourdough-like taste and smell on the inside. Apparently, I misunderstood the flavor profile, as Oxbow uses rye flour to make their bagels. If that’s what they like doing, go with God, but it’s a weird flavor mix for me. I love rye bread but if I wanted that, I’d eat rye bread. I thought I ordered a bagel.
That juxtaposition became even more intense with the everything bagel. Because they use caraway seeds in their everything seasoning mix, the rye bread flavor is all the more prominent. At that point, the entire bagel just became a rye bread roll.
Texturally, I thought the bagel was on point. The top was firm but slightly softer than the plain. Thanks to a medium seed hand, the golden brown of the bagel peaked through (It seems like they’ve backed off on their seasoning hand a little bit). There was salt in the everything mix, AS GOD INTENDED, but perhaps a smidge too much? The bottom was extremely firm and knockable once more and there was a little bit of everything seasoning there as well. As for the bite, I got a lot of exterior crunch with an interior that was soft but not pillowy, more akin to bread than a bagel.
I don’t know if I caught them on a day when they were feeling generous but my bagel had ALL the cream cheese. And hey, coming from the East Coast, I’m all for schmearing the ever-loving God out of a bagel. The problem, however, is that the cream cheese didn’t have any flavor, which differs greatly from my initial review. So between the overwhelming rye flavor and the lack of cream cheese flavor, it made for a very curious taste.
WHAT I SAID LAST TIME
“It’s not as good as Bagel Oasis, but Oxbow stands above the crowd for sure. I’d put them at 2a and Loxsmith at 2b for now. In both cases, the prices are on the higher end, but I’d rather pay a little extra for these bagels than settle for some of those other soft circles around Seattle.”
WHAT I THOUGHT THIS TIME
As I noted up top, a lot has changed since my initial Oxbow review, and that seems to include their bagels. This time, I came away feeling like I had eaten something approximating bagels while not actually meeting my definition.
They look really good. They have the crispiness I’m looking for. They offer a great bite consistency throughout. I appreciate big swings for flavor. And yet, the rye-ness of it all really threw me for a loop. I couldn’t shake it while eating, especially the everything, which was essentially rye bread in the shape of a bagel. Coupled with the flavorless cream cheese, I stopped short of finishing both of them.
Something I also noticed while writing this post is that the images of the initial bagels seem much more appetizing than the images of the recent ones. Admittedly, some of that might be my poor photo-taking skills, but it’s hard not to see.
Based on not just this review but the way things have been trending since the initial visit, I’m going to drop Oxbow a few spots in my rankings. I’m basing that drop on which places I’d return to/order from before making another visit there. I’m sure I’ll be back eventually and I’ll be curious to see if they make any other tweaks or changes over that time.
(Also, I’m removing Ben & Esther’s from my rankings for obvious reasons…)
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (1/2/24)
OUTSIDE SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS (1/2/24)
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)
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Disappointed but not surprised--Oxbow had a booth at the Tuesday Summer Farmer's Market in Cap Hill and I swear, it was like the bagels they brought had already started getting stale, even though it was only 3pm. I know that it certainly isn't exactly fair to judge them on bagels so far removed from the oven, even if some of my favorite places' bagels fare much better even a day+, but it hadn't made me excited to make a special trip to their neck of things to get a more timely bagel like I'll do for Bagel Oasis and Hey Bagel. Guess they'll be going solidly into the "if I'm nearby already" bin, at least until a Second Second Schmear for Oxbow.
Damn, comin' with that hard hitting, investigative journalism resulting in a Dow Jones disrupting DROP to 9th? Keep preaching that truth. Make round bread = get round bread ratings. Loving these Second Schmears lately.