Second Schmears: Revisiting Westman's & Rachel's

Seattle loves these bagel spots. Why?

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.

Aside from a few pop-ups and spots outside of Seattle that I have yet to visit, we’ve essentially covered all of the requisite bagel shops in town (at least until Mt. Bagel returns).

The journey to get here has been long and full of trials and tribulations. My very first bagel review was way back in June and a lot has changed since then. I’ve also gotten a much better sense of the scene as a whole and how that informs what I think of each bagel. It’s also made me think back to some of those early reviews and wonder if I needed to reassess them.

Chief among the bagels that I thought needed a second bite was Westman’s and Rachel’s, two places that are essentially mainstays on every “Best Bagels in Seattle” list, both of which I found underwhelming.

I’ve probably gotten more pushback on Rachel’s than any other bagel review I’ve done so far. When I reviewed them back in July, I found their bagels to be incongruous, bready, and lacking any crispiness. Afterward, I had quite a few people tell me this was their favorite local bagel. I was told that I probably caught them on a bad day. I even heard that an out-of-towner requested to visit Rachel’s because they heard it was the best bagel in town.

As for Westman’s, which I also visited in July, they served me one stale bagel and another one lacking much crunch or flavor. But I’ve wondered in the months since if I also caught them on a bad day, especially given how many locals seem to love them.

The whole thing left me feeling a bit like Principal Skinner wondering if the problem wasn’t the bagels but me.

And so, I ventured back to both bagel spots to find out if this was a simple case of bad luck or if my initial reviews were indeed correct.

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

Westman’s

WHAT I ORDERED

• Toasted everything bagel with scallion cream cheese.

• Untoasted plain bagel as-is.

I’m going to do these “Second Schmear” reviews a little differently than the original versions. No need to stand on ceremony. Let’s just look at what I said last time and compare it to what I thought of this trip.

The first time I visited Westman’s, I asked for my everything bagel to be untoasted and that’s how I ended up with a stale circle of starch. This time I let them toast it, as they would normally do, and they burned the ever-loving hell out of the toppings. A lot of the seeds, onion bits, and garlic bits on the top were scorched. While they had a strong seed hand, which I appreciate, the burned toppings overwhelmed the flavors.

The bottom of the everything bagel was pretty weird. I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever seen a bagel bottom that looks like that. Both the previous time and this time there wasn’t much crispiness to be found.

On the bite, the everything bagel offered a very slight crunch. However, the interior seemed to melt in my mouth in a very unappealing way. The peril of these Seattle bagel places that auto-toast their bagels is that they end up creating mushy centers that don’t eat well. It also didn’t help that they were pretty light on the cream cheese. Since the bagel itself didn’t have much flavor, it ultimately tasted like I was eating nothing.

As for the plain bagel, it was soft and squishy all around, including the bottom. While it had a nice golden brown color, that didn’t translate to any crispness or crunch. The good news is that it offered a very solid bagel smell and the interior held up much better that the everything bagel, with a somewhat pillowy feel. There was also a dash of salt on the exterior that helped.

Unfortunately, the bagel was cold and clearly not fresh. And if I show up at your spot on a Saturday morning and you aren’t serving me a freshly made bagel, you are not a serious bagel business.

WHAT I SAID LAST TIME

“I just want to find a good bagel. And I don’t know much, but if a place in New York or New Jersey served up stale bagels on a weekend morning without telling people, they’d be out of business in a month.”

WHAT I THOUGHT THIS TIME

Westman’s didn’t give me the same set of disappointments this time, but it disappointed me all the same. Both times I’ve eaten what I am positive was a day-old bagel on a weekend morning, which is about as big of a shanda as you can have.

Rachel’s

WHAT I ORDERED

• Untoasted everything bagel with scallion cream cheese.

• Untoasted plain bagel as-is.

Like last time, the plain bagel was extremely dark brown, almost as if it were pumpernickel. And also like last time, the cornmeal ring of doom was jarring. Unlike the last time, this one had some character on top in the form of bubbles and a little bit of crispiness on top and bottom.

On the bite, however, it was pretty soft with only a slight crunch. The most intense aspect of the bite was the sourdough smell and flavor, which also included a little bit of an aftertaste. It was more like eating a sourdough roll than a bagel. That was the same as the first round as well.

As for the everything bagel, there was a very intense seeding across both the top and the bottom, which I appreciate. However, the bagel itself was super soft. And while it had a decent bite, there was no crunch and the interior collapsed as soon as I chewed into it. The lack of salt in the everything bagel seeding also cut down on the flavor potential.

As for the cream cheese, I had to double-check to make sure it was actually scallion-flavored (it was). Still, I couldn’t taste any of it.

This is where I have to admit that I stopped at Bagel Oasis on my way back because I had a feeling I wasn’t going to enjoy Rachel’s and I wanted a palate cleanser. That ended up being fortuitous because I was able to contrast bites between everything bagels with scallion cream cheese and it wasn’t even a contest. While the Rachel’s bites were soft and flavorless, the Bagel Oasis bites were crunchy and filled with scallion cream cheese that actually tasted like scallion cream cheese.

WHAT I SAID LAST TIME

“Aside from the inconsistency between the bagels, the actual experience didn’t inspire me to add them to my best-of list. And I’m also starting to wonder what’s going on with the people who claim to be bagel experts who do.”

WHAT I THOUGHT THIS TIME

Given all of the feedback I’ve gotten about Rachel’s and all of the positive vibes out there about this place, I thought I might glimpse an aspect of whatever it is I’m missing. But I gotta be honest…I don’t see it. Or more specifically, I don’t taste it.

MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR

I thought the outcome of this Second Schmear might cause a change in my rankings but it actually ended up reinforcing my initial ones. I think the top six spots on my list are what I would consider Seattle’s good bagels. After that, it’s a steep drop. I might not have liked Rachel’s and Westman’s but I don’t think I could necessarily drop them much further, especially when some of those bagels below them are deeply upsetting. However, because Westman’s keeps serving up stale bagels, I am going to drop them one spot.

1. Bagel Oasis

2. Little Market

3. Oxbow

4. Loxsmith

5. Old Salt

6. Rubinstein

7. Zylberschtein’s

8. Ben & Esther’s

9. Rachel’s

10. Macrina

11. Westman’s

12. Grateful Bread

13. Eltana

14. Kelly’s Cannoli

15. Blazing Bagels

16. Dingfelder’s

17. Bagelbop

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? Please forward the link their way.