Where is Seattle getting its bagel fix?
Dan Savage, Tammy Morales, and other Seattleites chime in.
Welcome to It’s A Shanda, one Northeastern Jew’s quest to find a decent bagel in Seattle (and beyond). Along with free bagel reviews every Sunday, we also offer bonus posts (like this one) each week. If you’re already subscribed, I hope you’ll consider upgrading to a paid subscription! Thank you for reading.
Each week I offered up my overly extensive thoughts about a Seattle-area bagel, choked full of personal preferences and nostalgic remembrances. You know what I think the best bagel places in town are and you know what kind of bagel order makes me happy.
But what do other Seattleites think is the best Seattle bagel spot? And what are they getting once they’re there?
I decided to find out.
I reached out to a slew of notable Seattleites. What makes one “notable?” That’s tough to say. Some of the people I reached out to are legitimately famous in their own right. Others, I would consider tastemakers and leading voices around town. Others still have cornered the market on their particular PNW niche (something I can personally appreciate).
“But Sean,” I can hear you asking, “Why didn’t you reach out to me? Aren’t I notable?”
Of course you are. We’re all notable in our own ways. You’re doing a great job. But I had to make a judgment call about where to draw the notability line this time. Keep grinding, give 110%, and maybe next time you’ll make it over to the other side.
Anyway, I asked all of the notable Seattleites two simple questions:
What is your favorite or go-to bagel place in or around Seattle?
What is your go-to bagel order?
I got responses from a varied collection of the Emerald City’s finest. The only thing more varied than their backgrounds was their answers to those two questions.
Once I had all of the answers, I had to ask myself: What does it all mean? What do they tell us about Seattle’s insatiable desire for traditionally Jewish baked goods? What do they say about who we are as a society and, to a larger extent, living creatures in a vast and unknowable universe?
I don’t know, man. But it was still fun to see what everyone said.
Without further ado, I give you their answers (paid subscribers get to see them all)…
Tammy Morales, Seattle City Councilmember
For a brief moment, my neighborhood reveled in Muriel’s, a tiny spot inside Third Place Books. Sadly, Muriel’s didn’t survive COVID. When we need a fresh bagel, we head to the recently opened Loxsmith in Beacon Hill.
Go-to bagel order: If I lived on the East Coast my regular order would be a sesame bagel with smoked whitefish salad. Loxsmith is the only place near me where I can order that. If whitefish isn’t available, I get an everything with plain cream cheese.”
Hannah Krieg, staff writer at The Stranger
My favorite bagel place in Seattle is Eltana, but it’s mostly just a sentimental thing. When the owner, Stephen Brown, ran for City Council, he emailed my former Stranger employees to put in a good word for him during our endorsement process last year. He reminded them that he gave them gift cards in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. One could see it as sneaky, but I thought it was really funny. He also brought rainbow bagels to our office and they were fab.
Go-to bagel order: I went through a phase in college where basically every day I would toast a blueberry bagel and top it with thick slices of fresh mozzarella, honey, and sea salt, which would be fancy now, but was the pinnacle of luxury at 21. Now I usually just do an everything bagel and plain cream cheese.
John Keister, comedian, writer, and host of Almost Live!
My favorite bagel place is Dingfelder’s on Capitol Hill.
Go-to bagel order: I like salt bagels with either the lox schmear or the olive schmear.
Lex Vaughn, founder and editor of The Needling
My favorite bagels so far in Seattle are the poppy bagels at Rachel’s. They come encased in this really crisp black shell of poppy seeds that’s delicious and unique. It’s so good on its own, I often don’t even want to ruin it by adding anything to it.
My go-to bagel order is basic: cream cheese, lox, red onion, tomatoes, and capers on a toasted everything bagel.
Julia Quinn, New York Times best-selling author of the Bridgerton series
I just... can't. I mean, I eat bagels here, but it'll never be the same. Like you, I'm a Northeastern Jew, and I have visceral bagel memories the Northwest can't touch. For me, bagels will always be my great Aunt Millie's house in Levittown, NY (she was an original Levittowner) with Temp Tee whipped cream cheese. (ALWAYS Temp Tee. The pink tub. IYKYK.) I'm not sure where she got the bagels, but she grew up in Brooklyn, and there's no way a goyish bagel would cross her threshold.
Go-to bagel order: Plain or egg bagel with plain cream cheese (Temp Tee, if I can get it!), lox, and sliced tomato.
Dan Savage, Savage Love host, The Stranger editorial director
My favorite place to go for bagels is across the street. My neighbor John Colwell makes the best bagels I’ve ever had — in Seattle or anywhere else. I’ve traveled a lot, spent tons of time in New York, and I’ve eaten lots of bagels. John’s are the best I’ve ever had. He’ll send a few over when he makes a batch and they arrive warm and they are so, so, so good. Four stars. Highly recommend moving onto the block where John lives — and not just for the bagels.
Go-to bagel order: Everything bagel, sliced, toasted (unless they’re still warm and fresh from John’s oven), with a thick slab of plain cream cheese. Nothing fancy!
(Ed. note - I had to laugh when I read Dan’s answer. I know John! He’s a newsletter reader and invited me over to his house to eat his bagels. They are indeed excellent. If he ever does one of his rare pop-ups, I’ll be sure to mention it.)
Cathy Moore, Seattle City Councilmember
Sesame with scallion schmear at Zylberschtein’s!
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