Second Schmears: Revisiting Aaron's Bagels
The Aaron's Bagels empire keeps expanding.
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 make sure I review any specific bagels (or want to let me know why I’m wrong), you can email me at seanmatthewkeeley@gmail.com.
One of the most fascinating aspects of starting this newsletter is seeing how much things change in such a short amount of time. We’ve seen quite a few openings, closures, and big changes over the last two years. While some things stay the same, others evolve dramatically.
Aaron’s Bagels might be the textbook example of this. Like so many businesses like it, they did not exist pre-pandemic. But all that extra time and extra bread-baking put Aaron Emas on a path to starting his own bagel business. What started as a bagel delivery service soon came to include wholesale delivery before morphing into pop-ups and now a dedicated stand at the Ballard Farmers Market.
Perhaps alluding to their next step, the Aaron’s Bagels Instagram account has asked customers and followers which Seattle neighborhood needs bagels (perhaps a good topic for a mid-week post soon…).
It’s been about 10 months since my initial review, which ended up putting Aaron’s pretty high on the Seattle rankings. While some bagel places have faltered and new ones have arrived, they’ve maintained that No. 6 ranking throughout, and now seemed like good a time as any to check back in and see how things were holding up, especially as the business has evolved.
WHAT I ORDERED
Everything bagel with chive and onion 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.
Full admission, I didn’t do Aaron’s Bagels any favors by stopping by on the morning of January 14 when the temperature clocked in around 30 degrees. Everyone at the Ballard Farmers Market was bundled up and moving slowly, but that didn’t stop crowds from forming around their stand. Having visited the market a few times, it seems like they get customers at a consistent clip, which is great to see.
The bagels looked great in the baskets but I immediately clocked that they, like me, were outside in the chilly air. Thinking back to last week when I ate cold bagels that had been near a window all morning, I had to assume I was in for more of the same today (I suppose I’ve never really clarified this, but as a rule, I always eat the bagels I order as-is as soon as possible. Moses didn’t warm the bagels that God left for him atop Mt. Sinai* and neither do I).
*potentially not what happened. It’s been a while since I read the Torah.
And so, I made for the cozy confines of Fremont Coffee Company, found a spot in one of the back rooms, and started spreading some schmears.
As you can see, the plain bagel was significantly different from the one I’d eaten a year prior. While the previous version was a deep brown, bulbous, and tightly rolled, this version resembled more of the classic NY bagel in terms of its circumference, blistery golden brown exterior, and hole size. The bagel also featured a tiny nub sticking out of one end and you know I love a good, crunchy nub.
The top of the plain bagel was firm and slightly crispy, almost flaking and cracking apart as I pressed down. The bottom featured several shades of brown and plenty of crevices. While it was firm, it wasn’t at the point of “knockability.”
On the rip, the bagel was crisp and soft. The bite offered quite a bit of crunch and rebounded well afterward. The aforementioned coldness impacted my enjoyment of the bagel overall, but I appreciated the classic bagel flavor and smell I got from the interior. I came away feeling this even though I enjoyed the previous version of the plain bagel, this one was a step up.
The everything bagel featured a medium seed hand and appeared to be a little less than the version from last year. I remain a big fan of black sesame usage as I think it really stands out. This bagel was on the plumper side, like the previous one, but also appeared to be more of a classic golden brown than the deep brown of last year’s.
The top was soft but crinkly while the bottom was firm but not “knockable.” I noted similar coloring and crevices as with the plain. There was good seed coverage on the bottom as well.
The bite offered a lot of texture and the bagel rebounded well afterward. I did think that it ate a little bready on the interior, though I couldn’t tell if that was the bagel or the coldness. I liked the cream cheese, which had a nice texture, remained sturdy, and offered some good flavor courtesy of the chive. I did note that I was getting more flavor from the cream cheese than from the everything seasoning and thought it would have benefitted from a little more salt (AS GOD INTENDED).
WHAT I SAID LAST TIME
“There’s very clearly a lot of care put into making a good bagel. I might quibble over some aspects, but at the end of the day, this is one of the better bagels I’ve had in Seattle, and I’d have no problem saying it’s better than many of the highly regarded bagel shops in town.”
WHAT I THOUGHT THIS TIME
As I said, it didn’t help matters that I picked the day I did and the bagels were sitting outside. I know that Seattlites aren’t used to worrying too much about freezing temperatures, but I do think the local bagelers need to take that into account as part of their offerings. You don’t want people going home and automatically toasting (and downgrading) your product.
That aside, I remain a big fan of Aaron’s Bagels. Interestingly, I enjoyed the “flatter” plain bagel more than the plump everything bagel. But both bagels had a lot to like. It was also my first go with that cream cheese and I was a fan of that as well. I look forward to returning to the market on a much warmer day soon for another round. I’m also keeping my eye on what’s next for them as they figure out which neighborhood needs bagels the most. Aaron’s Bagels stands pat at No. 6 in the rankings.
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (1/16/24)
See my full bagel rankings, including the rest of Western Washington and New York City, here.
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