We're having the wrong conversation about toasting bagels

A refusal to toast bagels isn't gatekeeping, it's an invitation.

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Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Daderot

”I think I'm going to get pushed back about not having a toaster,” Andrew Rubinstein told me last September while preparing to open Hey Bagel.

The new bagel shop’s mantra calls for a mashup of modern trends (rip-and-dip ordering) and traditional efforts (classic flavors, no toasting). Customers are greeted by two bright pastel signs that clarify the process.

“We bake fresh all day,” reads one. “that means no need to toast.”

“No Toasting,” reads the other.

Since Hey Bagel opened in early January, customers haven't minded much. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and the lines have rounded the corner. 

But that doesn’t mean everyone’s a fan.

“The whole ‘no toasting’ gatekeeping bugs me,” wrote one Seattle Reddit user in a post about the bagel shop. “People like food in different ways and there's no ‘wrong way.’ That kind of puritanical shit is enough to keep me away. I'd rather go to a place that just wants me to enjoy what they make without judgement.”

The debate over whether or not toasting a bagel is “allowed” has raged since they entered American cuisine. Many New Yorkers scoff at the notion, seeing it as an affront to the product. Former New York Times critic Mimi Sheraton once bemoaned the "obscene" practice of warming or toasting bagels before eating them. To this day, there are still New York bagel shops that refuse to toast.

Harry Lender changed the debate when his Connecticut (of course this is Connecticut’s fault) bakery figured out how to freeze bagels and sell them in plastic bags in supermarket freezer aisles. This mass-produced mishegoss required toasting to be eaten, creating a consumer base who only knew bagels as such.

In the years that followed, bagels went national. And in doing so, two things happened. The circular breads were de-ethnicized, their Jewishness stripped away in the name of French toast bagels and Oreo cream cheese. Meanwhile, our country became awash in mediocre and terrible bagels. Exactly the kind that needed to be toasted to be eaten, let alone enjoyed.

A bag of Mt. Bagel bagels

All of which brings us to the present. Seattle isn’t the only city amid a bagel boom. It’s a national trend, like cupcakes, cookies, and burgers before it. And just like those cult brand trends, there’s a movement to bring the product back to its artisan roots. Product evolution and creativity mark the era, but quality is at the forefront of our modern bagel push.

There’s a reason people are willing to wait in line for a really good bagel again.

All of this brings us back to the toasting conversation and whether or not it’s okay. But I have to say, when I think about that Reddit commenter’s sentiments, I realize we’re having the wrong conversation.

One of my longstanding, pretentious beliefs is that most people have never had a really good bagel in their life, even if they think they have. And if they believe that bagel needs to be toasted, I feel even more justified in that.

It really is a fundamental truth that a good bagel does not need to be toasted, nor should it be because doing so would rob it of its high quality.

“Toasting is the bagel equivalent of making everyone wear blindfolds and Spanx at an orgy,” wrote J. Kenji López-Alt in his good bagel manifesto. “You may still enjoy yourself, but you'll never really know the quality of what you just tasted.”

If you were to ask a random sampling of Seattlites what the best bagel in town is right now, I’d imagine most of them would say Hey Bagel or Mt. Bagel. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that neither of those places toast. Conversely, when you look at the bottom of my Seattle bagel rankings, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they all require warming or toasting to become edible.

Hey Bagel’s fresh bagels

Hey Bagel’s non-toasting policy is less an attack and more a responsibility. Just as you wouldn’t ask a Mexican restaurant to microwave their tacos before they served them to you, the freshness and quality of these bagel places mean it would be a degradation of their product to slice, toast, and serve. While that became the status quo in many mediocre bagel shops across the country, and plenty of people prefer their bagels toasted, it’s not how it’s supposed to be in the purest sense.

If you like your bagels toasted, the good news is that most places do that, and many of them are really good. No one’s saying you can’t do that. The disconnect is on the presumption that toasting *should* be an option at every bagel place. If a place can deliver hot and fresh bagels, there shouldn’t be a reason to toast. And so, like how a Thai restaurant wouldn’t slather ketchup on their pad see ew just because you want it, bagel places shouldn’t be required to offer it.

mt_bagel

A post shared by @mt_bagel

I don’t think the aforementioned Mexican and Thai restaurants would be accused of “gatekeeping” for not letting you demand whatever you want from their traditionally made meals. And I certainly don’t think this kind of policy is an attempt to sully your eating experience. If anything, they’re trying to help you.

Every bagel place doesn’t have to offer toasting. And if you want the truly authentic experience that set the foundation for how this humble bread circle became what it is today, you should be excited, not disappointed, to find a shop that refuses to do it.

Thanks for actually reading this far. If you enjoyed my 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.