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Before my latest visit to New York City, I had two bagel places in mind that I absolutely wanted to visit: Apollo Bagels and Utopia Bagels.
I visited Apollo on my first day and saved Utopia for my last.
The plan, in my head, was to swing by the location on 34th Street in Manhattan. But during my bagel tour, the Bagel Ambassador himself put his foot down. If I really wanted to experience the authentic Utopia, I needed to find a way out to Whitestone in Queens, where the original location could be found.
I mulled it over. My flight didn’t leave until 5:30 p.m., and my day was clear. I had the time. I also love a good quest. And, perhaps most importantly, I run a bagel newsletter. I could do it for the content. And so, that’s how I found myself hustling from my hotel to Penn Station to catch an LIRR train out to Whitestone on my final day in town.
Of course, I wouldn’t make this trek for any old bagel place. Utopia earned my interest thanks to winning Best Bagel at the 2024 BagelFest and being namechecked by quite a few people whose bagel opinions I trust.
Unfortunately, I was in full rube mode as I made my way across the city. I was quite literally the last person to show up for the LIRR train. Thankfully, they reopened the doors, allowing me to get on board. Once seated, I settled into a podcast episode about the criminally underrated Coen Bros’ film The Hudsucker Proxy (which is also about a rube of sorts), so much so that I almost missed my stop. I walked to the train door, waiting for it to open and let me out, before it dawned on me that my car was past the platform and the door wouldn’t open. So I raced to the next car over, where I was thankfully able to exit the train and continue my quest.
Queens has always had a peripheral place in my life. My grandparents lived there when I was young, and as a die-hard Mets fan, I would make it out to Shea Stadium for a couple of games each year. Queens was the place I’d spend a few enjoyable hours in between car rides of indeterminable lengths to and from New Jersey. I can’t say I ever fully ensconced myself in the Queens lifestyle, but I always found it endearing as an old-school, classic version of what New York City is about.
Former Atlanta Braves pitcher and noted racist John Rocker once attempted to slander the good people of Queens by insulting 7 train riders. However, in his own garbage way, he tapped into what makes the borough and the city so special. It’s an amalgamation of cultures, backgrounds, lifestyles, origins, and worldviews, crammed together and leaving little room to avoid any of it, not that you’d want to. You won’t find another place like it in America.
It was a 20-minute walk from the station to Utopia, and along the way, I was treated to a quintessential Queens neighborhood experience. While not exactly preserved in amber, the residential walk felt like I had entered a bubble. Quintessential brick homes with postage-stamp lawns. Multiple New York Women™ wearing floral-print dresses. Suped-up classic cars on display. The harshness of urban life smashed against the tranquility of domestic living in the best way possible.
And then I entered the retail corridor, and it set my heart ablaze. Strip mall after strip mall, each one an assemblage of the same 7 or 8 businesses.
Nail salon. Laundromat. Deli. Lashes bar. Nail and spa. Carvel ice cream shop. Chinese restaurant. Nail salon. Hair salon. Pizza place. Barbershop. Nail salon.
I’m telling you, the nail salon theory is never wrong.
Sure enough, as I reached Utopia and the retail strip it was a part of, the very first business on the block was, you guessed it, a nail salon.
I’d arrived around 10:30 a.m., and while it wasn’t busy, I could tell that it was about to change. What I couldn’t have foreseen was how this was merely the beginning of my day’s journey. One that would send me hurtling back the way I came towards Manhattan in search of a Utopian second opinion I couldn’t have avoided. And when it was all over, I would find that the journey itself was as rewarding as the many bagels I would come to eat.
Part II (of III) of my Utopian Quest, in which I offer my review of the Whitestone location of Utopia Bagels, coming soon…
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Ahh, Sean. You took me back to my first 17 years of life living in the southeastern most part of Queens. In a neighborhood called Queens. My father was a NYC high school teacher and was required to live in NYC. So, they bought a brick house, postage sized front lawn, three bedroom and one bath. This was in Cambria Hts, up against Nassau County separated by the Belt Parkway. And the year was 1944. The houses you pictured were just about the same as where we lived near intersect of Linden and Springfield Blvds. Thanks for the memories, Sean, and if someday I get back there, will have a bagel toast in your honor.