Dutch Bagel Blogging

I feel Megan's pain regaring the DC bagel situation. Then again, a good bagel is hard to find in almost every city. But sometimes you surprise yourself — I had a pretty good bagel shop in North Carolina one time. So when I stopped by a Dutch cafe looking for some breakfast while waiting for my hotel to let me check in and saw a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon on the menu, I thought I'd give it a shot. Turns out not to have been such a hot idea.

At any rate, Bodo's Bagels in Charlottesville makes a better bagel than anything I ever had in DC, so as far as I know that's the closest good bagel to the nation's capital.

Photo by Flickr user Two Stout Monks used under a Creative Commons license

Comments

Dutch chocolate? Yes. Dutch cheese? Yes. Dutch courage? Yes. Dutch bagels? Sorry, not so famous.

Posted by rea | November 29, 2007 6:12 AM

having just been to amsterdam--i assume you're there--i can tell you that, if nothing else, the apple pie of new york bagel's near the rembrandt museum is spectacular. like really good.

Posted by dtah | November 29, 2007 6:26 AM

Agree with you on Bodos, I was living in Charlottesville when it opened.

The Bagel Place in College Park is not bad. Most of the time I go in, they are making them fresh in the back.

Posted by AndyB | November 29, 2007 6:34 AM

Goldberg's Bagels in Baltimore. Much closer than NC. Not open on Saturdays, of course.

Posted by tib | November 29, 2007 6:47 AM

Good bagels are impossible to find everywhere, including New York, because bagels are horrible. The provincialism of New Yorkers in this respect is appalling. I have actually heard New Yorkers complain that in Mexico City -- where you can get amazing tacos al vapor, eggs 500 ways, where there are stands with juices and licuados blended while you wait -- that it's a shame they can't get some chewy white dough with the dairy equivalent of ketchup. The American South is not exactly benighted when it comes to food. NYC types on this point are the moral equivalents of Americans in Germany complaining they can't find Bud Light.

Posted by Ricardo | November 29, 2007 7:12 AM

If you're looking for pie in Amsterdam (and why wouldn't you be I wonder) you really, really, really can't go far wrong with the Small World Cafe (see http://www.smallworldcatering.nl/index.htm for their catering business. The Cafe is just a 6 seat storefront at the address indicated).

They do a stellar pumpkin pie and a pecan that, somehow, manages to avoid the all to common problem of being sickly sweet with great whole nuts.

Posted by Kramer | November 29, 2007 7:18 AM

Though it's easier to get good bagels in NY - It's worth noting that NY is also filled with bad bagels. There seems to be a decline in quality in the last decade or so. It's probably not a coincidence that this decline coincided with the boom in chain store bagels nationwide and bagel also became a somewhat bogus signifier around the time it started to decline in quality - This is a bit like someone appearing on the cover of Time and then seeing that person's company stock price decline.

Posted by Comment | November 29, 2007 7:24 AM

Btw, how are the brownies in Amsterdam?

Posted by Comment | November 29, 2007 7:26 AM

Second tib's reccomendation of Goldberg's in Baltimore.

Posted by SKI | November 29, 2007 7:35 AM

In NYC, I'm partial to Ess-a bagel, though trending slightly larger than ideal.

But Matt, its too bad your time in DC didn't overlap with the singular liquor store/ deli on 18th Street in Adams Morgan called the Comet.

The owner, Sid Drazin, used to ship in boiled and frozen H&H bagels, then bake them in shop. Also did black and whites.

The best part of the place was Sid, a one-off character and ultimate mensch. Before Tryst, this was the local coffeehouse (with a kind-of shitty coffee) with a salon-type comraderie going, everyone from lawyers to intelligence people to business to neighborhoodies. 8 seats in the middle of a liquor store, but it had a vibe.

Look up his obit in the Washington POst, he was a one off (who played for Red Auerbach in High School!), was a millionaire 80-something who worked hour days for the fun, packed heat and employed ex-cons (and was the only white-owned business who didn't get trashed in the 68 14th street riots because of his standing in the neighborhood).

I really miss that place about DC, it should have been the center of a film.

And had real bagels.

Posted by Chris | November 29, 2007 7:40 AM

The bagels you like probably aren't made like in the picture -- those are Montreal-style bagels coming out of a wood-fired oven.

Posted by Matt Weiner | November 29, 2007 7:56 AM

Is this as close as the Atlantic will let you go to cannabis blogging?

Posted by Moral Panicker | November 29, 2007 7:59 AM

From one more longtime Charlottesvillian, thanks on the mad props for Bodo's Bagels. I love that shizz -- and my friends in the tribe still bring them back from roadtrips rather than relying on anything local.

Posted by Greg Greene | November 29, 2007 8:24 AM

From one more longtime Charlottesvillian, thanks on the mad props for Bodo's Bagels. I love that shizz -- and my friends in the tribe still bring them back from roadtrips rather than relying on anything local.

Posted by Greg Greene | November 29, 2007 8:25 AM

After all the times I meant to write in expressing my appreciation for your insightful writings, I never thought I would be writing about Bodo's, another fine feature of this little burg I call home. Should they ever fold up their tent, it would be a sad, sad day. It's definitely the finest bagel south of Ess-A-Bagel (my all time fave). Que Vive, Bodo's!

Posted by dave berzonsky | November 29, 2007 8:51 AM

Turns out not to have been such a hot idea.

This just goes to show that the Dutch are ANTI-SEMITES who are begin taken over by JEW-HATING ISLAMONAZIS!!!

They're trying to use BAD BAGELS to drive the JEWS OUT OF EUROPE!!!

Posted by Farty Peretz | November 29, 2007 9:12 AM

Unfortunately, the best bagel store in DC - Whatsa-Bagel - closed last March. You can still get the same bagels at Bethesda Bagels, on Bethesda, Ave, Bethesda. These are as good as the typical NY bagel, which, as Matt Weiner points out, is not the traditional eastern European bagel. The authentic Jewish bagel is available nowadays only in Montreal. The modern New York bagel, invented 40 or 50 years ago, is a softer, puffier roll made from a batter that can be machine-rolled - the traditional batter is so thick that it must be rolled by hand, and therefore has gone extinct in the US.

Posted by Bloix | November 29, 2007 9:41 AM

I have no idea about bagels in the city, being a suburban kid, but we always went to Bagel City on the Rockville Pike. Those are damned good bagels. But way out in the suburbs.

Posted by John | November 29, 2007 9:51 AM

I had a pretty good bagel shop in North Carolina one time

Did you run it into the ground? Or one day realize, "screw bagels, blogging is where the money is!"

As for Amsterdam, you should really get some raw herring from a stand and blog about that. Dutch sushi.

Posted by live | November 29, 2007 10:04 AM

Matt Weiner is right. That picture is from St. Viateur Bagels in Montreal. Hands down the best bagels in North America.

Posted by Pete | November 29, 2007 10:50 AM

Another decent bagel shop in the DC suburbs is Royal Bagel Bakery in Germantown. It's run by displaced New Yawkers (Italians, I think, rather than jews).
I'm not a native of a net-bagel-exporting region myself, so I don't know what the Platonic ideal bagel is like, but Royal has consistently the best bagels I've encountered in the mid-Atlantic.

Posted by FearItself | November 29, 2007 10:56 AM

I like the snotty Asian girl who works the counter at the bagel shop downtown.

They're the most Chinese looking Jews you've ever seen.

Posted by Linus | November 29, 2007 11:14 AM

I'll feel your bagle pain if you feel my fried shrimp po-boy pain.

Posted by ET | November 29, 2007 11:50 AM

I second John on Bagel City out on Rockville Pike. They do makes concessions to the goyim by making peculiar-flavored bagels, but the standard varieties are excellent.

Pizza...I find myself going to Sbarro if I want something that resembles NY pizza.

Posted by Tom S | November 29, 2007 12:16 PM

For the Londoners: there's a fun feature in this week's TimeOut (not online) where they send a journalist to pull an all-nighter making bagels at the 24 hour Beigel Bake on Brick Lane. I'm not really into beigels but they got lots of other stuff and the place in itself is worth a visit.

Posted by novakant | November 29, 2007 12:21 PM

I like how Ricardo gets all huffy that other people like bagels and he doesn't. That somehow makes New Yorkers "provincial" in their tastes. Get over yourself man, just because you don't like them, doesn't mean it's wrong for other people to.

Posted by mad6798j | November 29, 2007 12:44 PM

Bagel Factory in Torrance, CA. Oh yeah!

Posted by Tom Snyder | November 29, 2007 12:59 PM

Mmmm....Bodo's.

The one drawback of boycotting the frickin' high school band now in residence at the U is the fact that it prevents game trips and thus, Bodo's stops. Sigh.

Oh well. I grew up in NYS and had my breakfast sandwiches on hard rolls, not bagels. (Granted, lox and hard rolls don't go together.)

Great. Now I am wanting a bell's pond egg-wich, and Freihofer's, and Bodo's. I guess it must be lunch time.

Posted by ajw_93 | November 29, 2007 1:02 PM

The bagels at So's Your Mom, a New York style Italian deli, are pretty good. It's in Adams/ Morgan on Columbia Street.

Posted by The Dude | November 29, 2007 6:57 PM

Forget the bagels; in Amsterdam, you need to go have some poffertjes.

Posted by Kevin | November 29, 2007 7:22 PM

That picture is from St. Viateur Bagels in Montreal. Hands down the best bagels in North America.

Confirmed just 30 minutes ago. Worth a trip from NYC!

Posted by DD | November 29, 2007 8:04 PM

While that is a picture of Montreal-style bagel production, it's not St. Viateur. The trough they put the baked bagels in is wood-coloured, not grey.

Posted by Simon | November 30, 2007 12:46 AM

Ah Bodo's...how I miss you. Go Hoos!

Posted by Mike P | December 1, 2007 4:48 PM

P Street Bagelry makes small tasty bagels. Make sure that you count your "dozen" bagels before you leave.

Posted by Daniel | December 9, 2007 10:41 AM