West 35th Street Bagel War: The Hole Story, Boiled & Baked

The Manhattan bagel wars have taken another turn and are cause to ponder how one block of West 35th Street has turned into a freshly boiled and baked battleground for hungry dough boys and dough girls alike.

First, opening in 2007, was the immodestly named Best Bagels & Coffee, which has one and only one location. Then came Liberty Bagels in 2017, which has four other locations, the oldest dating to 1995. This past November, Apollo Bagels arrived, an intriguing decision given that their downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn locations are often thronged with bagel pilgrims.

All told, for connoisseurs of the schmear and the sesame, West 35th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues has become a de facto holey land. The question is: Who sells bagels better? Let’s strap on the old feedbag and find out.

Beware, sons and daughters of the borscht belt: None of these shops is much like your parents’ or grandparents’ aromatic appetizing stores, which offered New York bagels, smoked fish, cream cheese, and other items. Instead, these bagelries proffer an almost antiseptic variation of the Jewish appetizing tradition, with notably fewer smells. While the beloved Russ & Daughters (which has a nearby location at West 34th Street and Tenth Avenue) carry on the “World of Our Fathers” (and mothers!) tradition, on West 35th Street a different philosophy prevails: much less kibbitzing, more social media. Not so much dried fruit and nuts, more on zany cream cheese variations.

As for red, white, and blue, or rainbow-colored bagels, oy.

On a weekday morning soon before Christmas, this boychik of the bagel beat made the scene, ready to nosh. The good news? Walking was kept to a minimum. The bad? Every location had long lines to separate the famished from that first delicious bite.

Best Bagel & Coffee

Just like a rock band might call itself Aardvark so they’re first in the record bins, any would-be Thucydides should begin at the beginning with Best Bagel & Coffee at 225 W. 35th St. It’s worth noting that of the block’s three bagelries, this was the only one not covered by dread scaffolding, while the sidewalk outside was filled with Instagram-scrolling patrons seeking the bagel of their dreams.

With 21 bagel varieties and 24 cream cheese choices, the available permutations would scare any math student. Add in a mix of breakfast platters and lunch items, and this location seems more like a Jersey diner, though there’s no tabletop jukebox for Tony Soprano to choose “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” from.

The ordering process was a little enervating: wait in the line to order, pay, and then pick up the item. In this case, an everything bagel, pure and simple, no schmear, $1.80. The pickup seemed somewhat chaotic, and while waiting, one mother with daughter in tow returned to the area because their order was wrong. Meanwhile tourists with luggage at hand munched away at outdoor tables.

As for the everything, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t seem that dissimilar from other Manhattan bagels. Is this what the critics call “schadenfreude”?

Apollo Bagels

This is the growing chain’s newest location, 224 W. 35th St. The menu here is spare, indeed almost spartan—everything, plain, and sesame bagels, and that’s it, with six different bagel toppings (or eight if you include the cream cheese choices). No eggs, no grilled items, no wraps. It’s bagels and bagels only, a focus upon which Apollo is to be commended.

The time from entering the store to first bite was about 15 minutes. You order, pay, and wait for your name to be called. Instead of behind-the-counter chaos, the workers exhibit nearly bovine placidity. This is great for reducing stress levels but a little worrisome when you’re starving. The cashier was very pleasant, and the gentleman who handed me the bag maintained an airline pilot’s calm despite the hungry horde facing him.

Apollo’s sourdough bagels were revelatory! On the outside, a hard bagel, on the inside, it’s as if they persuaded English muffin guts to grow up. It was not doughy, but lightly firm with more fermentation than expected. If Renoir had made bagels, they might have been like this.

Having ordered butter on the side, this reporter was startled to see it was a better butter, a cut above that of most bagel slingers. Unlike those at many other bagel joints, this rounder had no partial sweet taste, making it a Manhattanite’s dream with black coffee. Listen to Peggy Lee sing “Black Coffee” to hear how sublime this was.

Liberty Bagels

Alas, your scribe, having already spent a half hour in line, didn’t look forward to another 15-minute wait and bailed out. Conversation with Liberty’s line-wrangler was both pleasant and informative, however, so don’t be dissuaded from trying them yourself. Their other locations are on the Upper East Side, Wall Street, and another in Midtown, plus one in Queens.

Liberty, at 260 W. 35th St., offers a large variety of bagels, salads, sandwiches, baked goods, grilled items. A friend who works in the neighborhood told me that the wait is usually about five minutes, and that it’s his go-to place for bagels and lunch.

This reporters’s New Year’s resolution? To give Liberty a try because any store that employs people who can handle a long line in 32-degree weather with grace and humanity deserves some bites—and some hype.