How common is a daily bagel for breakfast outside NYC?
Posted by orpheus1980@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 539 comments
I live in NYC and here, it's obviously very common for folks to have bagel and coffee as breakfast. We are known for that.
But outside this region, it feels to me like bagels aren't much of a thing. So my question to you is, if you live outside the NYC area but in the US, how many people do you know who have a bagel almost everyday for breakfast?
southernfriedpeach@reddit
Not very popular in the south. The only people I know who willingly order bagels for breakfast are from the northeast
DudeMcDudeson79@reddit
I’m from Arkansas and it’s rare in my experience but you can get bagels at the grocery store if that’s what you desire
NecessaryPopular1@reddit
OP orpheus1980, apparently, has never left NYC.
If bagels for breakfast and beyond were not popular in America, there wouldn’t be Einstein Bros., Corner Bakery, Dunkin’, etc, and numerous other bakeries all over the USA selling bagels.
Bagels are, roughly, over a $1+ billion/annually industry in the U.S., in retail sales. 🥯🥯🥯🥯🥯
IPreferDiamonds@reddit
I live in Virginia. We eat bagels all the time.
brinns_way@reddit
Super common.
siandresi@reddit
They're huge (as in popular not size) in most of the Northeast US, south Florida, and worthy of honorable mentions in many cities, like Chicago and LA, basically in places with big Jewish populations historically.
They are a thing in some parts of Canada too, they have the Montreal-style bagels which you can find in the northeast also.
madsjchic@reddit
What’s a Montreal style bagel?
DeathandHemingway@reddit
LA is more of a donut city. Not that we don't have bagels, obviously, but we're known for the donut shops with the pink boxes more than we are bagels.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
Donuts for breakfast?
CompanyOther2608@reddit
When else would you eat them? They’re literally a breakfast treat. I mean, maybe if some guy brings a box of donuts 🍩 to work, you might eat one during the day, but typically donuts are for weekend mornings.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
Maybe with an evening coffee or as dessert after an early dinner on a Sunday. Like I said to someone else, the thought of a donut at 7 a.m. nauseates me. I never thought of donuts as being exclusively a breakfast item.
run4cake@reddit
You can’t even really buy them outside of breakfast hours in most of the US. The grocery store and a few big chains might have some later at night but most local stores are open like 5-11AM. I used to go to one that would reopen 4-7 PM but only to catch business from factory night shift workers.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
In most of the US there aren’t boutique donut shops. There’s Dunkin’ Donuts and gas station donuts, which you can get whenever.
run4cake@reddit
Boutique? You mean the places run buy Cambodian and Vietnamese families where donuts are 60c? They’re everywhere I’ve ever lived.
myseaentsthrowaway@reddit
In the US, a lot of donut shops close in the afternoon. It's a morning treat, not that different than having a pastry like a pain au chocolat with your morning coffee.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
Well I don’t want it in the fucking morning; I don’t give a shit if there is some insane cultural institution of eating 1200 calories of pure sugar before noon. Also, there is pretty much nowhere in the US that you can’t get a donut at any time of day if you want one.
Dismal-Kangaroo6327@reddit
I'm in Massachusetts. Most donut places close early afternoon. I don't normally eat donuts but about a year ago I was craving a one and it was around 8pm. Had to drive 20 minutes to the only place open that had donuts, a 24hr Dunkin donuts. So I'm not sure where you are where you are saying that.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
Most towns in the US do not have boutique donut shops to begin with.
myseaentsthrowaway@reddit
As far as I'm concerned, you never have to eat another donut again. But I think this sub is asking about American cultural norms. It's ok if you're outside the norm, but it's weird that you keep arguing about it. Americans generally aren't eating donuts in the evening as a dessert.
DrGlennWellnessMD@reddit
Then don't eat a donut in the morning. No one's got a gun to your head here.
CompanyOther2608@reddit
Not in the USA. The only circumstances in which a doughnut would be served after dinner in the US is if you were in a very fancy restaurant, and it was served ironically, as a way to elevate a relatively common, lower-brow food item into a cutesy fancy dessert.
I’m not saying it’s wrong for you to have that preference, just that it’s culturally not a thing. Donuts are for breakfast and the occasional guilty afternoon snack.
Its_Really_Cher@reddit
I disagree. Culturally, donuts are viewed more as a treat than for breakfast. Often served with coffee. There are many 24 hour donut shops where I live. Donuts would not be a substantial breakfast for the average person.
amymari@reddit
That must vary depending on region. In Texas pretty much all donut shops open super early and are closed by early afternoon. And yes they are usually served with coffee, but coffee is also mainly a breakfast/ morning food. A lot or most adults I know do not have a substantial breakfast. It’s mostly something quick and easy, or even skipped entirely. Unless you’re a stay at home mom or retired you probably don’t have time to actually cook breakfast.
backpackofcats@reddit
Donuts are most definitely viewed as a breakfast item in the US, but they can be eaten anytime. This is why donut shops open early in the mornings. Most shops around me are closed by 2:00 or 3:00 pm. When I worked as a baker at a donut shop I arrived at 2:00/3:00 am to be open for service at 6:00. We were busiest from 6:00 to 9:00 am.
Illustrious-Shirt569@reddit
Would you agree that a box of donuts would be a normal thing to bring to a breakfast or lunch gathering, but a really unexpected thing to bring as a dessert item for dinner?
I would say they are considered a breakfast/brunch food, even though people eat them whenever. In the same way that pizza is not considered a breakfast food despite the fact that many people eat it for breakfast (especially as leftovers).
beansandneedles@reddit
I’m can’t imagine eating a donut for breakfast. I think of them as dessert.
CompanyOther2608@reddit
Where do you live? They’re breakfast in the USA and the Philippines, but I know they’re either a dessert or not really present in other parts of the world.
KR1735@reddit
Yeah same here. I would only have one as dessert. Or maybe brunch.
North American breakfast customs are really, really unhealthy. Donut and orange juice easily pass 500 calories. Pancakes and syrup, ditto. Virtually zero protein and all simple carbs that'll give you a sugar high and leave you hungry just in time for your fast food lunch.
Not to rain on anyone's parade. Once in a while is harmless. Daily? Bad habit.
sosuhme@reddit
When you say you can't imagine it, are you saying that as a preference or because you aren't aware that they are considered a breakfast pastry?
beansandneedles@reddit
It just seems really strange to eat what is basically cake with frosting for breakfast. To me they are for dessert or a treat with afternoon coffee.
siandresi@reddit
I’ve been doing donuts wrong
Particular_Bet_5466@reddit
Yeah I think it’s goofy too man, but I’m the odd one out here.
DeathandHemingway@reddit
That's when you would usually eat donuts, yeah?
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
I don’t know; I guess people do. The thought of a donut early in the morning makes me want to barf.
restfullracoon@reddit
That’s a you thing. Don’t act like it’s weird for people to eat donuts in the morning because that’s when the majority of people eat them.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
Look, just because a majority of people do something doesn’t mean it’s noble or virtuous. Maybe the rates of obesity and diabetes in this country would go down if the majority of people weren’t stuffing their faces with sugary treats for breakfast.
restfullracoon@reddit
Nobody said any of that. It’s just the norm but you’re acting otherwise. I mean it honestly just sounds like you’re feigning ignorance to prove a point and sound virtuous yourself.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
Think whatever you want; I seriously never realized that apparently everyone but me views donuts as a breakfast food.
semisubterranean@reddit
I don't love eating donuts in the morning, but all of my local donut shops close at noon, so if you want them any other time of the day, you have to get them from grocery stores or gas stations. To me, that suggests most people here view them as a breakfast food.
MWoolf71@reddit
Go to any Dunkin Donuts (and in Chicago where I live there are many, often with blocks of one another) on any weekday morning and the line is out the door. They’re garbage but that’s another story.
Bagels are popular here but not everyday. Too many carbs for some of us. I’d rather have an Egg McMuffin.
PacSan300@reddit
I think those pink donut boxes are specially a thing in California more than anywhere else, and I believe Randy’s Donuts started the tradition.
ilovjedi@reddit
We had a rotation going to bring bagels in to our homeroom/advisory on Fridays. (Chicago north shore)
In Maine now my doughnut shop has bagels. But why have a bagel when you can have a doughnut?
llamadolly85@reddit
I like donuts better but I understanding eating a bagel instead because I find them more filling/substantial for breakfast - more fiber and protein in a bagel and you can up it even more depending on what you top it with.
Icy-Iris-Unfading@reddit
I grew up (LA area) eating bagels with cream cheese as my lunch at school. Mostly in middle and high school after I “outgrew” pb&j or ham sandwiches because they were for little kids lol
I went through a weird phase where I’d stick chips in my bagel with the cream cheese. Usually, I’d choose sun chips or Doritos lol gotta love the crunch 🤣
BoopleBun@reddit
I stick thin sliced cucumber in my bagel with cream cheese. (Or have it “open face” on both halves.) It’s really good! Just enough crunch.
Enough_Roof_1141@reddit
Maine has the best bagels in the US and I will die on that hill.
Dutchman’s, Scratch, Rover, Forage, Rose Foods…
wvtarheel@reddit
Bagels are in every grocery store in America. I think they are more popular in places where they have a longer history or areas with a Jewish population but everyone eats them now.
I live in rural Appalachia where my grandparents probably wouldn't have known what a bagel was except for Seinfeld, but we eat the mediocre grocery store bagels a couple times a week.
san_souci@reddit
Grocery store bagels are almost like a whole different bread. Both have holes in the middle but overwise don’t compare.
Not being a snob — I do buy them, they are good toasted with peanut butter, but I don’t savor them like a good fresh NYC style bagel.
Now I am hungry.
Skippeo@reddit
I live in rural Appalachia as well, and I love bagels. My wife figured out how to make good ones and now we can't buy the grocery store ones anymore because they just taste like regular round bread.
wvtarheel@reddit
Yeah, 25 years ago there was a NY style bagel place in Charleston WV. Huntington WV had one too that left during COVID. Kind of spread the love of them to the whole area.
Enough_Roof_1141@reddit
Maine has a giant bagel scene with in my opinion the best bagels in the US. They are Montreal style.
Daily? No. They are sodium bombs. We will pick some up at our favorite places for the weekend sometimes. Usually they have a deal if you get 6.
SeonaidMacSaicais@reddit
They were invented in Poland, so they’re still very popular here in the Midwest, where a lot of Polish immigrants settled.
lemonysardines@reddit
Definitely a thing in Canada, they've been in our groceries stores all my life, and a regular breakfast staple haha
ninjette847@reddit
Yeah I'm from Chicago, I rarely go out for a bagel but they're a fairly common grocery staple.
karlnite@reddit
Bagels are sold everywhere in Canada. It’s like Tim Horton’s staple food after donuts.
orpheus1980@reddit (OP)
Oh I've had Montreal bagels and I love them! Very different from NYC bagels. More like a pretzel. But love them!
siandresi@reddit
Those could be fighting words in a few cities. Lol
Jen_the_Green@reddit
They're huge in size also in NY.
siandresi@reddit
3 inches of cream cheese minimum, can confirm lol
TipsyBaker_@reddit
Maybe you should actually leave that region for a moment. Experience the rest of the country. Bagels are everywhere, with variety and everything.
I'm going to go a step further and say New York bagels are mostly only a big deal to New Yorkers.
TipsyBaker_@reddit
Maybe you should actually leave that region for a moment. Experience the rest of the country. Bagels are everywhere, with variety and everything.
I'm going to go a step further and say New York bagels are mostly only a big deal to New Yorkers.
Gatsby1923@reddit
It's super common
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
People eat bagels everywhere, dude. I prefer an English muffin, myself.
warm_sweater@reddit
Such a NY opinion to think they really aren’t a thing elsewhere. Life exists outside of that city, haha.
jcmib@reddit
Most places have black and white cookies available too
jub-jub-bird@reddit
But he's not really wrong though. Bagel's really are far more popular in and around NYC than they are almost anywhere else in the country. I don't think he was asking if bagels exist but are they are as popular and the actual honest answer is "Yes they are easy to find everywhere, but no they aren't as popular" outside a few other places with similar Eastern European Jewish immigrant communities.
lemonlegs2@reddit
Yeah Ive lived a lot of places and fresh bagels aren't a thing. We have one pizza shop in town that just started selling bagels in the AM, but I think its only certain days of the week. Ive lived NY down now all the way in NM and I've never really seen bagels outside of chains like panera or the grocery store. Every region has their thing: the south is a wide swath of biscuits, Texas/LA- donuts, NM- burritos
geosynchronousorbit@reddit
Right, and they've spread fairly recently. My parents grew up in the Midwest and didn't even know what bagels were as kids.
jub-jub-bird@reddit
I'm old enough to remember this myself. I was a teenager when bagel's seemed to suddenly became a lot more popular I think due to national marketing by one brand or another of store bought toaster-oven bagels that many New Yorkers would snootily turn their nose up at. It wasn't until I was an adult and working at a Jewish family owned business when I first had a "real" bagel... And they were right to turn their noses up at store bought bagels. A "real" bagel truly is so much better.
mrlolloran@reddit
It’s almost adorable when NYC natives ask Do you have/do “X” here?
Because it always either something completely mundane that’s done everywhere remotely civilized or something utterly bizarre that at best might happen in other major cities like getting extremely rare and exotic food for takeout at 3:30 am
SuperPomegranate7933@reddit
I didn't even think about that, but you're totally right
Alarming_Long2677@reddit
campus of University of Michigan it is definitely a thing.
Martothir@reddit
Texan, I thoroughly enjoy them, though don't often have them. I'm terrible at waking up in time for breakfast, and if I do, bagels are up against Tex Mex breakfast food, and that's a tough choice.
DaisyDuckens@reddit
Super common in California.
wieldymouse@reddit
I love bagels. I very rarely have them for breakfast.
cactuscamel20@reddit
I live in the southeast and this is my breakfast every single day
Objective-Raccoon-98@reddit
Super common here in Georgia!
RightToTheThighs@reddit
Bagels are very common. What isn't common outside NYC is a GOOD bagel. You need to hunt for them, but they're there. But I'm pretty sure most grocery stores either make bagels or carry Thomas bagels or something
rco8786@reddit
It's a very common breakfast
DDrewit@reddit
Daily though?
demafrost@reddit
I'm wondering if OP has ever left New York City lol
LadybugGirltheFirst@reddit
Perhaps that’s why they’re asking the question. Isn’t that the point of this subreddit?
Its_Really_Cher@reddit
Definitely not.
Kind-Cry5056@reddit
Just not as good as New York.
okay-advice@reddit
The bagel, yes. The coffee, no.
BoopleBun@reddit
So I’ve lived lots of places, including NYC, the Midwest, etc.
Yes, it’s common. No, it’s not as popular, but it’s definitely common. Lots of places don’t have a local bagel shop that closes at like 2pm or the ability to snag one at a deli or something, they’re stuck with grocery stores or chains like Einstein, especially if they’re not in a city.
There’s some flavors that are really uncommon outside of the NYC area, like egg and salt. And sometimes they’ll be a weird texture/not what you would think of as a bagel. But they do exist.
Getting a proper cheap buttered hard roll though? That’s really tricky thing to find outside the area. Most places you can’t even get ‘em, they have no idea what you’re talking about.
cecil021@reddit
Yeah, there’s multiple chains and local places here in Knoxville, TN. I don’t eat them that often, but we get them for morning meetings at work fairly often.
terryaugiesaws@reddit
Every grocery store in my area makes fresh bagels in the morning which definitely get shopped (im in different stores as part of my job). I always get one in the morning. I know a bagel and NY go together but new yorkers can't really think they're the only ones.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
People outside New York eat round bread with a hole in the middle. I’ve tasted some of the slop parading as bagels from places that purport to be experts running bagel shops in other places - not bagels. You can’t make bagels outside the NYC area, you don’t have the right wawta.
terryaugiesaws@reddit
This is how New Yorker's act about everything, not just bagels. They think they are the center of the world. (They aren't).
Pale_Row1166@reddit
There are no lies in this comment
davidm2232@reddit
It's the same water. Nyc water comes from the Catskills
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Catskills is NYC area, it’s where we keep the country houses
davidm2232@reddit
The Catskills are 3 hours from NYC. It's as different as you can get from a city. I live just north of there and used to work in the NYC watershed. The bagels there taste the same as the ones in northern nys.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
I’m acutely aware of where the Catskills are because I’ve been vacationing there my whole life. They have good bagels there. Check out the line at any Bread Alone on a summer weekend and ask how many people are from the city. I guarantee at least half.
davidm2232@reddit
So what you're saying is either that you can get good bagles in Upstate NY or that it isn't the water. Which is it?
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Im saying its the water, and that the Catskills has the same water because their water feeds the NYC reservoir in Westchester.
davidm2232@reddit
So then you can get good bagles outside nyc.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Outside NYC, yes. Outside NYC area, no. Catskills is NYC area, city people spend tons of time up there.
angrysquirrel777@reddit
It's way too far away to be considered part of the area.
Vail isn't the Denver area because people spend a ton of time there lol
jephph_@reddit
Huh? That area is widely considered part of the NY metropolitan area
Maybe north of Woodstock or Kingston isn’t but NYC’s water comes from within the metro area
angrysquirrel777@reddit
And Vail is 70 miles from Denver. There is waaaaay too much nothing between NYC and Catskill for it to be the same metro. Once you get North of Pleasantville it's too rural for it to be a part of any metro.
jephph_@reddit
lol @Westchester is nothing
I mean, that’s pretty funny stuff for local banter but in a nationwide sub/context, this is straight nonsense
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Even if we include all of Westchester, from the top of it to Catskill is still 60 more miles.
The actual city of New York doesn't even consider it a part of the metro area:
https://metroexplorer.planning.nyc.gov/about#geographies-and-boundaries
jephph_@reddit
That link isn’t working for me but I don’t see how it’s not, I mean, we got NYPD jurisdiction up there and the NYC DEP was largely created to monitor that area specifically. And the city’s MTA network goes up there
angrysquirrel777@reddit
You're right, it seems broken to me now too. If you Google NYC metro you can see every county map is the same and none include Catskill.
jephph_@reddit
That’s not my experience. (Well, I can’t even search exactly “NYC Metro” from where I’m at because all I get is MTA schedules and whatnot).. but when searching “NYC Metropolitan Area”, they all show some version of what wiki says
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area
..well, there is this one picture that Google AI spits out which doesn’t include Kingston etc but it’s from a Reddit post that’s more about NY vs PA and which part of NJ they claim
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/xAujuaDBor
angrysquirrel777@reddit
That county image there is what I'm talking about
jephph_@reddit
Ok but that’s just a map some Reddit user made for the MapPorn sub
There’s isn’t a crystal clear definition for the Metro zone in the way NYC has an exact and unarguable border, I get that.. There isn’t a factual definition for this stuff. Still, the vast majority of what I see about it has people in disagreement with your take (and me myself is one of those disagreeing)
Still, I can’t exactly say you’re wrong in your opinion because you’re not. We definitely see it differently though
Pale_Row1166@reddit
What nothing exists between NYC and the Catskills? Westchester county? Even Dutchess county is pretty densely populated. The metro north goes all the way to Poughkeepsie.
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HealMySoulPlz@reddit
That's a myth, it's not about the water.
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
A lot of people say this but it turns out it’s the case. It’s why bread in most of the country is terrible - the water is too alkaline. There are a few places that can make a decent bagel outside NY - Philadelphia (again a water thing - not the same but they can do it), Montreal, and naturally Krakow Poland
HealMySoulPlz@reddit
It's about the bagel making process, and the water has only a minor role.
They point to the traditional long proofing and two step boil & bake cooking method. Industrial manufacturers cut corners and do a short proof and steam oven bake to automate the process.
The same result (lack of flavor and nutritional content) has happened to a lot of other foods that use fermentation like kimchi, sauerkeaut, and kombucha that are now mass-produced.
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
I’m not sold - this is simply saying if you put the effort into it it will taste better which is not nearly always the case. I have a bakery near my house - industrial sort of thing. Size of a Home Depot. If I buy bread in their retail shop it’s better than any bread you’d get in flyover country save for a few places. If I buy a fresh bagel near my vacation place in Rehoboth DE it won’t be nearly as good as a fresh bagel on the Upper West Side
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Bread literally comes from flyover country so I'd have to say you'd be dead wrong here
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
Wheat maybe, but not the bread itself. I was literally there this AM.
angrysquirrel777@reddit
My point is the main ingredient is shipped into cities while the country can get it even more direct. There isn't a component of baking that could make bread any better, you can buy the same kitchen equipment and national ingredients in Fort Morgan, CO that you can in NYC.
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
Yet the bread will taste completely different
angrysquirrel777@reddit
It definitely can but if the same person moved and bought the same equipment it wouldn't
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
There are plenty of people who do this and it doesn’t work too well most times. Not every time mind you as you get some great transplants
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Because what's important is that the people come from New York!
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
Not especially, just using your comment to explain people do this and doesn’t work many times.
angrysquirrel777@reddit
The point is that there is no component of NYC that makes them especially capable of making bread other areas can't replicate perfectly.
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
If you say so.
Adelaidey@reddit
You heard OP! You could get bread fresh-made by a granny in rural Montana, or a bolillo from the best panaderia in Laredo, Texas, or a loaf from an Italian bakery in Chicago that's been running for three generations, or a piping hot pistolette in Louisiana, but that's just "flyover bread", mediocre slop, because as we all know, the most important thing for a good loaf of bread is... proximity to Manhattan.
angrysquirrel777@reddit
Exactly, New Yorkers can't help but think they are the most important people
Perdendosi@reddit
So you're saying you don't trust science but instead prefer mythology.
Delicious_Oil9902@reddit
I believe that a giant bread man lives atop the Empire State Building and comes down and has sex with other beings in the area creating all different types of breads. Yes I do. What I don’t believe in, however, are straw man arguments
HealMySoulPlz@reddit
It's saying that if you change the process significantly you will get a different result. New Yorkers tend to prefer the traditional method according to this thread.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Source?
guitar_vigilante@reddit
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/21/405190434/chew-on-this-the-science-of-great-nyc-bagels-its-not-the-water
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Nah, even Lender’s “bagels” are boiled.
From the article: “But while New York's water does play a role in influencing bagel texture, the effect is actually pretty minor.”
Pretty minor is very subjective, and minor things are often the difference between good and great.
IanDOsmond@reddit
As a Bostonian, I am almost exactly five hours from the best bagel shop in New York, and the best bagel shop in Montréal.
Let's face it. New York is definitely top two for pizza and top two in bagels, but you have to fight for #1 against Chicago and Montréal.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
What are we fighting Chicago for? Homicides per capita? They win, they can have it. I know you’re not talking about their tomato and cheese casseroles, there’s no contest there. If you’re talking about their tavern style pizza, I’ll concede that it’s delicious, but it’s nothing like NYC pizza, there’s no comparison.
CryptoSlovakian@reddit
If they can’t be compared, you can’t say or imply that one is superior to the there. That’s a comparison.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Exactly, they can’t be compared. Chicago does not have anything similar to NYC pizza, therefore no comparisons can be made.
shits-n-gigs@reddit
The fuck, bagels to homicides?
Pale_Row1166@reddit
That’s the only thing Chicago does better than NY. They’re killing it over there, literally.
mspolytheist@reddit
Montreal bagels are different from New York bagels. I will die on that hill. I’m a NYC expat, and where I live now, we have a local place doing Montreal style bagels. I have a friend who keeps trying to convince me that they’re better than NYC bagels. Narrator: “They aren’t.”
nigeltheworm@reddit
Montreal bagels are way better than any NYC bagels I have had. Let the downvoting commence.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
That’s just a completely different bread product that happens to share the same name. Canadians saw bagels and were like “cute, but how to incorporate hockey?” So they made those little round bread things that are hard as hockey pucks.
IanDOsmond@reddit
It is the same distinction between sweet and savory gefilte fish. The areas near the beet sugar refineries in Eastern Europe made sweet bagels and sweet gefilte fish. The Montréal Jewish community was largely from one region and the New York was from the other.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
That’s fascinating! I didn’t know about sweet gefilte fish, TIL.
IanDOsmond@reddit
It is disgusting. Signed, someone who grew up on non-sweet gefilte fish.
Both kinds of bagels are good, though.
orpheus1980@reddit (OP)
Haha you got my upvote
expeciallyheinous@reddit
Are they making fresh bagels or are they baking preformed dough they get from their food distributor? I sort of doubt every grocery store in your area has invested serious money into equipment for making bagels.
terryaugiesaws@reddit
Both.
It's Kroger.
The largest grocery chain in America if you don't count Walmart. They have money.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I make New Yorkers angry by letting them know the best bagels are from a place in Indiana.
They immediately turn to a death glare.
Safe_Mousse7438@reddit
Except the real best bagels are in Montreal.
Unoriginal_UserName9@reddit
that's like comparing deep dish to a slice.
Safe_Mousse7438@reddit
Agreed both good bagels but deep dish sucks. If I wanted lasagne I would have ordered lasagna.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Very different but also really good
FireGodNYC@reddit
🤣
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Hey if you are ever in Indianapolis I can tell you where the better bagels are. I’m not speaking from a lack of experience either.
FireGodNYC@reddit
If I am I’ll try and remember because that would be hilarious and awesome
CupBeEmpty@reddit
It’s like a three generation family business and they are awesome. Bagel Fair so you can write it down.
They’ve upgraded their spot but originally it was just a front in a strip mall and all they did was make bagels and put cream cheese on them.
It reminds me of when my Manhattan girlfriend took me to a pickle place. It was just a roll up store front that all they did was pickles. You walked in and it was just buckets of pickles they were sending to delis but you could but a one off. I was dill, she was half sour.
FireGodNYC@reddit
Thanks 🙏!!
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Now come to Indy and I have many more recommendations.
big_sugi@reddit
Last time I was there, maybe eight nine years ago, there was a really good Sichuan place next to a strip club out in an industrial area (buncha autobody shops and similar, IIRC).
Unfortunately, I just checked and it looks like it didn’t make it through COVID.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Strip mall vs strip club… very different
big_sugi@reddit
The restaurant was Szechwan Garden, 3649 Lafayette Rd, and it was next to a strip club, not a strip mall. A used tire dealer was across the street, and I want to say some kind of autobody shop was nearby.
The strip club was Rick's Cabaret, I think, but if so it's got a different name now. The restaurant is now Homey's Hot Pot & Buffet.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Oh holy crap I think I went there as a kid. I didn’t realize there was an actual strip club there.
We were partial to Hunan up at 86th and Ditch but they retired and I have no idea what’s there now. It was definitely in a strip mall but no strip clubs.
The other one I miss near there was the Afghan restaurant right where Marsh was.
syrioforrealsies@reddit
Please share so I can file this info away for later?
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Bagel Fair
Firebird22x@reddit
Going by yelp, these look to have an excellent texture and density. I wish the toppings for the everything were a bit more heavy handed, but not bad at all.
I'd be happy to get those compared to what I can in Rhode Island now
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Used to live in Rhody and I don’t recall a bagel place that really stood out to me. There were good bagels but nothing that was like “oh this is amazing.”
Unoriginal_UserName9@reddit
ಠ_ಠ
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Just calling balls and strikes my friend
Technical_Plum2239@reddit
That's like going to the South and saying you get the best BBQ in NYC.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Oh yeah I’d probably get battered by the southerners. Thankfully the best BBQ I have had was around Memphis so I think I’m safe. Sorry Texas.
I will say Indianapolis has some really good BBQ as well.
kaidariel27@reddit
Bagel Fair?
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yup
LikelyNotSober@reddit
You have grocery stores that make fresh baked good at the location?
TheFishtosser@reddit
Yea even the chain ones all have bakeries
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
Hate to break it to you, but these come in frozen. I worked in grocery
TheFishtosser@reddit
I was responding to a guy questioning grocery stores having fresh baked goods. While the bagels at some I’m sure come frozen they do make fresh donuts, cakes and bread at least at the ones around me
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
I hate to break it to you, but that stuff comes frozen too. They defrost and then decorate the cakes, they ice and dip the donuts and mist bread it just defrosted. Some bread is proofed and baked but the dough comes in frozen. They aren't making any dough or cake batter in house
Vivid-Kitchen1917@reddit
Bro you just worked at a low end grocery store. I've literally seen them measuring out the flour for the cake batter.
"It would cost a lot more"...than walmart? Yes, it does. And it sells.
LadyCoru@reddit
Maybe at Walmart, but I lived with a pastry chef instructor and she had connections all over town - the actual grocery stores (ie, not big box stores that have a bakery section) around here make their own.
_N0T-PENNYS-B0AT_@reddit
go to better grocery stores.
Rogue_Cheeks98@reddit
you worked at every grocery chain in the US? Even the regional chains? Damn that’s crazy
Tnkgirl357@reddit
perhaps at some places. but at many grocery stores the process is done entirely in the bakery there. source: my neighbor is the head baker at one of my local grocery stores, nothing comes in frozen.
Unfair-External-7561@reddit
Fancier grocery stores do often make things in house. It just depends.
TheFishtosser@reddit
I used to work in the bakery at a grocery store, we definitely made everything fresh….
jeffwulf@reddit
Most grocery stores do.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
Fresh Market
Intelligent_Pop1173@reddit
Yes, most grocery stores I’ve been to have bakeries, and I’ve lived in several states. They do this in Florida too.
TheRealRollestonian@reddit
Your location is FL. Have you ever been to a Publix?
LikelyNotSober@reddit
They certainly aren’t making fresh bagels there every day lol. Or, not anything I would recognize as a bagel.
radioactivebeaver@reddit
Pretty much every grocery store I have ever been to. You don't?
UngusChungus94@reddit
We do in KC. Once you get to the mid-high tier of price, most grocery stores near me have a full bakery.
terrovek3@reddit
Only bagels made in the Bagel-Brooklyn region of New York are real bagels. Otherwise you just have sparkle-less doughnuts.
CaterpillarJungleGym@reddit
I've had two good bagels outside of NY or NJ. One was in Denver where the restaurant shipped water from New York. The other was in Pennsylvania. I think Keystone Bagels.
DangerousBlacksmith7@reddit
Same near me. Along with the donut shops
temp_6969420@reddit
It’s very common. There are like 5 bagel shops near me I can think of off the top of my head.
Subterranean44@reddit
My FIL owns a bagel shop in CA. so for us very common. And for everyone else.
Eric_Fapton@reddit
It’s wicked common in Boston ked. 6 dolla meal deal ked.
Eric_Fapton@reddit
Dunkin for all you non east coasters
taranathesmurf@reddit
None, I live on the West Coast
On_my_last_spoon@reddit
I had bagels a lot in Illinois. But I did not realize how bad those bagels were until I moved to NYC.
So the answer is yes it’s common but man are those bagels shitty
notthegoatseguy@reddit
You can get bagels in pretty much any grocery store.
They're not going to be the best bagel you've ever had, but are an effective food delivery service with butter, cream cheese, or whatever your topping of choice is.
GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit
Although a bagel from the "packaged bread aisle" resembles a bagel about as much as a hamburger bun resembles a bagel.
wooper346@reddit
The fuck kind of packaged bagels are you buying
GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit
That you would ask this question strongly suggests that you have never had a real, fresh "boiled" bagel. Bagels aren't supposed to be soft, puffy, or "squishy", which is what you find in the "packaged bread aisle".
poortomato@reddit
It's so funny that you've been downvoted so heavily because you're 100% right. Those soft-ass Thomas' bagels in the bread aisle are not real bagels.
Wattabadmon@reddit
Again, tf kind of packaged bagels are you buying?
cyberchaox@reddit
Again, have to reiterate, the fuck kind of packaged bagels are you buying?
Or non-packaged bagels, for that matter. This take reeks of someone who doesn't know what at least one of the words "bagel" or "boiled" actually means, most likely both.
Maximum-Secretary258@reddit
Well you also don't usually just eat a raw bagel out of the bag. If you toast it, it will be crispy and have texture.
Veganswiming_32@reddit
You do not toast a fresh New York bagel.
Maximum-Secretary258@reddit
Right but I'm assuming (I've never had one) when it's boiled or whatever, that's what changes the texture from soft and squishy to whatever it's like when cooked. Which is similar to toasting a bagel. I mean what exactly is the difference?
Firebird22x@reddit
It is quite different in texture. A store bought bagel is going to be pretty dense throughout, not much difference in terms of the interior and exterior.
A fresh bagel still has a denseness, but more airy of a chew. The exterior is also more crisp, but not in the way a toasted bagel would be. Think like a fresh out of the oven sourdough loaf. Little bit of a crack when you squeeze, but still has a give.
Plus toasting the bagel makes the interior have that crunch too, which when you have fresh you dont.
Toasting is the great equalizer. You can store with a great fresh bagel, or a decent store bought bagel, and both will come out "good". No longer great, no longer decent, both just good
radioactivebeaver@reddit
Well with a boiled on you get to act smug online and tell everyone they don't know what a real bagel is, and with a toasted one you don't look like a total jackass.
Longjumping-Job-2544@reddit
That’s news to every bodega on my block
OldStyleThor@reddit
Unless you like your bagel toasted. Then you do.
Dikembe_Mutumbo@reddit
You realize not everyone lives in downtown New York City right?
GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit
Do you realize that even in New York City, very few people live "downtown", and eight out of ten people in New York City don't live on the island of Manhattan at all? Or are you simply clueless about what "downtown" means when referring to New York City? (And by the way, anyone on Long Island or in northern New Jersey could also tell you that bagels aren't supposed to be soft, puffy, or "squishy.")
Dikembe_Mutumbo@reddit
You are completely missing my point. A majority of the population does not live within reasonable distance of some deli or shop that makes fresh bagels unless you count Panera which I'm assuming you would also be snobby about.
GreenWhiteBlue86@reddit
You obviously missed my point that no matter where you are, a bagel is not supposed to be soft, puffy, or "squishy", any more than a potato chip is supposed to be soft, or creamed spinach is supposed to be tough and chewy. A bagel is supposed to be boiled before it is baked, which changes the texture entirely; if it isn't boiled, the texture will be that of ordinary bread -- and that is the sort of fake "bagel" one finds in the "packaged bread aisle."
PropulsionIsLimited@reddit
Most people bake them aswell.
Firebird22x@reddit
I wouldn't say they're wrong. Growing up in Jersey, I had an abundance of fresh bagels, never really bought any store bought ones.
Now in Rhode Island, it's quite a lacking scene. Some good ones, but as they've expanded they have less care, so I've occasionally gotten a bag.
Texture is the big thing. Store bought is definitely a downgrade from what's available fresh. It's pretty much one texture inside and out. Many are overly dense and underseasoned, but some bagel shops can suck at that too. But the chew of the bagel isn't really there in the same sense fresh is.
Fresh I never toast day one, rarely day two. The inside is airy but has a chew, the outside has a crispness like a fresh baked sourdough would. Little bit of a crack when you squeeze, but not a toasted crunch. Come day three, if they last, maybe I'll toast it, but I'm not a fan of that one not texture throughout for breakfast, I rather just make bagel chips
Store bought as is, from every brand I've tried, is too chewy, but not like a fresh bagel / pretzel like chew. It's a dense chew, it pulls away from the rest too cleanly. They usually need to be toasted. Plus with store bought, a lot have the seasoning embedded in the bagel, sometimes mixed in. With the added moisture it's no longer a bitey crunch adding additional texture, it's just there. Not soggy, but not fresh.
Don't get me wrong, I like Rhode Island, I'm almost at the point where I've spent 50% of my life here. Great seafood, pretty good hot dog scene, less chaotic, but I severely miss the bagels I used to have access too. (Pizza as well, but more places around get close)
UngusChungus94@reddit
Uh oh, here come the bagel elitists.
Bajisci@reddit
The difference between a grocery store bagel and a bagel you get from a shop in NYC is bigger than the difference between frozen pizza and ny pizza, basically completely different foods
cyberchaox@reddit
You can also get them in pretty much any grocery store in the bakery section.
Bahnrokt-AK@reddit
You may not realize it, but every New Yorker reading the first sentence made a face.
jeffwulf@reddit
Yeah, New Yorkers are a provincial bunch.
radioactivebeaver@reddit
You may not realize it, no one outside of New York cares.
datsyukianleeks@reddit
You are the reason the world thinks America lives on Twinkies, Cheetos, wonder bread and diet soda...or pop or whatever they call it in your neck of the cornfield.
Saltpork545@reddit
There it is. The rest of us are all hayseed morons who don't know what 'real food' is because there can't possibly be 'real food's in places that aren't NYC.
Leave your state now and again and grow up.
wooper346@reddit
The world can kiss my ass honestly. Food is the stupidest thing to gatekeep.
datsyukianleeks@reddit
It's the difference between good nutrition and poisoning yourself with preservatives and other additives. You wanna eat processed garbage, go ahead NO ONE IS GATEKEEPING.
radioactivebeaver@reddit
You truly believe that there is no fresh foods anywhere but New York?
mistiklest@reddit
Especially, "out in the cornfield", where they grow those foods.
radioactivebeaver@reddit
Yeah, they just got butthurt when I said no one gives a shit what New Yorkers think.
datsyukianleeks@reddit
No I don't believe that. JFC...I don't even want to know how your brain made that leap.
radioactivebeaver@reddit
Well you're just sorta spewing nonsense so it was hard to tell what your point was about processed foods.
datsyukianleeks@reddit
The only actual point I had if there was one at all is fresh bagels or no bagels. That's all. Have a good day.
datsyukianleeks@reddit
Like every New Yorker on here I initially was implying jokingly that eating supermarket bagels like Thomas or pepperidge farms is on par with living on junk food and gives the American diet a bad rep. That's all. But apparently people are really defensive about the SAD.
shits-n-gigs@reddit
And you why rural folks hate city asshats. Don't be a hater, you never lived a poor town life. That food is cheap and all they got at Dollar General.
Privilege, no empathy.
datsyukianleeks@reddit
When you're right, you're right
Saltpork545@reddit
Bagel bites exist. Pizza on a bagel. Quality is a spectrum and sometimes people just want breakfast, not a lecture on why the food they're eating is inferior.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
I rolled my eyes so hard I saw my brain
QuoteGiver@reddit
Start a bagel company that sells their somehow vastly different bagels to grocery stores then. You’d make millions.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
I don’t see that as a problem that needs to be solved. People in NYC don’t buy bagels from grocery stores, and people from outside NYC think grocery store bagels taste good, so there’s no demand for anything better.
QuoteGiver@reddit
What exactly is the difference? Just density of the bagel?
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Bagels have a crispy crunch of the outside and then are soft on the inside - fluffiness varies by shops and people have different preferences. I’m team super fluffy. Those things you see at the hotel breakfast buffets are uniform texture and you have to toast them to get a proper crunch. Toasting a NYC bagel is seen as sacrilegious among bagel purists.
InterPunct@reddit
Puffy, donut-shaped white bread. No thanks.
Odeken_Odelein@reddit
Montrealer here. Grocery store bagels don't count.
UngusChungus94@reddit
Oh, we realize it. We don't care, but we realize it.
bigcat7373@reddit
As a native NYer who left a few years ago, it’s always been a weekend thing for me. But as I get older it’s more of a once every other month thing. Being more health conscious is a big reason.
poortomato@reddit
That's when you order a flagel 🤭 /j
Patiod@reddit
I've literally cut my consumption by going with half a bagel!
womanaroundabouttown@reddit
As a native NYer, I often go months without eating a bagel. They’re just so heavy, it’s more a brunch or lunch than a single breakfast, and I love them but am not going to have them frequently simply because the only bagel place by my apt is cash only and I’m not buying a bunch for home. I ate way more when I lived in California because my boss would buy the entire organization bagels on Friday mornings - I got really bizarrely into jalapeño Asiago bagels with strawberry creamcheese for about a year 🙃
shelwood46@reddit
Yes, I've lived within the NY Bagel Zone for most of my adult life, and I love to get one once or twice a month, even weekly when I was younger, but I cannot imagine having one every single morning.
bigcat7373@reddit
Yea, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze imo. You have hamburger buns that are over 200 calories. A big bagel is like 500 on its own. Make it a BEC and you’re looking at 1000+ or even just butter or cream cheese can get close to that.
Definitely heavy for the morning, but after a night of drinking or something, sign me up.
poortomato@reddit
I'm from LI. I used to eat bagels (and egg sandwiches 😭) all the time. Now, in TX, the only time I eat a bagel is if I buy a bag from the bakery dept of my local grocery store and toast them at home.
Technically, there are chain places around, like Einstein Bros. or Panera, but they're not the same as a NY deli. No one outside of NY has ever given me enough cream cheese. And rather than them putting it on for you, they just give you a small ass container (and I need at least 4 of those 😅) and make you do it yourself.
unluckie-13@reddit
Bagels are very much a metro/suburban more densely populated region thing. Once you get more rural it's less common.
More_Possession_519@reddit
Until I got diagnosed with celiac I had a bagel for breakfast most mornings. It was rare for a week to go byte without a bagel and I would joke about going into bagel withdrawal. 😭
Free-Sherbet2206@reddit
I don’t know that people have them daily, but it is not an unusual easy breakfast. I love a good bagel and cream cheese
GotWheaten@reddit
Couple of times a month for me.
pacalaga@reddit
in AZ and I personally have one daily.
Adorable_Dust3799@reddit
I would say not unusual. I go through stages where i eat em. Then I'll go a year without. We don't have great bagles here, but regular grocery store ones. I've heard they're traditionally jewish, but i personally don't make that connection unless someone mentions it.
Forward-Wear7913@reddit
I miss those days. I grew up in New York City, and I used to get a bagel with cream cheese in the morning to bring for lunch at school.
We moved down south and there is still only one good bagel place in the area and they sell out quickly. It’s more of a treat than a regular occasion now.
BeRealzzz@reddit
I’ve probably eaten less than 10 bagels my entire 51 years on this earth. Plus everyone I know most likely has the same bagel count.
ophaus@reddit
New England loves a bagel, too. Not quite as much as NYC, though.
Difficult_Cupcake764@reddit
I do not live in nyc and I eat a bagel sandwich pretty much daily.
free-toe-pie@reddit
Americans can be huge snobs about bagels.
Holiveya-LesBIonic@reddit
Very big in Chicago area. Lots of places in the suburbs that make them fresh.
Inside-Beyond-4672@reddit
It's the same in Washington DC. Very common. Especially egg sandwiches on bagels. What's really interesting about it is that even the substandard and chain bagel shops do well here.
Imaginary-List-4945@reddit
I do live in NYC, but when I lived in Southern California for many years, bagel shops were common and lots of people ate bagels regularly. There were two chains on my commute to the office (Bruegger's Bagels and Einstein Bros) and we used to get catering from both for work meetings.
vomit_dust@reddit
I’m pregnant and I have been an absolute fiend for bagels for the past month or so. I need my morning bagel or I will perish. I live in Pennsylvania for data purposes.
steferz@reddit
Huge in the US. I remember even having a fundraiser at work where we sold bagels and custom flavored cream cheese to raise money for “whatever” charity we were supporting that year.
Bagels are: at office meetings, continental breakfasts at hotels and meetings, served at brunches and parties, made into mini pizzas, afternoon snacks, breads for sandwiches for all meals, turned into chips for dips, etc. We love bagels across the nation 🥯🥯🥯
RevolutionaryRow1208@reddit
I'm in New Mexico...breakfast burritos. Obviously people eat bagels, but you're mostly going to get to the office and see people with a coffee and a breakfast burrito. They're sold basically everywhere, including food trucks.
biddily@reddit
Boston- why would I not have a bagel for breakfast?
Rare_Independent_814@reddit
I grew up on Long Island. Bagels are not just an NYC thing but more just a NY thing. They say it’s the water in NY that makes pizza and bagels so much better. That being said I live in Florida now and I still love a good bagel. Not from like Dunkin’ or some chain, but an actual deli.
VLA_58@reddit
central Texas here -- a blueberry bagel with labneh is my go-to when I'm out of tea or cake rusks. every day.
EnvironmentalRound11@reddit
If you've had a good bagel in NYC or Brookline, MA or Montreal -- nothing else is as good. Most have no chew factor and taste just like a large piece of bread.
BJs did start carrying these rainbow bagels that are probably the best I've seen in a grocery store.
ButterFace225@reddit
It's not uncommon. I'm in the south and they're at every locally owned coffee shop that you can think of. My university had two bagel shops. I do think toast and biscuits show up the more south that you go. I think NYC is more know for its specialty bagel shops.
MichiganHistoryUSMC@reddit
If Costco stocks it... Especially if Costco bakes in house then it is common.
dobbydisneyfan@reddit
Breakfast in general isn’t much of a thing in the USA period. But I would say that bagels are an extremely common breakfast food.
Insulator13@reddit
The thing is, most other places in the US have bagels. However, they aren't as good as NY bagels. Panera is a national chain and has bagels. But they're bad. It's bread in a doughnut shape.
maccrogenoff@reddit
I think bagels are delicious, but for me they are a treat; I don’t eat them daily.
SteelRail88@reddit
Outside of NYC, is it really a bagel?
BigBlueMountainStar@reddit
I miss a good bagel. I live in France and I can only find brioche bagels, so they’re really sweet.
tsukuyomidreams@reddit
Never see bagels. NC.
Sensitive_Maybe_6578@reddit
Is even worse. Eating a tasteless lump of bread shaped like a bagel that looked so good on the shelf is so disappointing. There’s not enough cream cheese or butter to make it palatable. Then I’m left driving 20 minutes to the nearest bagel shop - few and far between — and spending too much money on half a dozen bagels, plus fancy cream cheese. Which i know I don’t need to buy. Then I’m left with the pressure of needing to consume them before they go stale. Since Our part of the US is not known for authentic, good bagel shops, it’s just not common here. Unless you go to Starbucks and get an overpriced one with your coffee. No, wouldn’t do that many times a week.
Too_Ton@reddit
Idk how that’d fill you up but maybe that’s how NYers are more in-shape.
Future_Potential_108@reddit
East coast bagels are big
Future_Potential_108@reddit
I grew up in MA and it’s extremely common, here in Oregon tho, not a thing.
Fat_Bearded_Tax_Man@reddit
I only eat St Viateur Bagels.
marilynmouse@reddit
NW Indiana, frequently have a bagel for breakfast
bellegroves@reddit
Grocery store bagels at home, yes. Good bagels are a little harder to find for take out breakfast.
PedalSteelBill2@reddit
I live in a suburb of NYC. I have a bagel every single morning. But when I lived in Silicon Valley, worst bagels in the world. I couldn't eat one the entire year I lived there.
RogueStudio@reddit
I grew up in Mass, so, yes, bagels for days, toss a rock, hit a decent bakery that have like a million different varieties of bagel, schmear, and if you're feeling particularly fancy, sure, lox.
Northwest - There is literally two shops in my entire city I actually *like* their bagels, and one of them is because the owner trained in a shop in NJ and then came back with that knowledge...they cost an arm and a leg for a dozen too. Otherwise, no, not the same vibe.
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
I eat them often but they aren’t like New York bagels. I haven’t actually had on from there, but in AZ a New Yorker opened a bagel shop and man it was incredible.
Abh20000@reddit
It’s incredibly common
ChapterOk4000@reddit
I moved from NYC to SoCal twenty years ago and haven't had a bagel for breakfast since. They're so bad here ( I'll add in my opinion here because all the locals will tell me of all the amazing bagel shops out here. Sorry, not for me).
KissMyGrits60@reddit
I was born, and raised in New Jersey, central Jersey. I still have family and friends there. So when I travel, that’s where I go usually. Good bagels, of course. I live in Florida, Southwest of Orlando, Florida, you can’t find a good bagel store down here at all in Florida. so I’m stuck buying the Thomases everything bagels, those are the closest I found to anything, that is closely related to up north bagels. When I do travel, to New Jersey, I usually bring home a dozen bagels, sliced up. Lol.
Vivid-Kitchen1917@reddit
Literally none. Most people I know have maybe one a month if that.
superpony123@reddit
Very common in places where you can find good bagels. Not common in communities where your best bagel is a Thompson bagel from the grocery store in a bag (really just circular white bread)
nstruggling@reddit
I've lived up and down the east coast and spent almost a decade in NYC and the metro area, and have almost never known someone who eats a bagel every single day. My husband and I ate bagels every day because we got day olds suuuuper cheap from a local bakery for the first year we lived in New York, but we were like 22 and super broke and walked everywhere. It's mostly something people grab here and there when they're on the go/didn't have time to make breakfast, or something people get as a weekend treat.
My husband and I usually go out for bagels every couple of weekends, and once every couple of months we'll take home a few and eat them for breakfast for a couple of days after, but again, it's infrequent. Since we moved out of New York, we've had no trouble finding excellent bagels elsewhere. I would say the main difference is that there will be a handful of really fresh, hand rolled and boiled bagel shops in a given radius in most metropolitan areas and maybe one or two in most suburbs, whereas in New York there might be dozens. But at least some of that is down to density.
Glum-System-7422@reddit
Bagels are very common here in Sacramento. We have dedicated bagel shops, theyre in every grocery store and every cafe has a version of a bagel sandwich.
I was still blown away by the first New York bagel shop I went to. The variety of cream cheeses, different lox, and how much cheese is on a bagel!! Truly a different experience from even the best stuff in Sacramento
HistoryGirl23@reddit
I grew up in the Midwest and we loved bagels. I still prefer lox and bagels for breakfast
Curious-Gain-7148@reddit
You know what’s sadly uncommon outside of the Northeast?
A hard roll.
JustAnotherDay1977@reddit
I would LOVE to have a good bagel most days with my coffee, but here in Minnesota, decent bagels are nearly impossible to come by. The nearest passable bagel shop is over an hour from where I live.
run4cake@reddit
When I lived in Houston, there weren’t really too many places you could even buy a decent bagel. The grocery stores (except Randall’s) didn’t really have them in the bakery and I didn’t have any chain like Einstein or Panera nearby my place, so I’d hardly ever have them at all even though I love bagels. I can only think of 1 local place but it was near my friend’s apartment 5-6 miles away from my place so I never went.
Colorado has a much stronger bagel culture, weirdly. I live within reasonable distance of several chains including a local one. There’s also a fair number of good small local delis and bagel places. When I was in high school, our school even had some kind of contract with the local bagel chain so we could always buy bagels a la carte at breakfast/lunch. I still don’t eat a bagel every day because that’s a lot of carbs, but I eat them now a lot more than almost never.
Ooogabooga42@reddit
Bagels have been my lazy breakfast food since I was a kid forty years ago. Raised in the South.
pacifistpotatoes@reddit
My dad has had an everything bagel with peanut butter and a cheese slice every morning since I can remember. We live in central IL.
Grace_Alcock@reddit
There are whole shops with “bagel” in the name.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
The disrespect you must have for bagels by suggesting that you can get a bagel at Panera is truly beyond.
coolandnormalperson@reddit
What? They didn't say anything about the quality of the bagel. They just correctly assumed that the bread shop sells the round circle breads too
Pale_Row1166@reddit
Those aren’t bagels
coolandnormalperson@reddit
Oh please spare me with your forced new yorker purity thing. They aren't good bagels, you and I both know they are still bagels. They are circular pieces of bread, boiled in an alkalized water solution.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
K
balthisar@reddit
Never having gone to a Panera, its name suggests bread, of which bagels are a type. Don't they sell bagels?
QuoteGiver@reddit
Of course they sell bagels. They sell VASTLY more bagels than whatever precious “real” bagel shop the previous comment was harping about.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
I’m willing to bet that Panera sells less than half as many bagels annually worldwide than the bagel shops in just the five boroughs alone. Less than half if you count Long Island and the rest of the suburbs.
keralaindia@reddit
I’ll take that bet… don’t underestimate a chain restaurant and breakfast catering.
shits-n-gigs@reddit
I'll take that bet any day of the week. 2000 locations, and they popular.
It's ok, NYC doesn't need to be best at everything.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/the-scene/new-york-live/food/ny-nj-eat-more-bagels-than-us-survey/5333811/
Pale_Row1166@reddit
It says Hawaii eats the most bagels, but based on the data, that means how many people eats bagels, not how many bagels the state consumes as a whole. NYC alone has 10x the population of Hawaii, so I’m willing to bet we eat a lot more bagels.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
Einstein Brothers
Local_Hope_6233@reddit
Philly very common. We have a banging bagel store on the corner.
alphawolf29@reddit
I live in the PNW and bagels are everywhere - mcdonalds even has bagel sandwiches.
Apprehensive-Read989@reddit
Dude, bagels are common everywhere in the US. I travel all over the country for work and have never been anywhere that doesn't have grocery stores with shelves of them.
Deep-Hovercraft6716@reddit
Bagels are common everywhere. They're in every grocery store.
Now, having a daily bagel is not super healthy and most people don't do that. But once or twice a week for sure is very common.
Budget-Attorney@reddit
I’m from connecticut and have a bagel for an early lunch at work every day (I skip breakfast)
amymari@reddit
From Texas. I go through phases of eating bagels for breakfast. My go-tos are either overnight oatmeal, bagels or muffins. If it’s not quick and easy I just tend to skip breakfast.
Natural_Field9920@reddit
You can get bagels anywhere
clevegan@reddit
Um, almost every morning living in Ohio. I love a bagel for breakfast
thewickedbarnacle@reddit
When I lived in New England I had a bagel sandwich every morning at work and sometimes on the weekends. In California I have breakfast burritos. I did stop for a lox bagel yesterday. Probably first bagel this year.
Aishario@reddit
I have half a "New York-style" whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and a banana every morning for breakfast. The half bagel has 115 calories, so it fits into an every-day breakfast.
JimfromMayberry@reddit
I go through breakfast phases, including the occasional bagel. They’re not special….and yes, I’ve had “genuine” NYC bagels. There’s a whole, big world out there…outside of NYC.
GreatestState@reddit
You’ll get your bagels everywhere now. And, great quality. Panera bread cinnamon bagels with all of that flavored cream cheese they got. Damn!
Icy-Whale-2253@reddit
I live in NYC but I’m not a big fan of bagels, I get baconeggandcheese on a croissant instead.
kimjong_unsbarber@reddit
This reminds me of the time my ex, who is from Queens, pointed at a breakfast sandwich and said "this is what we eat in New York!" Lmfao. Everyone eats bagels and breakfast sandwiches
animepuppyluvr@reddit
The fresh bagels in grocery stores tend to sell out by the end of day and there are bagel only stores. Personally I only get them maybe 5 times a year or so.
MeTieDoughtyWalker@reddit
You can definitely get a bagel in a lot of places in New Orleans, but they are so bad for you especially being a diabetic, so I rarely eat them. I also lived in New York and nothing compares to them anyway.
lyndseymariee@reddit
I’m American. What’s a bagel?
/s
lilspaghettigal@reddit
They eat bagels outside of New York but they’re nothing like New York quality bagels 😜
DemonaDrache@reddit
Texan here. We eat bagels. U fortunately, they are usually the grocery store ones but it's common. No good schmear(sp?), though. Just cream cheese usually.
noodledrunk@reddit
Frequently? Yes. Every day? I'd say that's not very common.
ElbisCochuelo1@reddit
Every day, no.
Bagels are like donuts.
Maybe a couple times a month you treat yourself.
Every day I think would be unhealthy.
Saltpork545@reddit
The broad general answer is different places do breakfast differently but bagels aren't out of place with pretty much any continental breakfast anywhere in the US.
That doesn't mean that there is the subculture aspect of the food that exists in NYC elsewhere though.
It's more akin to grabbing a doughnut or as the bread component of breakfast than the primary part of breakfast.
neronga@reddit
They used to sell bagels at McDonalds it’s a pretty widespread and common breakfast
TheWriterJosh@reddit
Is this bait
atheologist@reddit
Bagels are a thing in many parts of the US, though not all areas have good bagels.
Rogue-Accountant-69@reddit
It's common everywhere I've lived and I've lived everywhere but the South. People often bring in bagels for the whole office on a special day. Only thing more common to bring in is donuts. And I've been served bagels many times while staying at someone's house. Any medium-sized town and bigger will almost certainly have a dedicated bagel place like Einstein Bros. And of course you can buy them grocery stores, although those are of significantly lower quality.
offbrandcheerio@reddit
Very common, but outside NYC most people are probably not stopping at a real bagel shop and instead making a toasted grocery story bagel at home, like Thomas brand or something. My city has one legit non-chain bagel shop, and it’s out of the way for me so I rarely go.
Vyckerz@reddit
My family and I have bagels for breakfast maybe a couple of times a month.
We aren’t from New York, God forbid, we’re from Boston
We are not Jewish, but we like a good bagel and Schmear once in a while.
Wise_Yogurt1@reddit
I wonder if people outside of NY sleep in beds or drink beer
ScarletDarkstar@reddit
I go in phases, bagels for months and then drop them for a while. I also eat them at non-breakfast times.
I haven't any connection to NY, but I have eaten bagels all my life.
BrooklynLodger@reddit
They eat something they call a bagel, but it's often dry sad mockery of a true bagel
agravain@reddit
bagels are eaten outside of New York, yes
jhewitt127@reddit
Yeah but OP said daily. I know you can buy bagels everywhere, but I don’t think I know of anyone who has one for breakfast every day. It’s more of an occasional thing, or like brought to meetings or whatever.
agravain@reddit
OP said almost daily
and yes I have bagels at least a few times a week. I also have croissants from Costco, English muffins, raisin bread and just regular bread other times.
I dont drink coffee, tho, so that's different.
rr90013@reddit
It’s not common in New York either. It’s more of a special weekend treat for the small percentage of people who are into it.
Apprehensive-Ant2141@reddit
It’s common but I wouldn’t eat one every day.
frank-sarno@reddit
South Florida here (but used to live in Queens) and eat a bagel often enough.
LL8844773@reddit
Why would I eat a bagel when I can eat a buttermilk biscuit?
thrwwy2267899@reddit
Bagels are common everywhere, I personally never think about them or want them unless I’m the rare occasion I’m in office and they were provided
They’re not really anything I go out of my way to purchase and consume, but I like them if they’re around I guess
mikebootz@reddit
About 10-15 years ago I asked for a bagel in New Orleans and the waitress looked at me like I had 3 heads. She said what’s a bagel. My head nearly exploded. Culture shock in my own country.
RolynTrotter@reddit
I eat a bagel with cream cheese most days.
(Supermarket bakery Cheddar jalapeño bagel and strawberry cream cheese to be specific. Flax seeds too. And a banana)
nonother@reddit
There’s a bagel shop near my home in San Francisco which is very popular and opens at 4am every morning. Their bagels are pretty awful, but nonetheless popular.
ald9351@reddit
Midwest- I don’t know anyone that eats them regularly. I like them. Have one maybe every couple months at home.
Judgy-Introvert@reddit
No one I know has a bagel everyday for breakfast. I have one maybe once or twice a month, if that.
zero_and_dug@reddit
I’m pregnant right now and have been dealing with nausea so I’ve been eating plain bagels with cream cheese from time to time. It’s not a normal breakfast for me because it’s so high carb.
The_Motherlord@reddit
I don't know anyone that eats breakfast daily. Or even regularly.
But I eat bagels often.
ohmymystery@reddit
My dad is from the Midwest and lives in Texas. Every. Damn. Day.
ExtremePotatoFanatic@reddit
Pretty common. I eat bagels all the time and always have them at home. I even worked at a bagel shop in college.
Friendly_Coconut@reddit
I probably have a bagel once every 2 weeks!
consumeshroomz@reddit
As someone who lived in NJ/NY my whole life before moving to the west coast, I went from eating about 4-5 bagels a week to eating maybe 4-5 bagels a year.
Ok_Part6564@reddit
Though bagels are common outside NYC and it's surrounding suburbs, the quality drops rapidly as you get further from the city.
letsgooncemore@reddit
My local grocery store has a small bakery department with fresh asiago cheese bagels I use to make my work lunch almost every day I work.
punkgirlvents@reddit
It’s not weird at all but it’s not something most people do most days
Penguin_Life_Now@reddit
It is an increasingly popular trend the last several years, as bagel shops are popping up all across the US.
21stNow@reddit
I'm surprised at the comments in this thread. Einstein Bagels was closing shops where I lived over the last several years, and I never saw any other bagel shops take their place. I don't think that I could find a bagel shop within five miles of where my mother lives if my life depended on it. I don't know anyone personally who eats bagels and would probably get side-eyes if I even dared to ask.
Horzzo@reddit
Incredibly common. I don't know why you would think this is a NY thing.
Hegemonic_Smegma@reddit
Why would you eat the same thing for breakfast every day when there are so many options?
Some days I have oatmeal with fresh blueberries, and yogurt. Some days I have a whole-wheat bagel with cream cheese, and a banana. Some days I have an English muffin with butter, and strawberries. Some days I have a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.
Bagels are great, but having one nearly every day sounds like part of a dull existence.
brickbaterang@reddit
A "bay- gull" you say? Why are you guys eating aquatic birds?
fuzzy-lint@reddit
Pretty common I’d say. I have one about once a week I think?
Pluto-Wolf@reddit
in arizona, we usually have breakfast burritos over bagels. bagels are still a somewhat common breakfast, here, but definitely not the breakfast food of choice for most people.
expeciallyheinous@reddit
Im a baker at a bagel shop in New England. We’ve had a handful of NYC transplants as regulars who say they’re the best bagels they’ve had outside of the city. We have a lot of people who come in every single morning for breakfast. It’s probably fairly common in areas where there’s a good bagel shop, less common where people mostly only have access to bagels that are shipped in frozen or off the shelf in a grocery store.
Veganswiming_32@reddit
Where’s your store? I have yet to find a truly great bagel in the Boston area.
deltagma@reddit
I have never seen someone eat a bagel before until I met my wife.
__-_-_--_--_-_---___@reddit
I have never found a good bagel outside of New York City 🥯
Howie_Dictor@reddit
I’m from Cleveland OH and I eat a bagel every single day. It’s probably my single most eaten food item. We also have a large Jewish community in this area so that might have something to do with it.
PurpleLilyEsq@reddit
I’m in “upstate” NY. In high school I bought a bagel from the cafeteria every morning. Obviously that wasn’t from scratch. Our grocery stores do have bakeries that sell bagels. I have no idea of the level of “scratch.” Thomas’ bagels aren’t half bad. Maybe 1-2x a month I get a bacon egg and cheese in a bagel from Dunkin Donuts.
As for having them everyday, not since high school. My waistline could never stand for that now. We also have to drive everywhere to get to anything here, so nothing is really on the way that you could just pop in for a quick bagel. Leaving work to drive to Dunkin etc. isn’t really an acceptable thing to do. But when I worked in DC it was generally acceptable to leave the office and get a coffee (or bagel) from somewhere that was very close walking distance to the office. I assume NYC has a similar culture.
Squidgie1@reddit
Way too many carbs. A bagel is an occasional treat (and I do love them).
Bogmanbob@reddit
But daily for me but something I love maybe once a week. The best fresh bagel shop is a bit of a drive for me in the Chicago suburbs.
uhsiv@reddit
I love how parochial New Yorkers are, off on their own little island completely separated from the rest of the world
AgathaM@reddit
I used to have a daily bagel for breakfast for about a year and a half. I decided I needed to up my fiber intake so I moved off of that to something else.
PsxDcSquall@reddit
I’ve lived in Maryland most of my life, a daily bagel is my breakfast about 3-5 days per week
lavasca@reddit
Pretty common up and down the coast of California.
Admiral52@reddit
I mean idk if it’s common to eat it daily but it would be an easily obtained option should one choose to eat a bagel for breakfast
JohnMarstonSucks@reddit
Bagels are very common everywhere I've lived.
I'll say this though, I can't find onion bagels anywhere. It's plain, cinnamon raisin, and everything. Kroger has these terrible cheese and jalapeño ones too, but no one carries just a basic onion bagel.
xxxjessicann00xxx@reddit
I wish my Kroger would bring back the jalapeño cheddar bagels. How dare you!
Ok_Introduction5606@reddit
Bagels are everywhere. In the south, north, east, west. Every American knows what a bagel is and eats them. I don’t like a carby breakfast or sandwich but I eat them if needed
KevinTheCarver@reddit
Pretty common, but they are all terrible outside of the NYC metro area.
Kvsav57@reddit
It's not as common as in NYC but it's very common. I think the biggest reason it isn't as common is that bagels outside of NYC are rarely that great. Even when I lived in Chicago, there were not many bagels of note, and I think Chicago has the highest number of great eateries per-capita in the country.
Pyewhacket@reddit
Very
cdb03b@reddit
Bagels are available, but are not a staple food. I will get bagels a few times a year myself.
prosperosniece@reddit
They’re my favorite breakfast food
Don-Gunvalson@reddit
Coffee is my breakfast and yogurt is my brunch.
commandrix@reddit
Bagels are pretty common. Like, maybe not everybody eats a bagel every day, but they're on the menu at a lot of breakfast places.
nigliazzo5626@reddit
Bagels are popular in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs
Spies_and_Lovers@reddit
I Doordash sometimes, and there's this tiny little hole in the wall bagel place in my small town. 90% of my morning orders are from there. I live in NC.
jollyroger822@reddit
Dude there are entire stores dedicated to this including a national chain known as Einstein's bagels.
GenXrules69@reddit
5 days a week. Deep South.
LSBm5@reddit
Yes it’s totally normal. I don’t do it because you don’t want to get fat.
mothwhimsy@reddit
Bagels are everywhere. what
Unfair-External-7561@reddit
You just have to search around for the quality you get on every street corner in NYC.
I get a bagel for breakfast every Friday because there's a really good bagel place next to where I do pilates. But I'm not gonna get bagels at a random coffee shop because a lot of the time they're just circular bread and...no thanks.
kaidariel27@reddit
My city's not walkable enough for that to be better than grabbing a granola bar on the way out the door. Plus there's only one real NY bagel place in town. There's a couple of bagel chain shops but they're expensive and not nearly as good
OceanPoet87@reddit
I love my carbs and I often have bagels for breakfast.
SheenPSU@reddit
I am a bagel man. It’s my typical breakfast.
Days I don’t do bagels?
I do toast, or cereal.
chinchaaa@reddit
I grew up in northern Virginia outside DC and we ate them daily. My parents are from Massachusetts. I live in Texas now and no one eats them regularly. It’s sad.
Sam_English821@reddit
I only eat bagels or donuts for breakfast if someone buys them for the office I work at. I have never independently purchased a bagel.
OrdinarySubstance491@reddit
I’m in Texas and my daughter had either a croissant or a bagel every day. She does prefer bagel thins because she can only eat half of a regular sized bagel.
DirkCamacho@reddit
I’m not really familiar with how everyone eats breakfast. For me bagels are a treat. I couldn’t eat one every day, I’d get even fatter than I already am. My breakfast is either oatmeal or low sugar cereal.
casapantalones@reddit
I love bagels and would eat more of them if I had time for breakfast every day and didn’t need to watch what I eat
Apocalyptic0n3@reddit
I have one basically every day. Bagel with cream cheese, a tall glass of milk or orange juice, and a spoonful of cottage cheese or a Chobani yogurt. I eat breakfast pretty early (<6am) so I generally just get a pack of 6 bagels from the bakery each weekend.
DirkCamacho@reddit
Nobody.
ctcaa90@reddit
We like bagels, and there are bagel shops around, but I don’t know anyone who eats bagels daily, weekly or even monthly. Just every now and again or in meetings when someone brings a bag to share.
CompanyOther2608@reddit
NYC bagels are special. Other parts of the country may eat bagels, but in most cases they’re not boiled fresh. They’re bought in bags from the grocery store and toasted. They’re basically bread cut into a bagel shape.
Breakfast here in California is more likely to be Greek yogurt, fresh fruit, eggs, avocado toast, or maybe a morning bun or scone.
Hylian_ina_halfshell@reddit
More common than a soft pretzel for breakfast outside of philly, but thats all I got
Angsty_Potatos@reddit
I grab a bagel most mornings. More when I worked outside of my house. Place down the street makes their own. Zatar w jalapeno cream cheese baby!
psychocentric@reddit
I would argue that bagels aren't as common around here as most people I know eat at home, but coffee/bagel shops do alright because bagels and coffee are delicious and portable.
stargazertony@reddit
I live in Pennsylvania and have a fresh made one most every morning
mama_works_hard@reddit
Common! I love bagels and cream cheese for breakfast.
Sp4rt4n423@reddit
I make my bagels at home and I'd say I have one at least every other day on average.
prpslydistracted@reddit
Visited our oldest daughter her first semester at college in Boston. Her younger sister was 13 at the time.
This was little sis first bagel experience ... she called the cream cheese "bagel butter." ;-)
Tall_Candidate_686@reddit
Philadelphia bagels are legit
einsteinGO@reddit
I go through random periods of wanting a bagel sandwich on the regular, and we have like 18 bagels in our house right now. My coworker’s husband is a baker, and she is over gracious with sharing
Bagels were part of my childhood in CT big time
sparkledoom@reddit
The NYer in me is reading these responses and feeling like a bagel from a grocery store or a chain like Panera is so not what I mean when I think about grabbing a bagel.
Like it feels technically true that people eat bagels elsewhere, but I don’t think the “ritual” of it exists in the same way elsewhere. Like Americans eat baguettes everywhere, you can get them at every grocery store, but not the way they do in Paris.
gnirpss@reddit
Not that common where I live. The bagels generally aren't good enough to justify eating bread and cream cheese for breakfast every day.
Usirnaimtaken@reddit
Reading this while eating a bagel as an American.
Efficient-Reach-8550@reddit
I’m in Alabama and grew up here. I eat bagels for breakfast.
Emotional_Star_7502@reddit
Extremely common. That said, the bagels are generally lower quality
Dark_Web_Duck@reddit
Pretty common in my area of coastal VA.
Other_Big5179@reddit
I eat them rarely. too carby.
esk_209@reddit
A lot a third of my office gets a bagel on a regular basis from the bagel place down the street.
filkerdave@reddit
People outside NYC eat bagels all the time.
It's just that most of the bagels outside NYC suck.
MountainTomato9292@reddit
Very common for my family, we are in Memphis.
GlassCharacter179@reddit
Common, but not as ubiquitous as NY. Mostly because bagels outside NY are denser and sour for some reason.
Zoroasker@reddit
Bagels are extremely common everywhere I’ve ever lived, including in the rural Deep South. Here in DC bagels are everywhere. What I wouldn’t give for a good biscuit. 😢
daveescaped@reddit
Detroit? Common.
Although TBF there was an awesome bagel place in SLC that I got every morning.
chrisinator9393@reddit
I'm 4 hours north of NYC. Bagels are BIG business up here.
I eat a bagel every single day of my life
Spirited-Gazelle-224@reddit
When I lived in Massachusetts, it was very common. Now I’m in Florida and somehow, my usual everything bagel with cream cheese habit has disappeared….
Competitive-Fee2661@reddit
Bagels outside of the NY metropolitan area are typically not as good…spoken as a Michigander
Self-Comprehensive@reddit
I'm in a small town in North Texas and I can get bagels whenever I want them, at the grocery store or almost any restaurant that serves breakfast. It's not exactly my go to daily breakfast, but I have a lot to choose from (tacos, donuts, kolaches, biscuits etc.) If I wanted to eat bagels daily, I absolutely could.
bitch-in-real-life@reddit
Bagels are too heavy for breakfast in my opinion.
gaoshan@reddit
Cleveland, Ohio… eat a lot of bagels here.
muddyshoes_throwaway@reddit
I live in upstate/Central Western NY and bagels and coffee are a breakfast staple here too
Premium333@reddit
It's very common.
BrandonW77@reddit
Zero. I love a good bagel but about the only time I have them is as part of a breakfast sandwich. I don't know anyone who eats them near daily.
Ohiostatehack@reddit
Extremely common
MidniteOG@reddit
I’m sure for some it is, but for me it isn’t
DeathandHemingway@reddit
In Los Angeles you'll see a lot more donuts than bagels. We're known for our donut shops with the pink boxes, it's a whole thing. Some even have giant donuts on the roof (it's more than just Randy's).
You can get a bagel, but I wouldn't say bagel 'culture's big here. Maybe on the west side, but not in real LA.
W0RZ0NE@reddit
I have a whole wheat bagel and some cottage cheese most mornings.
Clear-Tradition-3607@reddit
Anyone else feel like Reddit is a big social scraping tool run by marketing companies? Like a bagel company for instance
IainwithanI@reddit
I’ve lived in Alabama and NE Illinois. I’ve never seen evidence of anyone who does this. While I’m sure they exist in NE Illinois I don’t think it’s common except in certain towns.
NotZombieJustGinger@reddit
I grew up in Southern California. My brother and I ate bagels every day for breakfast for years. Shout out to Western Bagel.
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
Not super common, but its not unusual either. Saw it a lot more in CA than TX
xczechr@reddit
I pretty much only eat bagels when they are including with breakast at a hotel. So a few times a year at most.
AnimatorDifficult429@reddit
I wouldn’t say every day, but it’s pretty common
Odd-Help-4293@reddit
I grew up mostly in the DC area, and bagels were pretty popular there as well. I've heard they're much less popular in the Midwest.
BrazenDuck@reddit
I don’t enjoy the bagels much where I live. They aren’t the same as the bagels I grew up with.
rectalhorror@reddit
This seems to be a common complaint among NY/NJ transplants. Wherever they go, the bagels aren't as good. Same with pizza. As a kid, the best I could find were Lender's frozen bagels because nobody was making them fresh. That changed when some restauranteurs who wanted bagels like what they had in NYC opened their own local shops to make them fresh.
balthisar@reddit
That's just snobbery. New York pizza and New York bagels really aren't that special per se. The pizza is mediocre, and the bagels are just bagels. Better than the freezer aisle, for sure, but so are Dunkin' Donuts' bagels.
BrazenDuck@reddit
I’m sure there is a fresh bagel shop somewhere around that makes a good bagel, but they aren’t as ubiquitous, so it also loses some of the appeal there.
genevieveann@reddit
In St. Louis and I get one on occasion but it's a higher carb breakfast than I usually go for.
mkshane@reddit
I do. My breakfast most mornings is a bagel with cream cheese, and scrambled eggs and a little fruit
I grew up in PA, live in Florida now. Plenty of bagel shops around here (guessing all the NY expats had a big influence)
TheBimpo@reddit
No one? I've lived in the midwest, PNW, Bay Area and Carolinas. They're not even close to being "daily" in other places. Hell in the Carolinas you'd be hard pressed to find one in some places.
moonwillow60606@reddit
Carolina girl here. Who wants a mediocre bagel when you can have a (country) ham biscuit.
TheBimpo@reddit
Even a mediocre biscuit beats a decent to good bagel. Biscuits are a superior breakfast bread and I'll die on that hill.
moonwillow60606@reddit
I’ll join you on that hill
jacox200@reddit
In Texas it is very hard to find good bagels. Like there may be less than 10 good ones in the entire state. As a result we have tacos for breakfast instead.
AnnieB512@reddit
It's not a daily thing, but we eat bagels. I'm more of an English muffin person. Bagels are too much bread for me.
davidm2232@reddit
Toasted English muffin with butter and peanut butter is top tier breakfast. Diners somehow make them way better than I can.
Drunktraveler99@reddit
Add a little honey to that peanut butter too
BTKUltra@reddit
My dad lived in Florida and it was his daily routine to take his dog for a walk to the local coffee shop and get himself a coffee and fresh bagels for himself and anyone staying at the house.
RodeoBoss66@reddit
In the larger cities and surrounding metropolitan areas, it might not necessarily be a daily habit for a lot of people (for some it might be, especially if they’re transplants from NYC or other cities), but bagel shops are fairly common, and have been in some areas for decades, at least since the 80s and 90s. There are several chains, as well. I worked at one for a short time, in fact. I don’t rightly recall if it was in the late eighties or mid-nineties; it was one or the other, at a chain called East Coast Bagel. There are other chains as well, some regional, some national, such as Bruegger’s Bagels and Einstein Bros. Bagels, that are pretty popular and offer great quality. Of course there are also independent shops, especially in areas with substantial Jewish populations.
YoshiandAims@reddit
Loads of people I know buy bagels regularly for breakfasts.
Bluemonogi@reddit
I don’t actually ever ask people what they had for breakfast so I only know about what happens in my house. You can get bagels so some people probably do.
I have had bagels for breakfast but not for a long time. I usually have a low carb breakfast so no bread products. My spouse never eats breakfast. My daughter has yogurt or a smoothie type thing.
rexeditrex@reddit
I do quite often.
WritPositWrit@reddit
People eat bagels, but I don’t know about everyday. And we dont have delis and bagel shops on every corner, so bagel eaters have to plan ahead.
Amazing_Moose3218@reddit
It’s definitely not an exotic breakfast here in the Detroit area lol. I’m a 2 minute walk from a bagel shop as I type this. I don’t think most people have one every day, but bagels are extremely common here.
PaleontologistNo2625@reddit
I moved from NYC to Denver. Plenty of bagels around but they're not good enough to choose as breakfast when the breakfast burrito game is so strong here.
There are other better options. Where as there are no better options than nyc bagels anywhere
AuggieNorth@reddit
Very common in Boston. I've been a bagel guy for decades, usually an Everything with bacon, egg, & cheese. I can still remember my introduction to bagels over 40 years ago, when I was ordering breakfast in San Francisco with a couple friends from NYC, and they ordered bagels with lox and cream cheese. I don't like salmon, so I got one without the lox, and they grew on me very quickly.
sideshow09@reddit
It’s not. I grew up in NYC. As a kid on my way to school I would grab a bagel with cream cheese (many times it was actually for lunch - I know not healthy haha).
Part of it is that culturally it’s so tied to the immigrant populations that made NYC home.
Part of it is NYC lifestyle, grab a bagel and a coffee and eat on the go cause time is precious.
Part of it is the fact that you walk everywhere. Outside of a few cities in the northeast, driving is a lot more common, and therefore you don’t walk by 10 bagel places in your way somewhere. Where my family lives now, you get bagels from the frozen food aisle in the supermarket.
Also bagels in NYC are just better quality and taste.
Pale_Row1166@reddit
I think I ate a bagel with butter everyday for lunch from ages like 8-11.
Ayuuun321@reddit
I live in NY. I grew up on Long Island, so bagels were everywhere. It’s a joke that every strip mall on LI has at least one of the following: bagel store, deli, pizza place, or nail salon.
When I moved to Albany, I was like where’s the bagel store? They told me Bruegger’s, which is a chain. The best bagel I had in Albany was at Panera bread or market 32.
Now I live in the north country, and I’ve found a really good little bakery in the middle of nowhere that makes bagels that are as good as home. It’s 20 minutes away from me, so bagels are a treat, not a daily occurrence.
People here never celebrate with bagels or stop at bagel stores everyday. It’s just not a thing here. There’s a dunkin, a McDonald’s, and a Stewart’s, and people on the go usually get breakfast from one of them.
BurgerFaces@reddit
Pretty sure you can get bagels at McDonald's
EmeraldLovergreen@reddit
I eat a bagel every day that I work in the office
Wafflebot17@reddit
Very uncommon, bagel shops are a thing, but they’re not great here.
Raving_Lunatic69@reddit
I love bagels. Don't have them every day, but a few times a month isn't unusual.
uiplanner@reddit
I live in a Midwestern city with about 1,000,000 people and we probably only have like a dozen real bagel shops. My wife and I love bagels but it’s usually just a one a week treat on the weekend since good bagels aren’t super convenient (and you know - Carbohydrates and all….).
SnarkyFool@reddit
Chicago has a decent bagel scene from the Loop up through the northern suburbs.
Kansas City used to be a bagel wasteland but we now have one pretty good New York style place (Meshuggah). A Jewish guy who used to make them for private events...people convinced him to open a shop. It a welcome oasis!
Before that it was the realm of Einstein and Panera (a.k.a airport bagels). None of our grocery stores make good bagels.
Most cities seem to have one or two good bagel shops unless there's a bigger Jewish population. Then you'll have more options.
KevinDean4599@reddit
It's probably pretty common to toss a bagel in the toaster and smear some cream cheese on it and take off for work. also contributes to how fat a lot of people get.
weinthenolababy@reddit
I’m in the south and I don’t know anyone who eats bagels for breakfast unless they moved here from New England or California
ucbiker@reddit
None but I don’t really know the daily breakfast habits of people outside my home.
Delli-paper@reddit
Daily? Not common. Bagels can be quite fattening, especially with cream cheese. Weekly? More reasonable
sideshow--@reddit
There are lots of bagels and bagel shops in Chicago.
the_real_JFK_killer@reddit
Pretty common, but I've noticed bagels are more common in the northeast than the south
UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit
Most of us prefer biscuits as our breakfast bread. We’ll still eat a bagel occasionally, but a sausage/chicken/steak biscuit and coffee from the drive through is probably the norm.
BitOfAZeldaFan3@reddit
In the Milwaukee area, bagels are about equally as popular as burritos or croissants or other forms of breakfast hand food. It seems more common at hotels in particular for some reason. I tend to have a season of heavy bagel consumption followed by a year of not touching one.
I've had a bagel from New Jersey - absolutely in another category than what we have in MKE. It was my favorite part of my visit.
stellalunawitchbaby2@reddit
Very common. Bagel shops are everywhere (though most of the ones by me aren’t as good as any random bagel shop in nyc). Bagels at home are common. Etc.
Sekshual_Tyranosauce@reddit
It is one of the most normal and common breakfast foods there is.
My favorite bagel shop in town does lox and tomato, cream cheese and capers. It’s my favorite and they also brew coffee from my favorite roaster. That spot is a gem.
OnlyMyNameIsBasic@reddit
We also eat bagels. They just aren’t as delicious as nyc. I personally prefer bialys which I haven’t found a good one outside of nyc
Ok_Pass_Thx@reddit
I got a dozen bagels at a local bangle shop (outside NY) on a Tuesday and went back Saturday because I ate all of them. Even the ones for my husband. I told the lady at the counter when I went to replace my husband's bagels. She said "oh, so these are shame bagels" thanks for putting a name to it, ma'am.
hobokobo1028@reddit
Midwest. It’s common
hellogoawaynow@reddit
Uhhh we eat a lot of bagels in Austin, Texas. We also have a large Jewish population so that might be part of it.
river-running@reddit
My town has an excellent NY-style bagel bakery, so around here they're very popular. Then of course they're available in pretty much every grocery store and a lot of fast food restaurants incorporate them into their breakfast menus.
oodja@reddit
Bagels yes, good bagels no.
In related news- you don't see buttered hard rolls too much outside of the NYC area either.
Melodic_Pattern175@reddit
It’s all about the tacos here in S Central TX.
Low_Attention9891@reddit
Very common, bagels are common in Michigan too. Tim Hortons and Panera sell them, which are international restaurant chains. Every grocery store has them as well.
_BlueJayWalker_@reddit
Not.
r2k398@reddit
I’ll buy a pack of bagels and we’ll eat them for a few days. Then I don’t buy another pack for a couple of months. Same with English muffins.
TempusSolo@reddit
I don't think I know anyone that regularly eats bagels regardless of time of day.
Dpg2304@reddit
I grew up in the DC area but live in Atlanta now. They aren't nearly as common (or as delicious) down here 🥺
exitparadise@reddit
There was a period of a few years in the 1980s where I had a bagel with cream cheese almost every morning before school in Dallas, TX. I mean, frozen Lenders bagels, but still. It was pretty common.
Help1Ted@reddit
Costco sells bagels in their bakery if that says anything. Bagel shops are fairly common aren’t they. I probably have a dozen within a 10 mile radius. And I’m not exactly in a huge metro area. I have at least 3 that I can either walk or ride my bike to. I actually used to have one almost every day. I haven’t had one in a while though. I started baking my own bread instead. I haven’t even tried making bagels.
T_Peg@reddit
I would have to assume it's common but not as common as NYC. It's such a cultural icon here. Every time my friends who went to college out of state came home before even going to their house depending on the time of day they had to get pizza or a bagel first. A solid bacon/sausage egg and cheese is basically a hangover cure here even though it'll probably make you feel worse lol. I teach in Brooklyn and my kids are munching on bagels in my classroom all throughout the day.
TheShoot141@reddit
I live in Eastern PA and grew up on Long Island. Its just way harder to get a good bagel here. It exists, but its not as easy as NYC and surrounding areas. There you can pop into a deli and be on your way. The grocery store bagels around here are garbage. Also you cant pop into a grocery store and get a bacon egg and cheese, or toasted with cream cheese. Its just a raw bagel. I have a bagel place about 25 minutes from home, I buy a dozen or so at a time and freeze. Then we can unfreeze 1 or 2 to make breakfast at home.
justwatchingsports@reddit
They exist, but they’re not a significant cultural force. I probably eat a bagel about as often as you have a breakfast taco
PuzzleheadedLemon353@reddit
I love home made Everything or Pumpernickle bagels with vegetable cream cheese! I don't eat them though because of all the carbs...but they are wonderful!
Different_Ad7655@reddit
Bagels up until the 70s even into the '80s were exclusively a New York into New England thing. It was Lender who had the bright idea to take them to the grocery freezer and make them an American staple. They are still largely an East Coast thing,
I live in New England and I love them and when I am in Los Angeles for the winter, they are not as common they are at all. But of course they're not impossible to find, in that huge City there is one or two really good bagel shops and chains and big box stores have done much to homogenize what we eat from coast to coast anyway
But you still going to come to the Northeast for the best and I have one every day when I'm on this side of the country. Even here the styles very immensely very not a fan of the Frozen products I am only a fresh bagel guy
orpheus1980@reddit (OP)
Yeah I can't swallow a generic bagel outside the northeast. Especially "continental breakfast" bagels in hotels and conferences. NYC has spoiled me bagel wise.
Different_Ad7655@reddit
Yeah the worst, frozen hotel bagels yuck,
PymsPublicityLtd@reddit
My go to breakfast.
AFartInAnEmptyRoom@reddit
We get a bag of bagels every weekend or other weekend. S Florida. Lots of Jews and New Yorkers around.
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
Yes, I know many people who have a bagel every morning for breakfast. There are even whole stores around here devoted to selling coffee and bagels in the morning.
TheViolaRules@reddit
Common but it’s rarely as good.
electriceel04@reddit
Very common in stores, but there are very few bagel shops compared to coffee/donuts at least in MN, OR, northwest FL, and AL (all places I’ve lived).
Coffee shops, especially chains, will usually have at least a bagel option, but they’re nowhere near as good as a fresh bagel and an east coast bagel in particular.
AttimusMorlandre@reddit
I used to eat a bagel for breakfast every day. It's very common.
eldritch-charms@reddit
I don't eat breakfast much but when I do, I eat a bagel.
7yearlurkernowposter@reddit
Bagels are just old donuts.
Kyle81020@reddit
Many. It’s common.
emmasdad01@reddit
Probably just as common as it is in New York.