Battle Of The Bagels: New Yorkers Dismiss Article Claiming California Has Better Bagels As 'Completely Ridiculous'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's West Coast vs. East Coast in the battle of the bagels.
New York is known around the world for having the best bagels, but now a new article in the New York Times claims California bagels are better.
In the Times, the author claims the bagels at Berkeley's Boichik Bagels "are some of the finest New York-style bagels I've ever tasted. They just happen to be made in Berkeley."
The article goes on to tout other West Coast bagel shops: Bueller's Bagels, Pop's Bagels, Courage Bagels and more.
Boichik Bagel's owner Emily Winston, a New Jersey native now living in California, told the Times her foray into bagel making begal after H&H Bagels closed their location on West 46th Street.
"I was so upset I would never have that bagel again," she told the Times.
As CBS2's Kiran Dhillon reports, the claim that "the best bagels are in California" doesn't sit well with New Yorkers.
The bagel is known as one of New York's most defining items and considered by many as the best in the world.
The bagels at Bo's Bagels are hand-rolled and made fresh every day.
Bagels there and around New York are made with so much love; Andrew Martinez, co-owner of Bo's Bagels, is taking umbrage at the article's claims.
"I mean, it's completely ridiculous," he said. "I've been to California a million times, up and down, north and south, and I've never had a good bagel."
Martinez says the bagels are a signature New York item because they came here first, more than 100 years ago when Poland Jewish immigrants brought the concept over.
They've become exclusive here. For years, there was even a union for bagel makers.
"You could only get the recipe and the techniques if you were in the union," Martinez said.
While it is subjective, Martinez says what makes a traditional New York bagel so good is that it has a crispy blistered exterior and an airy, chewy interior. It also needs to have a slightly malted flavor. The bagels at Bo's Bagels so good, they're hard to resist even if you've already had breakfast, Dhillon reported.
Over at Ess-a-Bagel in Midtown, owner Melanie Frost says there's no comparison between California and New York.
"It's not just about the ingredients, it's about actually the culture and who we are," she said.
Zach Liporace is originally from the Tri-State Area and recently opened a bagel shop in Los Angeles.
He says California chefs are reinventing the bagel, so New York should watch out.
"When you walk into a bagel shop in New York, they've had recipes for decades. We're all, like, now kind of recreating our own idea of what that bagel recipe is," Liporace said.
But these New Yorkers say, not so fast.
"Bagels are just something you can't come at for New York," one New Yorker said.
They say the bagel is ours, so leave our crown alone.
CBS2's Kiran Dhillon contributed to this report.