When you’re making yourself (or buying) a breakfast sandwich, what bread are you going for? The only correct answer is a bagel. You can never go wrong with a bagel. Get yourself a cinnamon raisin, egg, everything, onion, or blueberry — the possibilities are endless with bagel flavors that make them perfect for any time of day. A bacon-egg-and-cheese will always be a top-tier sandwich. Don’t want it as a sandwich? No problem, have your bagel with butter, cream cheese, peanut butter, or with some pizza toppings maybe? This sounds like a laundry list of must-tries that may seem overwhelming but don’t fret, the perfect way to sample every type of bagel in just 3 hours is at New York BagelFest.
New York BagelFest is the ultimate bagel experience for any bagel lover. Last weekend from October 21 to 22, enthusiasts were able to sample bagels from over 15 vendors. Upon arrival, we even got a score sheet to rate the taste, toppings, creativity, and presentation of the vendors’ samples out of 10. Plus ranking the top three best schmears (duh).
So obviously, I had to go and eat as many (free) samples as I could — here’s everything I ate at BagelFest.
Note: This doesn’t include the bagel samples I brought home, because by the second hour, I was stuffed. But, this is the perfect event for a group of friends to maximize the samples.
Utopia Bagels: Scallion cream cheese on a plain bagel
This was a good schmear and my first time having scallion cream cheese. It was then that I realized I was missing out on arguably the best cream cheese flavor.
olmo: BEC schmear on an everything bagel
I’m not being dramatic when I say I’m still thinking about this bagel. The bagel was packed with flavor and left you wanting more. The schmear was good too with small egg bites to really bring the BEC to life.
Bagel Market: Tirokafteri with bagel chips & Rainbolt Sandwich
I LOVED the Tirokafteri — a spicy Greek feta cheese dip. Great for a snack, the dip wasn’t thick and paired nicely with the bagel chip, which was a nice touch to use their own bagel instead of a regular chip. I feel bad saying I didn’t really like the Rainbolt Sandwich which had scrambled eggs, avocado, American cheese, mayo, ketchup, and hot sauce. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good sandwich, just not one of my favorites.
The Bad Bagel: Chopped Cheese
The chopped cheese has Pat la Frieda ground beef, cheese, peppers, onions, and chipotle mayo. TBH, this would be a great lunch sandwich — New Yorkers, this one’s for you.
Bagel Hound: Cape berry cream cheese on a plain bagel
Call me crazy, but I’m not a berry person so I wasn’t too crazy about this one. The cape berry cream cheese is composed of cranberry, strawberry, blueberry, cape berry preserves, and Maldon salt. I will say I liked how light and airy the cream cheese was, just wasn’t a fan of the small berry chunks.
Wheated: Burnt scallion cream cheese topped with Wheated’s chili crisp drizzle on a sourdough bagel
All I can say here is…Wheated will be seeing me for another one of these bagels.
O’Bagel: “Bee Sting” bagel bite
I feel like this one was meant to be. I saw this TikTok back in February from O’Bagel — a bagel shop located in Hoboken, New Jersey — and I’ve been craving the Bee Sting ever since. All I heard while I was trying samples was “We’re in Hoboken, New Jersey,” and I just knew it was the same bagel spot as the one from TikTok. O’Bagels was trying out bagel bites — a round bagel with a schmear inside. It was offering five bites: Respect the Schmear, Scally Bite, Boken Bite, Basic B*tch, and Bee Sting. The Bee Sting bite was a cheddar egg everything bagel bite with hot honey glaze stuffed with bacon scallion cream cheese. I wish I went back for more TBH.
Starship Bagel: Grilled cheese bagel
Another one of my favorites. The bagel slices were flipped with the flat part of the bagel being the outside portion of the sandwich to really get that crispy look of a grilled cheese. There was also a hint of spice there that had me wanting to get seconds and probably thirds.
Stockeld Dreamery: Vegan cream cheese on a sesame bagel
“It’s vegan cream cheese,” was the first thing I was told. If the woman who served me this sample wouldn’t have told me, I would have never known. This vegan cream cheese was the first one I’ve tried that tasted EXACTLY LIKE CREAM CHEESE. My lactose-intolerant self says thank you, Stockeld Dreamery.
Grizzly Bagels: Plain cream cheese on an everything bagel & scallion cream cheese on a jalapeño cheddar bagel
The softest and airy-est bagels I’ve ever eaten. The jalapeño cheddar bagel wasn’t too spicy — the man who served me the bagel emphasized that — just enough for a slight heat.
Everything Bagelry: Roasted eggplant puree on a rosemary parmesan bagel
There was so much going on here, not in a bad way but also not in a good way. In addition to the roasted eggplant puree, this sample had Cholula hot sauce and honey as well as paprika and dill. What I did love was the bagel, that rosemary parm bagel was everything — such a great rosemary flavor.
Leo’s Bagels: Vegan cream cheese on a sesame bagel
This was a great bagel to end my morning with. Leo’s put a MASSIVE amount of cream cheese on the sesame bagel, and I’m not complaining because it was vegan. This cream cheese was very thick but had a subtle sweetness that paired nicely with the sesame bagel.