The Bagelers Coffeehouse

Discovered this place right under my nose about a mile and a half from home, thanks to a friend who isn't normally a source of restaurant recs. Really, really delicious bagel--I've only tried the Everything bagel with smoked salmon spread so far--but they boil and bake the bagels on site daily, as well as housemade jam and creamcheese options (they have about 8 I think) and hand rolled Croissants.

Bagel was the perfect texture inside and out--dare I say that I liked it better than NYBB. And they don't toast unless you tell them to. We arrived at 9:30 and it was about 3/4 full--about 15 minutes after we sat down with our food the place filled up completely and a line extended to the door--so prime time Sunday morning would not be the best time to check it out. But definitely looking forward to going back. According to the website, they also have an outpost at the Jefferson Park CTA station.

The Bagelers Coffeehouse
2461 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
b/t Montana St & Altgeld St
http://www.thebagelers.com/

boudreaulicious wrote:Bagel was the perfect texture inside and out--dare I say that I liked it better than NYBB.

My taste often dovetails with Boudreaulicious but in Bagelers case I'm going to drift a bit. I liked the Lincoln Ave space, service, sides but found the bagel itself on the airy side. Not Dunkin Donut white bread in the guise of a bagel poofy, but I prefer Bagel & Bialy or Kaufman's. I had a decent representation of the Bagelers offerings, taking a Fisherman's and 6 mixed to go.

Speaking of steamed, while Boudreaulicious mentions boiled in her post, as does the Bagelers web site, my first thought on taking a bite was steaming, which produces a lighter bagel. Not saying Bagelers does not boil, just giving MY first impression.

Two additional bagel thoughts, first my favorite Chicagoland bagel is not a bagel but a bialy, a flat to be specific, from NYBB and second I'm stopping at Reno today for one of their terrific, if pricey, bagels.

New York Bagel & Bialy (NYBB)
4714 W Touhy Ave
Lincolnwood, IL 60712
open 27/7

Kaufman's
4905 Dempster St
Skokie, IL 60077
7am - 7pm
7 days a week

Reno
2607 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60647

Right on, Gary, with the flat bialys at NYBB, onion to be specific. Open 24 hours a day, I've been stopping on the way home from Hawks' games to get supplies. Usually it's 2 dozen onion bialys, half-1 lb Nova, and some of their great jalapeno cream cheese. When I reach home I put 5-6 bialys in one of their plastic sleeves, twist-tie it, then put 2-3 of those sleeves in a mondo freezer bag, and into the deep freeze. They thaw wonderfully, and toast up perfect.

Just a note to add the other location of NYB&B to Gary's otherwise impeccable post:

3556 Dempster St (just east of Prairie)
Skokie, IL 60076
(847) 673-9388
newyorkbagelandbialy.net

...and a question about "hand rolled croissants." Since the jam and cream cheese are noted as made in-house but the croissants are "hand rolled," does that mean someone else is supplying them with the pre-made dough?

Ha! Gary, we are still pretty closely aligned because given a choice, I always prefer onion Bialys and I love the ones at NYBB. But sometimes I crave a bagel and I liked the chewy-but not too heavy, nicely crusty-exteriored version at Bagelers. And it's a mile and a half from my house v. the hike to Lincolnwood. Finally, I like Reno's bagel too but don't have as much of a recollection of the taste or texture given the mountain of toppings I always get with it.

No additional intel on the croissants--other than the owners purchased a special table for rolling them and it seems hard to imagine why you'd "hand roll" someone else's dough. But maybe someone will check them out.

While I do like their onion bialys (though I wish they made onion boards, but almost no one does outside NYC), two dozen! NYBB has been my staple for bagels, but time of day seems crucial. Just last week I was told 4am and 10am (Touhy location) were the best times for freshness. I freeze as well, after knocking one off the top, but I've noticed that level of freshness does affect re-toasting/length of time capable of being in the freezer. I haven't been to both locations enough to decide whether there is a difference in timing that would make me consider diverting to the Skokie location. I teach in Evanston but live in the city so it's usually a late afternoon pickup for me on the way home.

As for Reno, I've been wanting to say this for awhile. While I respect their oven and their pizza is good, though the cornicione is a bit dry and hard for my taste, the bagels feel more like Cypriot rusks to me than good bagels. The hole is too big, they don't have the proper height to get the crust to crumb ratio right (and I don't like overinflated bagels, just the boil and bake contrast). I'm all for more hipster/artisanal producers stepping in to make modern but also foodwise interpretations of traditional favorites, but there is expertise in a place like NYBB that is difficult to transfer--Baker Miller's cinnamon roll comes to mind as a general example--where all the intention in the world doesn't salvage an unpalatable product. I guess what I'm saying is coming from a bagel eating city (Miami), Reno bagels seem like someone trying out a fun idea (bagels!) with their new wood burning toy and achieving a result that ostensibly looks like a bagel but is so different in bread character to what places like NYBB put out that it's incomparable.

whocanitbenow wrote:As for Reno, I've been wanting to say this for awhile. While I respect their oven and their pizza is good, though the cornicione is a bit dry and hard for my taste, the bagels feel more like Cypriot rusks to me than good bagels. The hole is too big, they don't have the proper height to get the crust to crumb ratio right (and I don't like overinflated bagels, just the boil and bake contrast). I'm all for more hipster/artisanal producers stepping in to make modern but also foodwise interpretations of traditional favorites, but there is expertise in a place like NYBB that is difficult to transfer--Baker Miller's cinnamon roll comes to mind as a general example--where all the intention in the world doesn't salvage an unpalatable product. I guess what I'm saying is coming from a bagel eating city (Miami), Reno bagels seem like someone trying out a fun idea (bagels!) with their new wood burning toy and achieving a result that ostensibly looks like a bagel but is so different in bread character to what places like NYBB put out that it's incomparable.

What you are describing is Montreal-style bagels, which is what Reno was going for. You may not care for this variation, but it was not invented at Reno.

Maybe they're going for Montreal style (I read somewhere that they disavowed that), but they lack the sweetness and in a certain sense the denseness of the Montreal style.

Not wanting to derail the thread too much, but are there any good places to get bagels in the west burbs? Specifically Villa Park/Elmhurst area.

whocanitbenow wrote:While I do like their onion bialys (though I wish they made onion boards, but almost no one does outside NYC), two dozen! NYBB has been my staple for bagels, but time of day seems crucial. Just last week I was told 4am and 10am (Touhy location) were the best times for freshness. I freeze as well, after knocking one off the top, but I've noticed that level of freshness does affect re-toasting/length of time capable of being in the freezer. I haven't been to both locations enough to decide whether there is a difference in timing that would make me consider diverting to the Skokie location. I teach in Evanston but live in the city so it's usually a late afternoon pickup for me on the way home.

The Touhy location of NYB&B is the bakery and is usually a better bet for the freshest product. The Dempster store, in my experience, is not as good. It sometimes closes early without warning and is cash only. As for when the bagels come out, after decades of being a customer, I can say with authority: it depends. As they used to say, nothing's hot, everything's fresh. Sometimes our bagels are warm, sometimes they're not, time varies.

At the risk of derailing (again) this thread, I will only say that I am not infrequently at the Dempster store around 5 am and I have found their product (we only get onion and everything bagels and onion bialys) to be both fresh and warm, almost without exception.

Gypsy Boy wrote:At the risk of derailing (again) this thread, I will only say that I am not infrequently at the Dempster store around 5 am and I have found their product (we only get onion and everything bagels and onion bialys) to be both fresh and warm, almost without exception.

Same impression. I tend to get there more often in the late afternoons, so I'm wondering if there's something of a no-fly zone around then, though as EvA suggests, it depends. I'm mostly onion and egg and I've always wondered about the schedules of specific bagels. Perhaps a little too much time devoted to a $1 food product.

G Wiv wrote:I'm stopping at Reno today for one of their terrific, if pricey, bagels.

Gravlax, onion, tomato and cream cheese and 6 bagels from Reno to go. I have no need to parse exactly what type of bagel Reno's doing all I need to know is it tastes good. Same as yesterday's Bagelers I picked up a tomato, onion and cream cheese for Bathazar, the morning prep cook at Barn. I preferred Reno, Bathazar Bagelers.

Two additional items, I'm not negative on Bagelers, but if you put a Reno bagel and a Bagelers bagel in front of me and said I could only have one I'd pick Reno. Second, Reno made me smile, its so high on the hipster scale I had to suppress a chuckle. Pretty much every current hipster checkmark, at least my limited knowledge of, was marked off. Wool hats, men with long unruly hair, single speed bike out front, cash only, turntable with vinyl, sign for Malort over the bar, even a photo booth in back, only thing missing was a man-bun.

I think I'll stop at NYBB on my way home tonight for a dozen bialys and two bialy flats for the freezer.

Kid Charlemagne wrote:Not wanting to derail the thread too much, but are there any good places to get bagels in the west burbs? Specifically Villa Park/Elmhurst area.

Good places to get bagels tend to follow the migration patterns of the tribes of Jacob. Schmaltz's in Naperville isn't bad, but the rest of DuPage seems to be a wasteland of chain bagel shops serving what my father affectionately refers to as "CRTs*."

* CRT - Christian Round Thing

I've been to Bagelers a couple of times and though it's not really my style, it's not a bad product at all - pretty decent even. But I'm a fan of NY-style bagels, and NY-style they are not.

On the plus side, the dough has a nicely developed flavor. This is not some Einstein's or similar bagel. After all, they're boiling and baking and that's to be commended. Also on the nice side, really nice people.

But there are a few things that keep me from liking the bagels more. I'm not quite sure what they're doing with malt and baking soda, but the exteriors don't have that beautiful browning and slightly crisp crust that the best (or at least my favorite) New York-style bagels have. I also think they might be using just a bit much yeast or perhaps too long a room temperature rise, resulting in a lighter/less dense bagel. Also, their bagel might just be the slightest bit too chewy for me, but that's probably about a 15-30 second difference in boiling time.

You might think from my complaints that I'm ripping these bagels - I'm not. They're better than 90% of what I find in the area. But I'll take New York Bagel & Bialy first, followed by Brobagel and Craft Pizza on Damen (when they're making them - weekends during summer months) over Bagelers.