 Jenny and I posing at the fiberglass mouse and monument to cheese statue in Black River Oasis on our way to Minneapolis OVERVIEW I did a little research to prepare for the Minnesota leg of the bagel quest. I learned that the first Jewish community of Minnesota was settled in St. Paul in 1856 and by 1900 about five thousand Jewish people lived in Minneapolis. The earliest mention of bagel I could find was in 1922 in the Twin Cities' American Jewish World newspaper where it was announced that bagels and kugel would be sold at a fundraising bazaar. So odds are good that bagels had been around for awhile in the early years of the 20th Century. Skimming through the digital archives of the Jewish World News it was clear that in the 1960s and 1970s there was a robust bagel scene in the Twin Cities and the bagel shops (or at least the ads and articles) were recognizably Jewish. When I looked to see what bagel shops I should visit in 2024, there is not a lot of places to buy a not-mass-produced bagel. My Google search for Minneapolis bagels led me to a 2010 article titled, "Twin Cities Bagel Roundup" by Heavy Table, which appears to be a much respected local food magazine. They tasted bagels from three local bagel shops and from the national chain Brueggers and declared Brueggers to be the winning bagel. Unless the writer was on the payroll for big bagel, this did not bode well for what bagels I would find. I wondered what happened to all the popular bagel shops that were in the Twin cities in the 1960s and 1970s. And more importantly, I wondered if the bagel situation was any better in 2024. So Jenny and I drove to Minneapolis to see about a bagel. Between reading the "best of bagel" blogs and recommendations by Jewish people living in the Twin Cities, I selected four bagel shops to visit. I contacted each of the owners and three of them were in town to talk with me about how they make their bagels. My bagel shop specific commentary is below, but there were some common themes in these four bagel shops. First, all these shops are fairly new...and by that I mean these are first generation bakeries. They opened in 2007, 2014, 2018, and 2023. Second, all three of the bakers I talked to got their start selling bagels at a farmers market. Third, each of the bagels I tasted cleared the not insignificant hurdle of my considering them worthy of the bagel name. These were not mass produced bagels. For the three bagel bakers I talked with, they all made their dough from scratch and use some version of traditional NYC bagel making production techniques. Fourth, the bagels all have seeds on the top, bottom, and in some cases on every inch of the bagel.  A bagel ad from the 1970s from Lincoln Del Proving my high school self wrong, there is always a reason to understand basic science. That has certainly been true for me as I try to understand how exactly a great bagel is made and what distinguishes it from an average one. Chemistry is involved. Learning about microbes is involved. Casually saying 'cold fermentation' is involved. I have read many things that can get a bit technical on the science front, but here are some essential facts. How much flour you knead into the dough matters. Refrigerating the bagels for at least 24 hours is key to slow down the yeast to make the flavors more complex and flavorful. Boiling the bagels to set the crust before it goes into the oven is essential. And it needs to be a quick in and out of the water because it is the brief boil that gets that perfect thin crisp crust. Without these you are eating round bread and not a bagel. Now I get that bagels are an assimilated food and every baker and eater gets to do what they want to do with a bagel. But if your goal is to make a traditional bagel, then that bagel should come out of the oven fully actualized - it should not need to be toasted upon arrival. I think the writing was on the wall when I found all these 1970s bagel ads in the American Jewish World newspaper, because for three-quarters of the bagel shops I visited, the bagels could use some time in the toaster.  Rise Bagel Co: Rise is in a really cool space, located in what looked to me like an old warehouse in an area that was once nicknamed the "Milling Capital of the World." The place was bustling with customers, I could see bagels being made and I really enjoyed talking to Kate, the owner. You can see from her T-shirt that she is interested in making a Minneapolis style bagel - which I can appreciate. She has taken what she likes best from the New York style and the Montreal style to make her own bagel. The Rise bagel technique includes boiling the bagels in malt barley syrup, cold fermentation for two days to get the right flavor and are baked in a traditional oven, so I was optimistic when we gathered in the car to taste the bagels. Would I walk half a mile out of my way to eat a Rise bagel: MAYBE. I would happily eat this bagel if given to me. The interior texture hit the exact right level of chewy yet not doughy. You can hear in the audio that we all liked the chewiness. It was a flavorful bagel. The exterior certainly had some crispness to it, but not enough to my taste. If I was picking a 'best in show' of the Minneapolis bagels I would pick Rise. It hit all the right notes. But the reason I would walk out of my way to get a bagel is because I have a hankering for one and I want to eat it as I walk out of the door. No toasting, just hot out of the bag. Would I buy a dozen bagels for a bagel spread: YES! I would have cookie sheets waiting in a warm oven, crisp the bagels up a bit and serve them as part of a bagel spread in full confidence that the bagels would be enjoyed. Click the audio to hear us discuss and collectively declare this a good bagel.  Mogi Bagels: The Minneapolis bagel most recommended to me, in a word of mouth, friends of friends of friends kind of way, was Mogi Bagels. Megan has been making them for two years. So we went to the Northside Farmers Market to try some. I love her bagel maker origin story. She is a big bagel fan and wanted to remedy the fact that Minneapolis has a shortage of of artisan bagel shops...so she decided to make some. So how did she learn how to make bagels? By following Reddit threads and watching YouTube videos to find recipes and learn the authentic NY way. I know it is a generational divide that I find this research approach both creative and slightly horrifying. What if you are crowdsourcing bagel expertise from the wrong crowd? These bagel were delicious. I don't know if using barley malt powder as opposed to barley malt syrup was the reason, but the flavor was top notch. They had a nice chewiness. But the exterior texture was disappointing, there was no crisp crust to the bagel. This could be easily remedied with a toaster, which we all agreed was needed. Would I walk half a mile out of my way to eat a Mogi Bagel bagel: NO. I am not walking out of my way for a bagel, even as flavorful as this one, that lacks a distinctive crisp crust. There is no satisfying bite when I pull the bagel out of the bag. Would I buy a dozen bagels for a bagel spread: YES!!! This is an exceptionally tasty bagels and I have a toaster at home. Click audio to hear Sky, my daughter's partner, concede the crust issue but unequivocally declare Mogi her MN bagel of choice.  Asa Bakery I loved the whole vibe of Asa's Bakery, there was kitchy bagel art everywhere you looked. Now I want to commission a neon bagel light for my kitchen. Besides bagels, the bakery sells bialys, rugalach and a few other NY deli staples. Asa started making bagels six years ago and has had this brick and mortar space for the last few years. He grew up in New York state, spent time in NYC, and decided that if he wanted a good bagel and bialy, he needed to make his own. I appreciated that the King Arthur flour that he uses is milled in Minnesota and he sources the barely malt powder locally. These were the only bagels we ate that were hot, which gave them an advantage. The exterior crisp texture is exactly what I want in a bagel, I don't think it could be improved. Between the perfect crispness and it being warm out of the oven, biting into this bagel was my happiest 10 seconds of bagel eating the whole trip. I was enjoying the initial chewing so much that it took me at least 30 seconds before I realized that I did not love the flavor of the bagel. Would I walk half a mile out of my way to eat an Asa's Bakery bagel: YES. The initial rush I would get from the warm crisp bite would be enough to get me out the door and down the block. Given what I know about the flavor, I would dip it in some cream cheese and be on my way. Would I buy a dozen bagels for a bagel spread: YES. The flavor is a bit perplexing, but nothing some cream cheese and tuna fish can't resolve. Click the audio to hear us bite into these bagels and discuss.  St. Paul Bagelry: I didn't get a chance to talk to the owner of St. Paul's Bagelry. She was out of town visiting her daughter but wished me well on my quest and told the manager that I might be stopping by for some bagels. Jenny and I drove straight there from Madison, and got there just before it closed at 2. We ran through the rain to eat our bagels in the car. After our first bites of the unadulterated bagel, we assembled our cream cheese, cucumbers, dill and some of Jenny's leftover smoked fish from her last visit to NYC. Once we agreed that this was a fine bagel but not a great bagel, we started to parse words. Now, nothing makes me wonder if I have lived in the Midwest too long (or just long enough) than my discomfort at this public judging of bagels that I have set up for myself. This is why I am doing this quest with a fellow former New Yorker living in the Midwest, because while debating the difference between 'fine' and 'decent', Jenny reminded me of why I am doing this. I am on a quest to find a great bagel and my standards are specific and high. Would I walk half a mile out of my way to eat a St. Paul Bagelry bagel: No. While it has all the necessary component parts, it doesn't shine enough for me to walk out of my way to eat a bagel. Would I buy a dozen bagels for a bagel spread: YES. As Jenny and I know from our modified car bagel spread, these bagels taste good with bagel accoutrement. Click the audio for Jenny's "This is a Quest" pep talk.  After visiting the four bagel shops, Jenny made the observation that the further into this quest we get....the less Jewish the bagel is seeming. I know that while us Jews have kept a tight grip on the bagel, it is fully an American food. And a great bagel is a great bagel and it doesn't matter who makes it. But it is interesting that there does not seem to be, or at least I haven' t found, a Jewish-owned bagel shop or much Jewish baker history in the Twin Cities. My daughter Tamar recently moved to Minneapolis and she joined us on this leg of the quest. She shared her thoughts on being a Midwest born Jewish bagel eater with a mother who has lectured her for her whole life on what constitutes a great bagel. Tamar describes forming her own opinion on bagels.
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