For what it’s worth, New Yorkers deserve a better bagel. On par with the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, the humble bagel sandwich is a can’t-miss for any weekend visit to the city or hungover Sunday breakfast run.
Most weekends I’ll find myself on Court Street in Brooklyn and be met with a line stretching down the block, the origin of said line being a cold glass case filled with twenty different types of cream cheese and briny salmon lox. The bagel that these diners receive at the end of their wait will more often than not be beige and dense, oozing forth with American cheese and folded scrambled eggs, a texturally one-note experience leaving them with the image in their mind of what their bagel could be. That’s the question I find myself asking when I wait in that line myself: If the Empire State Building and Lady Liberty could strive for greatness, couldn’t the New York bagel have lofty goals, too?
What started as a pandemic-era offering from Joey Scalabrino and Mike Fadem at their Brooklyn restaurant Leo, the pair expanded into Manhattan with a pop-up at Fanelli’s in SoHo. In 2024, Apollo Bagels opened its first brick-and-mortar location on East 10th Street, and immediately, the lines began to form. Even with multiple locations, Apollo Bagels still draws crowds every weekend morning, so many in fact, that the landlord of the West Village location threatened the owners with an eviction notice.
With all of the hype surrounding it, the promise of a truly great New York bagel felt close at hand. I decided to visit Apollo Bagels’ newest location in Williamsburg on a Monday afternoon to best avoid the lines, and as my friend and I entered we were greeted by the sweet sight of a nearly empty dining room.
Cool and sleek, the polished concrete floors and white brick walls lead to a long counter, the menu behind it aglow and inviting. With the scent of toasted sesame and dried garlic in the air, we assessed our options.
Apollo Bagels offers only three bagel varieties: plain, everything, and sesame. Each bagel clocks in at $2.50 a piece, or you can grab a half-dozen for $14 or a dozen for $26. From there, diners can choose from the six straightforward sandwich options available, including butter and jam, cream cheese and tomato, whitefish salad, and smoked salmon lox.
The bagels are crunchy and sour — the bratty cousin of the dense New York bagel we’re all too familiar with. Made from sourdough, the crust of the bagel is speckled with small bumps and bubbles, the sign of a perfect fermentation. All of the sandwich offerings are served open-face, and both of the sandwiches we tried were simple, highlighting the familiar flavors of classic bagel shops.
The cream cheese and tomato sandwich on an everything bagel was bright and sour, the acidity of the tomato and the zest of the garlic cutting through the smooth cream cheese, leaving me very interested in returning during peak tomato season this summer.
The whitefish salad was smoky and astringent, flecked with pickled peppers and mustard. Spread evenly across a toasted sesame bagel, the whitefish was topped with cucumber and dill and was my favorite of the two sandwiches we tried.
It was difficult to leave Apollo Bagels without taking advantage of the ultimate line-skipping hack: ordering a half dozen bagels to-go to toast and dress at home.
As I boarded the Church Avenue-bound G train back home with a tote bag full of sesame bagels and a tub of whipped cream cheese, it was time to ponder. Are we in the presence of bagel greatness? I believe so. Apollo Bagels encourages us to look at our rote and tedious bagel eating habits and consider: don’t we deserve better than this?
It’s clear that with their fast expansion, Scalabrino and Fadem hope to establish Apollo Bagels as a routine and familiar destination. I’d venture to say they’ve already achieved that with the locations they have open. Looking ahead, I hope that one day, Apollo Bagels will expand its sandwich offerings. I would be very interested in enjoying a bacon, egg, and cheese on their sourdough creations.
But until then, I can be pleased knowing that a new wave of bagel lovers is offering something different to return to again and again. Something, dare I say, great.
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