Title: What's the Best Bagel in New York? (Small Stakes, Big Opinions)

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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in SoHo. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. I'm grateful you're here, and Happy Diwali to those who celebrate. On today's show, we'll speak with author Daniel Lavery about his new novel Women's Hotel, which is set in 1960s Manhattan. Its real life inspiration is the Barbizon Hotel. We'll also learn about the life of the late great R&B singer Luther Vandross via a documentary about his life. The director and one of his collaborators will join us to discuss. Author Maira Kalman has a new book. She joins us to talk about Still Life with Remorse. That's the plan. Let's get this started with a Small Stakes, Big Opinions conversation.

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There are some age-old questions in New York, Yankees or Mets, uptown or downtown, and where's the best bagel? Bagels are, of course, a staple of New York life. Everybody has their favorite place. Maybe you like a classic, everything with a cream cheese smear, or maybe you like yours a little different, like Cynthia Nixon's case, lox, cream cheese, tomatoes, red onion, and capers on a cinnamon raisin bagel. To each their own.

Becky Hughes, senior staff writer for the New York Times Cooking, recently ate more than 70 bagels in 36 different shops around the city. She's compiled her thoughts into an article called The 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now. That's not historically. That's right now in 2024. Becky is with me now for our next installment of Small Stakes, Big Opinions, where, of course, we want your input on the best bagel in this city. Hey, Becky.

Becky Hughes: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, we want to hear from you. Where's the best bagel in New York? What's your order? Call or text us at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. Are you an everything person, sesame, poppy seed, plain, dare I say cinnamon raisin? What kind of schmear do you ask for? Toasted, untoasted, and why? 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Of course, there are famous places to get your bagels, but if you have your favorite bagel that's right on your corner, we want then with that too. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can join us on the air or you can text to us. You start your article by writing that bagels in New York are at an inflection point. How so?

Becky Hughes: Well, bagels have been in New York since the early 1900s. When they first came to New York, it's really interesting actually, none of this made it into my story, but I did so much research on the history of bagels in New York, there was a union formed, a trade guild, basically, to make sure that a certain standard of craftsmanship stayed in New York bagels. It was like, bagels are small. They're only made with high gluten flour and malt syrup and commercial yeast, and they're rolled in a certain method, hand rolled. So much of this is what makes a traditional New York bagel.

Now what we're seeing is only some bagel shops are sticking to those methods. That union dissolved in the '60s with the advent of a bagel making technology that a lot of places still use. It's hard to find a real traditional New York bagel now. Tastes are obviously changing. People like bagel sandwiches now more than they ever did. People are looking for a bigger, fluffier, more tender bagel versus a real traditional hard, dense, chewy New York bagel.

Alison Stewart: All right. Do places still make the hard, chewy New York bagel? Where would I go to find that?

Becky Hughes: Many places do my favorite, and maybe my favorite of the whole list is Bagel Oasis in Fresh Meadows. It is the most unassuming place. It's on an expressway. It basically is bodega presenting. You can get a lotto ticket there, but the bagels there are have been made since the '60s, and they are just as traditional New York bagel as you can get. They're fabulous.

Alison Stewart: All right. You ate 70 bagels in 36 shops. Did you order the same thing at every shop to have a side by side comparison? Did you mix it up?

Becky Hughes: This is a decidedly unscientific venture, but I was calling everything bagels and sesame bagels, my control groups. I got those everywhere I went. I felt like everything was a good opportunity for a place to express something interesting, show how they can put caraway seeds in their mix. It's just a little something extra. Sesame, to me, feels pretty standard.

Then I got a little crazy when I saw something interesting. I tried a French toast bagel at Terrace Bagels, the kind of stuff that I did not grow up eating. I never had a sweet bagel in my life. I just didn't think it was a thing. I experimented with some fun stuff. I had a Sichuan peppercorn bagel at Shelsky's with chili crisp cream cheese. Most of them actually really surprised me. I had a lot of good stuff.

Alison Stewart: There are a lot of really well-known bagel places, Ess-a-Bagel, Tompkins Square Bagel. How did you choose which bagels to try out? Which stores?

Becky Hughes: I keep calling this a Trojan horse assignment where it sounded really fun when I first got it. I was like, "Oh, this is easy. I can make a list of bagel places off the top of my head with my editor. We can go through it." We made an initial list of the bagel places that everyone knows. Then, of course, as I'm going, I'm reporting, I'm talking to people in line, talking to people on the street, talking to everyone who will listen about bagels. Then the list keeps getting longer.

Alison Stewart: Oh, boy.

Becky Hughes: Everyone says you got to go to Bagel World. On my block, it's the spot. As I thought the list would get shorter and shorter, it just got longer and longer.

Alison Stewart: How many of the 17 places had you not been before?

Becky Hughes: I'd been to a lot of them before just because I went to college in New York. That was the biggest bagel time of my life. Surprisingly, some of the places that were my go-to spots that I've gone to more than any of them didn't end up making the list, which has surprised me because all bagels are good bagels when you're eating them because it's usually warm, it's from the spot close to your apartment, it has cream cheese on it. Then when you eat a bunch of them back to back to back, you really start to notice the difference between them.

Alison Stewart: Oh, I bet you do.

Becky Hughes: Yes. The bagels that I grew up eating just didn't make the list because I finally, in comparison to all of these other amazing, chewy New York bagels, I realized they don't hold up.

Alison Stewart: What was different in the comparison when you eat that many back to back to back?

Becky Hughes: The biggest difference that I noticed is-- I started noticing the differences so much so that they started to feel like different foods entirely. When I would eat 10 in a day, I was really zeroed in on the differences. For me, when a bagel doesn't have a distinctive outer crust and doesn't have a chewy texture, I don't want it to feel like Wonder Bread inside. I want it to feel like a bagel, and there's no real point of comparison besides a really good bagel.

Alison Stewart: Is there any truth that New York City's water makes our bagels better?

Becky Hughes: That's been debunked, but I really like to believe it anyway.

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Becky Hughes: I think it's more fun to believe, but no, it is totally-- it doesn't make a difference.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Becky Hughes. She wrote an article for the New York Times called The 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now. We are taking your calls. All right, we're going to roll through them. Let's start with Ken in Queens. Hi, Ken.

Ken: Hi. I just want to say I'm a civil servant. We do thoroughly unscientific bagel comparisons. Our favorite is Whitestone Bagel Factory in Queens and is ironically that segments on-- I have 15 bagels in the back of my car because I'm heading to Pennsylvania for the weekend, and I can't leave them in the front seat or else there won't be 15 by the time I get there.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Thanks for calling. Safe driving. Let's talk to John. Hi, John. Where are you calling from?

John: Jackson Heights.

Alison Stewart: All right. Give us your favorite bagel.

John: Modern Bread & Bagel, which is on the Upper West Side. I think it was the original location. They also now have one on the Upper East Side, and they're about to open, I noticed when I was last in Penn Station, they're opening one in Penn Station. It is an entirely gluten-free bakery, everything they make, and it's all kosher as well. They sell rugelach, they sell challah, they sell everything you could want. The bagels are outstanding. You wouldn't be able to tell that it's a gluten-free bagel.

Alison Stewart: Awesome. Thanks for the tip. Let's talk to Arash, calling in from the Bronx. Hi, Arash.

Arash: Hi. I have an ongoing debate and dispute with my partner who lives in the Bronx. I actually live in Minneapolis. When we go to Absolute Bagels where the bagels are terrific, I get an everything bagel with cream cheese, scrambled egg, cucumber, red onion, tomato, and capers. She thinks I'm doing too much, but I think it's fantastic.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Thanks for the tip. Let's talk to Roz from Manhattan. Hi, Roz. What bagels do you like?

Roz: Hi. I was very excited when your guest mentioned that she knew the difference between what passes for bagels these days and the real classic one and that she had one place that she found that still makes it that way. I was hoping that she might mention a few others because the only ones I know are in Montreal and London.

Alison Stewart: Okay. Roz, thanks for calling in. Evan from Brooklyn. Go, Evan.

Evan: It's a new place, but Apollo Bagel started out as a pop up at Leo in Brooklyn and then now has expanded really quickly in Manhattan. I think journalism like this is really dangerous because it pits old-school New York sensibilities against emergent foods. Apollo Bagels, vote number one. Objectively, the best.

Alison Stewart: All right. Evan, we want you to listen up on this because Apollo Bagels was on your list, Becky. It's a little controversial. There are lines around the corner up the street from us. I took a picture. Li-Lac Chocolates next to it has like, "This is the door to our restaurant, our store. Don't get in the way of it." People ask, "Are they even technically bagels because they are sourdough-based?" Yes. Explain why it's considered controversial.

Becky Hughes: Controversial. Slow in air quotes. Apollo, I think, are phenomenal. I think they're delicious. They are made with sourdough, and they're also made with a rolling method. When you poke the hole through, you hand-poke it versus making a log of dough. I'm very in the weeds, but there are a couple of reasons or a couple of ways that those two techniques make these bagels different. They are sour to the taste, and they also are really bubbly inside. They're almost roll-like. They really get a hard crust on the outside.

I think they're delicious. Obviously, New Yorkers also think they're delicious. The lines around the block are out of control. I think the caller has a fair point to make about, this is what younger generations of New Yorkers are interested in eating. It might not be a bagel by the bagel baker's local standards from the 1900s, but it is what most people are considering a New York bagel now.

Alison Stewart: Also on your list is Absolute Bagels on the Upper West Side. What impresses you most when you eat a bagel from Absolute?

Becky Hughes: Oh, I love an Absolute bagel. That's another place where you have to wait in the line, but the line has-- there's a joyful energy like Columbia student energy up there. That waiting in the line is really fun. It's owned by a Thai immigrant who learned how to make bagels at Ess-a-Bagel and some other New York institutions. The bagels are just totally classic New York bagels. It's another place, like Bagel Oasis, where you can get a true blue New York bagel.

Alison Stewart: All right, I'm going to read a bunch of texts. Texts. Not even close. Bagel Hole in Park Slope. Best part, no toasters. New Yorkers don't toast bagels. I was going to have a conniption if she didn't shout out Bowes on West 116th Street in Manhattan. Bagel Boss in Roslyn is the best. Traditional bagels galore. Great list. One missing. Ess-a-Bagel on 1st Avenue. Shout out to Kossar's old school Lower East Side establishment that recently reopened on West 72nd. The real deal, excellent flavor, chew, and crust.

My favorite place is David's Bagels on 1st, between 15 and 16. Their bagels are all around great. We are getting a lot of calls. All right. We'll keep going with your list. Bo's Bagel, it's in Harlem, Washington Heights. You say it may be the only place making fresh bagels in Harlem?

Becky Hughes: Yes, in Central Harlem proper. Bo's is the place making fresh bagels. There's obviously a demand for it there because the line at Bo's is also always out of control. They do a good job at managing the madness there. The bagels are just constantly coming out. You can see them being made in the back. They're excellent. They're chewy. They have a great crust. They're really well-seasoned. They have basically every imaginable type of bagel.

Alison Stewart: I'm going to ask you about something, one of those texts read, that New Yorkers don't toast bagels. Did you find that to be true or not be true?

Becky Hughes: I'm a believer in a good bagel is going to be a fresh bagel. If you get a bagel from a New York bagel shop, it should be made shortly before you eat it. There's some bagel places that really pride themselves on that, like Tal bagels all over the Upper East Side are-- every 10 to 12 minutes, you're always going to get a fresh bagel. I went there recently and I asked for a sesame bagel. They go to the back and they're like, "Do you have two minutes?" It comes out so hot that it disintegrates the bag it comes in. A bagel like that, of course, doesn't need toasting. I think if you go to bagel that you got an advance and you froze it, I think is fair game.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] How do you feel about cream cheese? Should it be on lightly, should it be a big old schmear? What are your factors for cream cheese?

Becky Hughes: I like a heavy cream cheesing, not heavy in the way that a lot of bagel shops do it. Now, I think we've sort of gotten a little bit out of control, but I think the term schmear is the correct amount. It's a onomatopoeia for how much should be on there.

Alison Stewart: Let's take some more calls. Hank from Fort Lee. Hi, Hank. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Hank: Oh, hey. Like Sophia Loren once said, this is all bagels. She said this is all pasta. Anyway, on Ditmars in, I guess it's Astoria, it's near LaGuardia, it's called Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee. It looks really corporate, but the bagels are excellent. The service is amazingly fast. The quality is top-notch. Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee.

Alison Stewart: Thanks for calling in. That's interesting. He said it looks really corporate. Did you find that at all as you were researching your bagels?

Becky Hughes: Yes. Some of these bagel shops, you can really tell when they have multiple locations, like a Zucker's, for example. You don't know. Just by the look of a bagel shop, it's actually impossible to tell. I thought you would be able to see just from going in like, "Oh, does this feel legit? Does it feel like old school?" Doesn't really matter.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Mary from Staten Island. Hi, Mary. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Mary: Hi. I just want to say the best bagel is Russ & Daughters on Houston and Allen Street on the Lower East Side, and Ess-a-Bagel. Ess-a-Bagel has big bagel. If you want bagel, I go to Ess-a-Bagel. Then I go to Russ & Daughters to get the lox, the cream cheese. They have bagel too. There's always a line. All the tourists come to Russ & Daughters. It's well known. It's an institution.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for calling. Jeff from Long Island City. Hi, Jeff. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Jeff: Hi. Good morning. Rather than name yet another bagel shop, which many of them are all excellent, I'm going to take my time to go the opposite direction. I actually read the article that was written in the New York Times. When discussing Russ & Daughters, which is a New York institution and makes fantastic products, you cited their bagel as being okay, but that it was all the improvements from Russ & Daughters that made it okay.

I just would take exception to that and say that maybe even as you're saying here on air that I buy products from Russ & Daughters, but I don't buy bagels from them because their bagels aren't as good as some of the many other places that people have mentioned. I buy my bagels elsewhere. I go to Russ & Daughters for my lox and cream cheese, and I put it together. I think it's fair. It's fair. They don't make a great bagel. They make other great products.

Alison Stewart: I understand. I happen to like their bagels myself, but thank you for calling in. Let's talk to Sue from the Upper West Side. Hi, Sue.

Sue: Poll worker. I was working at Westside High School, and we needed places close. We went to 101st and Broadway. Broadway Bagel is an amazing place. I didn't know about it. They have wonderful plain bagels, and they give you an enormous amount of cream cheese if you ask for a plain bagel with cream cheese. What I really like is the blueberry bagel because you don't need to put anything on it. It's a cross between savory and sweet, a big, fat, plump blueberry bagel with real blueberry flavor. It's absolutely delicious.

Alison Stewart: Thank you for calling in. Where do you stand on the flavored bagels, Sue? You're not sure? I'm sorry, Becky. Sorry. [laughs]

Becky Hughes: I've never had a blueberry bagel. I didn't grow up eating not even a cinnamon raisin bagel. It's just never even been in my purview, but I started getting a little bit quirky with it when I was doing this story. Just when I saw something that I'd never seen before, I thought, "Okay, maybe I'll try that." I had a French toast bagel at Terrace Bagels that rocked my world. It's like an egg bagel, and it has cinnamon sugar on the outside. I was really shocked. I just got it because I saw it and I thought it seemed crazy enough that just might have some wow factor, and it really did.

Alison Stewart: Becky Hughes has written the piece, 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now. It is our Small Stakes, Big Opinions. Where do you think the best bagel is in our area? What's your order? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. We'll take more of your calls and your text and we'll talk more with Becky after a quick break. This is All Of It.

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Alison Stewart: You are listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest in studio is Becky Hughes. She's senior staff writer for New York Times Cooking. She wrote an article for the Times called The 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now. We are having a Small Stakes, Big Opinions. What's the best bagel in New York City? 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can weigh in. You can tell us what you like to order. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. We have the old school bagel place and then we have the new school bagel place. What are some of the other places that we can have that are making bagels? Is there any other establishment making bagels?

Becky Hughes: Apollo Bagels are new school in their way. Then there's another shop, PopUp Bagels.

Alison Stewart: I was going to ask about them.

Becky Hughes: Mega popular. They're everywhere. They're multiplying constantly all over the city. Their style of bagel also their thing is that they come out really hot, really fresh at all times, and they come into your bag piping hot. They won't even slice them for you, so definitely no toasting. They give you cream cheese in a little tub, and you're supposed to, I'm using air quotes here, rip and dip the bagels. You're supposed to tear off-

Alison Stewart: What?

Becky Hughes: -the piece and dip it in the cream cheese.

Alison Stewart: Rip and dip. Okay.

Becky Hughes: Yes, that's their shtick. They're crazy mega-popular. There's one close to my apartment and the line goes down the block every single day.

Alison Stewart: Let's take some more calls. Will. Thanks for calling, Will.

Will: Sure. Controversial opinion here. The best New York City bagel is not in New York City, it's in Jersey City at Wonder Bagels on the corner of Jersey and Columbus Ave.

Alison Stewart: All right, make your case. Tell us why.

Will: It's been there forever, and it's just perfect bagels. I also have a question.

Alison Stewart: Oh, okay. Yes.

Will: For an expert opinion, shouldn't everything bagel have the salt and pepper included in the everything, or should salt and pepper be an add-on? I'll await your response eagerly.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] What do you think, Becky?

Becky Hughes: I think definitely an-everything seasoning should be well seasoned. I think it should have enough salt in it that you can taste that it-- there should not be any additions needed. I think when you get an everything bagel, it should come with everything, salt included.

Alison Stewart: How about the, they call them the flatties in certain places where there's no inside to the bagel. It's just the crust pushed together. [laughs]

Becky Hughes: Yes, the flagel. I learned while I was reporting this. I didn't know that a flagel was only invented in the '90s. I just, for some reason, thought the flagel had just been floating in the ether forever, but no. I like a flagel. Time and place for everything.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Finn in Nyack. Hey, Finn. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Finn: Hey, how are you doing? I'm actually a 79 laborer, so I have a pretty thorough understanding of the standard situation here in the city. We're professionals. I got to say, my favorite bagel is actually a whole wheat bagel from a place called La Bagel Delight on-- was it Lafayette in Fort Greene? It's amazing. The whole wheat bagel there is, in my opinion, the best bagel. I love it. Every time I'm around, I grab one. It's nice and tough on the outside. It's soft on the inside, but it's not too soft. It's still chewy. Whatever they're doing with their whole wheat dough, it's amazing. I got to give it to them. It's a delicious doughnut-- sorry, bagel.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for calling, Finn. Let's talk to Barbara from the Upper West Side. Hi, Barbara. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Barbara: Hi. My favorite bagel in New York is a sesame bagel made not in New York but in Cambridge, Mass. by a bakery called Iggy's. First of all, it's, of course, chewy and somewhat tough and firm, and it's paved with sesame seed all over on both sides. It's just great. They are available sometimes at Whole Foods, various Whole Food stores in New York. It's not completely not New York, but it's from Cambridge, Mass [crosstalk].

Alison Stewart: Yes, Iggy's is really good. I have to say, good choice. Let's talk to Max in Brooklyn. Hi, Max.

Max: Hello?

Alison Stewart: Hello.

Max: Hey, this is Max.

Alison Stewart: Hey, Max.

Max: I'm eating my favorite bagel right now, which is a pumpernickel everything from H&H with the za'atar labneh from Sahadi's on Atlantic Avenue. I called in to talk about Black Seed Bagel, which are popping up everywhere. I lived right down the street on Elizabeth Street in Nolita when the first one opened, and they said that they were Montreal-style bagels, so smaller, rounder, bigger hole in the middle, bunch of differences. As more Black Seed Bagels have popped up all over the city, the bagels are getting larger and larger. I would say they are now indistinguishable from New York bagels, proving New York bagel supremacy as the Montreal-style chain has converted to our way of doing things.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for calling, Max. Did you check out Black Seed Bagel?

Becky Hughes: Yes. This is funny. I lived on Elizabeth Street also when that first location opened in New York, and so I was part of that first wave of crazed Montreal bagel people. I did find that the bagels are a little bit bigger. My problem with them, and I have always been a fan of theirs, is that I found that they were different every single time I went.

Alison Stewart: Oh, interesting.

Becky Hughes: Just different levels of crustiness, different times spent fired in the oven. I just felt like I couldn't recommend because I wasn't so sure that anyone that I'm recommending it to is going to get exactly what I got.

Alison Stewart: Can you let our listeners know what's a Montreal bagel?

Becky Hughes: Yes, Montreal-style bagel is even more crusty and tough than a New York bagel is, and it has a bigger hole. It's more of a longer rope method make. Basically, it has a bigger hole in the middle and it's tougher.

Alison Stewart: All right, let's take some text. Living in Stuy Town, I'm now Ess-a faithful. Was mentioning Ess-a in an article but glaringly leaving it off the list. My fave is when they're misshapen with lots of crispy surfaces where bagels were attached. My second question is if that's anyone else's favorite part. Do you have a favorite part of your bagel?

Becky Hughes: Oh, man, I don't have a favorite part of the bagel. My favorite part is the first bite of the bagel.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Thompson Square Bagel still has hand-rolled bagels. Speaking of flavored bagels, I rate a bagel shop by how well they keep the sweet bagels separate from the everything or the onion. There's nothing worse. Cinnamon raisin bagel that's picked up the taste of onion and garlic, that is a really, really good, good test.

Becky Hughes: That's so funny.

Alison Stewart: Do you have any tests like that for restaurants?

Becky Hughes: I think that that's-- I'm not a sweet bagel person, but I can see totally how that adds up. Even walking into a bagel shop, I feel like if you're going for a sweet bagel, you walk in and you're hit with the smell of everything, seasoning and garlic and onion, and sometimes smoked fish. I don't know, but I guess if you're Cynthia Nixon, that's appealing with your sweet bagel.

Alison Stewart: Good point. Let's talk to Jessica on Staten Island. Hi, Jessica. Thanks for calling.

Jessica: Hi, Alison. How are you?

Alison Stewart: Doing great.

Jessica: Good morning. My favorite bagels are in Staten Island, or in Staten Island, my favorite bagels are from Heartland Bagels, which is mid-island, New Springville. They've been there for a long time. They're in a small strip mall. My favorite bagels are in Delaware, and they're surf bagel. I have to say they do beat out New York bagels.

Alison Stewart: All right. I won't give out your last name. I don't want to get any nasty calls. Let's talk to Scott from Cold Spring Harbor. Hi, Scott.

Scott: Hi, Alison. I was just calling to say I've eaten at a lot of the bagel places in New York City. I think they're all-- a lot of them are great, particularly the ones on the list, but I find that the bagels on Long Island I think are more consistently great. I've lived in Westchester, Connecticut, and obviously New York City as well, but in terms of just consistently great bagels, they're a little bit less puffy, so more at that kind of crunchy, tough factor. I haven't been able to beat Bagel Master in Syosset, even with all the great places on the list.

Alison Stewart: Scott, thanks so much. Let's talk to Mati from Farallon. Hi, Mati.

Mati: Hi, Alison. So happy to be talking to you. So great to hear you on the show again. I just wanted to give a shout out to Kosher Bagel Hole. They have two locations in Brooklyn. Those are the bagels I grew up on, and they're absolutely fantastic. My order is usually sesame bagel with tuna, which is a little unusual, but I'm not really a cream cheese person. I said it.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] She said it. Thank you so much for calling. This says expat bagels for the intrepid. Harris/Walz volunteers canvassing in contested Bucks County, PA. A great deal on two-day-old bagels from Ben & Irv's in Southampton, half a dozen for $2, and they're better than most places. Fresh ones. If you have money, sit down and have a light fluffy omelet or savory cream-chipped beef. We just hit them on Tuesday and I got to go back there. All right. On your list, any place that we haven't touched on you think that's really important?

Becky Hughes: Let's see. I feel like I went to Utopia Bagels in Whitestone, and I really love it. That's another place that has been around forever. They have a carousel oven that turns the bagels in the back that they've had since the '40s and they're really proud of it. It's such a scene there. It's a big spot and everyone there talks to each other. People working there are having a good time, and they're fun and chatty. It's just totally worth the trip out there if you don't live close.

Alison Stewart: Here's a text we got. "Kudos to all involved in the production and direction of this bagel segment. This is quite possibly the most civilized discussion among folks from the tri-state area with regard to the secret food that has ever been had. There been many family and group events that have evolved based on this debate, friendships ended, fisticuffs engaged, unity. It's the whole connected. It's much like the bagel itself."

Becky Hughes: [laughs] Yes. I think, I guess this is what this segment is about, but really a bagel is such a fun thing to argue about because it's so low-stakes, all things considered. There's everything on earth to argue about right now that's way less fun to argue about. I feel like you can fight about a bagel and then still be cool after.

Alison Stewart: Becky Hughes wrote the article The 17 Best Bagels in New York City Right Now. Thanks to all of our callers and textures. We really appreciate your opinions, and Becky, thanks for joining us for this segment.

Becky Hughes: Thanks so much.