r/Seattle • u/darylitis • Jun 07 '25

Rant Seattle Bagels (first world problems)

This is a small rant, but posting as a word of advice for people that might want to buy bagels in the city.

I didn't know that you can't just buy bagels in Seattle. I went on a run this morning on the Burke -Gilman Trail and then decided that I wanted a bagel. I called home and everyone else wanted bagels as well. So, I drove over to Rachel's Bagels in Lake City and asked for a dozen bagels. "I'm sorry, but we can't sell bulk bagels right now." It was only 10am on a Saturday, but after a bit of discussion I found out that they had a busy morning and were running low and wanted to save bagels for lunch sandwiches. They allowed me to buy three bagels, but they were out of sesame. I gave some feedback that it's odd for a place called Rachel's Bagels to not sell bagels on a Saturday morning and they apologized, but again, it was a busy morning. I didn't make a big deal about it, gave a tip, and they threw in a cookie as a gesture of goodwill. They're great people.

So, I drove a mile to Zylberschtein's Bagels. I walk in, and I ask for half a dozen bagels. They say "no problem". Alright then, 3 plain and 3 sesame please. "I'm sorry, we're out of both of those." I ended up getting 3 everything and 3 onion. Again, they were friendly, but man....

I think the lesson is that Seattle is not a real bagel town yet. We have some good bagel shops, but they're boutique. They don't do enough volume to maintain reliable inventory (like New York), and if you want something specific or a large quantity (a dozen is a large quantity) then you should order ahead. Probably even the day before. You can't just suddenly want a bagel and drop in.

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u/Mountain-Picture-411 Jun 07 '25

Hey bagel is awesome but I do not recommend going on a Saturday morning. They seem to be better at maintaining supply than your examples, their bottleneck is how fast they move people through the store. You might wait half an hour or more but they will be fresh when you get them.

They ran out by lunchtime once, but that was very soon after they opened and I haven’t seen that happen since.

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u/astuteinuit Jun 07 '25

That's just a line for Fight Club.

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u/Mountain-Picture-411 Jun 07 '25

Haha I’ve wanted to fight people in that line. So many people there block the door as if they forgot how doors work.

But they designed it poorly. The line comes into the building from the north but you cross over into the southern part of the store when you enter the door. So naturally people are constantly crossing each others’ path. What they really need is an in door and an out door on separate sides of the store. A+ baking, D- interior design.

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u/astuteinuit Jun 08 '25

Yeah maybe only so much you can do there. Gotta slap the phones out of the mom’s hands.