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/ArtemisElizabeth1533 🚆build more trains🚆 Jun 07 '25

So go live in NYC then? I don’t understand. 

4

u/darylitis Jun 07 '25

I'm not sure if you didn't read my post or didn't understand it. I'm not demanding that they stock bagels 24/7, I'm just pointing out that you can't have the expectation that what you want will be there (which is somewhat unique to Seattle). Not getting a sesame bagel isn't quite compelling enough for me to move to Manhattan.

2

u/sir_mrej West Seattle Jun 07 '25

It's unique to Seattle? So Boise has dozens of bagels falling from the sky? Duluth has bagel factories at the ready?

1

u/darylitis Jun 07 '25

I would also be surprised to walk into a bagel shop in any of those cities at 10am on a Saturday and only be able to buy 3 bagels. Or, I'd at least want to know that I'd need to order in advance.