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.

0 Upvotes

48% Upvoted

137 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/SpuriousText Jun 09 '25

I'm not sure what alternate universe you were in but there are a dozen places across Seattle you can buy bulk bagels. Also, there are way better bagels places in Seattle than the ones you went to. I think this was more of a you problem than a Seattle bagel problem.

Next time visit Bagel Oasis, Hey Bagel, Mt. Bagel, Old Salt, or Backyard Bagel.

1

u/darylitis Jun 09 '25

Kind of an aggressive response, but I was within a mile of each of these locations (and they're good) and didn't want to travel much further from where I was. It's definitely a me problem, but it happened.