Bagel in El Barrio

This bagel business is making me batty. Ever since I moved to East Harlem this past summer, I’ve searched high and low for a fresh bagel. Although there are a handful of bakeries, coffee shops and bodegas near my apartment, none of them sell bagels. Donuts, cornbread and muffins we have; bagel we do not. Each weekend, I feel obligated to inquire with the store managers about the bagels’ whereabouts.

“Not yet,” they say as they see me coming.

Today, however, I made some headway. I stopped into the BOMA Coffee & Tea Company, an upscale establishment on the corner of 126th Street and Fifth Avenue. The café director, Milo Meed, informed me that he was looking into bagel recipes. It seems he and his staff is considering making bagels from scratch and selling them in his café. I was stunned.

I’ve always thought that bagel-making runs in ones blood; that it’s nothing short of an art form. In fact, in the early 1900s a group of New Yorkers formed Bagel Bakers Local #338. It was an exclusive group of 300 craftsmen. At the time, it was said that it was probably easier to get into medical school than to get an apprenticeship in one of the 36 union bagel shops in New York City and New Jersey.

After Milo told me his intentions, I picked my jaw up from the ground and thanked him. Who knows? Maybe he and his team will create the next big thing - a bagel that fills the belly of East Harlem. I’m hungry just thinking about it.