New York City is world-renowned for their bagels. Their dense, doughy consistency with the slightly firm, slightly crispy outer shell make them a real treat at any time of the day. New Yorkers will tell you that it’s the water that make their bagels hands down the best in the world. In fact, when bagels were first brought to the U.S. from Europe, you can guess where they landed: the Big Apple.
Since I’m a lover of all things NYC, I was skeptical when someone told me that the bagels in Montreal were actually the best in the world. What? Montreal? Home of poutine & hockey & french-things? Sure, I know that Canada rocks with their maple syrup & bacon, but bagels?
We stopped by St-Viateur Bagel while exploring the Plateau neighborhood with our Tourisme Montreal guide, Ruby. St-Viateur competes with Fairmont Bagel for the title of best bagel in Montreal.
The smell of freshly baked carbs filled the store as we walked in. Our eyes bugged out at the sight of literally thousands of freshly baked bagels. You’ll notice immediately that they’re different than American bagels: they’re smaller overall & the hole in the middle is much larger.
We chatted with one of the bakers as he hand rolled a fresh batch of bagels & with another baker who was slinging the finished circles of dough in & out of the wood burning oven. The pace in the store was quick, as bakers moved around us & customers filed in & out, clutching brown paper sacks of sesame, “tout garnie” (everything) & plain. St-Viateur sells over 1,000 bagels a day & is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The owner handed B & I a pair of piping hot, just-out-of-the-oven bagels & we eagerly took a bite. They were definitely a different consistency than New York bagels, & actually different from any other bagel we’d ever had. They were much airier than “American bagels,” not nearly as heavy. The dough was slightly sweet, similar in taste to NYC bagels (“It’s the water,” Ruby assured us). Overall verdict? Not bad. Not bad at all!
Craving a Montreal bagel? St-Viateur delivers to the U.S.!
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