Mt. Bagel - Review - Madison Valley - Seattle - The Infatuation
"Seattle is no longer a city with a lackluster bagel showing. There's a multitude of decent options now, and you don’t need to resort to sad, circle-shaped sponges at Einstein Bros. But we’re here to report that among the great boiled-and-baked bread rings in this town, there’s one that towers above the rest. That's Mt. Bagel—a shop in Madison Valley that serves unsliced bagels and tubs of schmear to-go. The anatomy of this bagel is phenomenal—malty, chewy, fluffy, and slightly sweet on the inside, it's just as great fresh from the bag as it is frozen and subsequently popped in the toaster. Our only gripe is that the crust can vary in its crackle, but the flavor is still so stupendous that it's easy to forgive a little lack of crunch now and then. Topping-wise, the options are pretty standard but reliably great, from a perfectly salted garlicky everything to sesame. Also not to be missed is the spicy scallion schmear. With green onion and lots of cayenne heat, it's our die-hard favorite (and conducive to dipping a torn bagel chunk). Getting your hands on some requires strategy. You must place a delivery or pickup order on their website when they open up sales every Friday at 9am sharp. And we'll admit, it's a stress-fest. They sell out in under a minute, leaving only the speediest mouse-maneuverers victorious. We recommend making a profile on their website, having your address and credit card information programmed to auto-fill, and setting an alarm for 8:59am. It sounds like a lot, but if you really want these bagels, you're gonna have to try a little. We've had a 100% success rate in securing an order when we follow these steps, and as you can probably tell, we've placed a lot of orders. It's all worth it when a mysterious, beautiful stranger comes to your home and drops off a brown paper sack full of the goods. The whole thing’s like getting a visit from the tooth fairy, except you’re the one giving the money, and nobody has to exchange teeth. And if ordering bagels as you would Taylor Swift tickets doesn't make sense, Mt. Bagel takes walk-ins. Stop by at your own risk, though—lines start to form at 8:45, and bagels sell out around or before 11am every day. Food Rundown photo credit: Erin Roberts The Bagels Excellence with a hole in the middle. Spicy Scallion Cream Cheese Stained orange from cayenne and loaded with fresh scallions, this cream cheese is so good that we’d frost a birthday cake with the stuff. If you're feeling impatient on the journey home, no reasons exist not to rip open a bagel from the bag and take a swipe. Chocolate Chip Cookie This is Mt. Bagel's sole sweet thing for sale, and the thing's beautiful. Cakey-gooey in the middle and brittle on the edges, it's like an Otis Spunkmeyer cafeteria cookie, only bigger and better." - Aimee Rizzo
