Jane D.
Yelp
Like every other bagel in NYC, there's some variance, here, depending on the atmospheric conditions of the day and many other variables of which I'm sure I lack awareness. Over many visits and many years we've noticed:
- The bagels have, at least in the past five years or so, been too sweet and malty for us. At some point in the past, I don't remember these as being so sweet, but it's possible my tastes have changed. (e.g. I used to eat frosting out of a container in college!)
- On most visits, bagels are super fluffy -- overrisen to our tastes -- and underbaked.
- Interestingly, we've had great luck getting bagels here on cooler, rainy days, when the bagels have just the right density and chewiness.
On a recent, rainy weekend morning, we picked up a positively delightful batch of bagels at H&H, chewy and substantial -- a batch that made me rethink all my assumptions about the establishment and wonder if I'd been unfairly maligning them for years. They were fresh and had just the right density, we thought, though we still found them to be too sweet, with a wimpier crust than we prefer. They are (like Bagel Bob's and maybe Ess-a-Bagel) probably baked with re-toasting in mind. We did (for us) the unthinkable and toasted them at home a few hours later, and enjoyed them very much. We have to repeat this rainy, cool day experiment.
We've learned to make croissant and macarons purchases based on weather conditions; it makes sense that we would treat meteorologically sensitive bagels in the same manner. (Note to support the theory: Several days later on a warmer, dry day, Ess-a-Bagels -- which we often call out as top notch NYC bagels in our view -- were unpleasantly fluffy and overrisen, badly needed more baking.)
A possible hypothesis going forward:
- Tal and Broad Nosh seem to be good almost anytime early in the day for a consistently dense/chewy texture, and crisp/chewy crust;
- H&H and Ess-a-Bagel seem better suited for cool and/or wet days that are less conducive to overrising, especially if we'll be filling the former with something sweet or something complementary to sweet.
The saga continues....