Lubbies Bagels and Goodwins in Dallas Made a Great Cuban Bagel Sandwich | Eater Dallas
"Andrea Lubkin, the owner of an East Dallas bagel shop, is deeply embedded in the local culinary community and is particularly close to the neighborhood cafe on Greenville Avenue; its chef and co-owner, Jeff Bekavac, was one of the first people she met when she moved to Dallas in 2013. “There is nobody like him around here who is always positive energy. He’s rooting for people all the time,” she says. When Lubkin decided that pop-ups and collaborations with other chefs could help promote her shop, Bekavac was the first person she went to, and thus the Lub-Win was born: the duo’s version of a Cubano sandwich — ham, bread and butter pickles, and Provolone cheese layered on a yolk-yellow egg bagel. Landing on which bread worked best took some trial and error; Lubkin says she tried the sandwich on a plain bagel and also liked it paired with a challah roll, but in the end chose an egg bagel: “Our bagels are pretty crusty, and a Cuban lends itself to this. We decided on egg from the flavor profile and the bite,” she says. The shop will serve the Lub-Win special from Wednesday, March 19 through Wednesday, April 2, and during its pop-up on March 22 and March 23 on the sidewalk outside of the cafe, where it’ll sell a limited menu of bagels and schmears from its cart (yes, they are bringing a toaster) and a sandwich Lubkin calls the “showboat,” a bagel topped with lox that’s cured and smoked in-house. More than an excuse to spend a fun weekend in a different neighborhood, Lubkin frames the special as a chance to build community and is candid about the city's food scene: “Nothing is grown here. There is no terroir,” she says, while noting growth in local farms and that the city “lives up to its reputation of knowing steak well.” She criticizes a focus on appearance over culinary support: “They make beautiful dining rooms but don’t support the culinary leaders in the way the culinary leaders want to be supported.” The collaboration is her bid to help chefs get their names out and bring them together “in weird ass ways.” “There are so many talented people here, and they shouldn’t be struggling,” Lubkin says, and she hopes to build the community she wants to see — one bagel sandwich pop-up at a time." - Courtney E. Smith