Not exactly a hop-skip-and-a jump from Portland, we were Lewiston bound in search of the comfort zone of the Forage Market bagel, as highlighted in the October 2016 issue of Saveur Magazine with the headline: “Is one of America’s best bagels in. . . Lewiston, Maine?”
You’d think that the Portland Press Herald’s recent feature on best bagels in Greater Portland could have crossed borders with a side-bar to debunk or verify this spectacular claim of the master bagel baked in Lewiston.
So on a recent Saturday morning we convened in a friend’s comfy BMW station wagon for the trek to Lewiston to see for ourselves—the verisimilitude of the Forage bagel story.
It takes a good hour to get to Lewiston from Portland, but on a Saturday morning traffic is nearly nonexistent especially if you take back roads from the Freeport exit 22 on 295 to Route 136, a scenic seesaw of hills and curves through farmland along the banks of the Androscoggin River.
The utterly vintage, rough-hewn tin ceilinged room of the Forage Market—which sits along the gentrified stretch of Lisbon Street–was chock-a-block with Bates students convened in a coffee klatch of chatter, bagels and pastries. We were the only out-of-towners and imagined that if this place was in the trendier climes of Portland, The South End or Tribeca, it would be a scene-stealer for sure.
With high anticipation, we waited for our bagel sandwiches: cream cheese, lox, onions, tomato—the works. I think I would have preferred a plain bagel with nothing more than butter or cream cheese so as not to deflect from the quality of these bagels.
Verdict? It’s an excellent bagel baked in a wood-fired oven, good crust, texture and flavor—but the best bagel in America? I think Saveur is guilty of the Bon Appetit syndromme—hyperbolic shout-outs such as their overblown Drifter’s Wife accolades.
If you happen to be passing through Lewiston, stop into Forage. It’s a great café not just for bagels but wonderful pastries as well. In fact, the blueberry turnover is the real star of the show, and I would return just for another bite into the croissant-flaky pastry turnover luscious with Maine blueberry jam.