Enterprising bagel mavens in Maine should flock to flagels, a flattened version of a bagel that some connoisseurs consider the best in class. In fact, the New York Daily News proclaimed in an article last year that these were the best and tastiest of the bagel world. I wonder why they’re not more popular here? The name doesn’t roll off tongue and could be mistaken for a social faux pas that invariably happens in a packed room.
Montague Street (Brooklyn) flagels
The point is there’s a bit of bagel mania across the nation with major cities trying to earn top honors in comparison to the standard bearer of the greatness of New York bagels. I’m from New York and indeed I miss those specimens , which are as easily available as a pack of chewing gum. What’ makes them so good? The common conception is that it’s because of New York’s pure water (not so pure anymore) and boiled in so-called artesian pools. I think they’re good because they’re made with chutzpah, the kind dredged from the old Red Hook.
Excellent bagels sandwich at Cafe 158
Bagels used to be much smaller. The output from Brooklyn bakeries that I remember from the 50s and 60s were indeed less bulbous. In my family, we’d only have them as a special treat for Sunday morning breakfast. My father would buy them at the local supermarket ‘s deli counter where you’d also get great lox or Nova—there’s a difference. The former is cured in a salt-sugar rub and the latter, more expensive, is cured then cold-smoked. Lox is saltier and fattier, coming from the belly. I also loved the white fish salad spread or tender flakes of smoked sable.
It’s amusing that the advancement and variety of bagels in Maine (as well as other cities across America far, far from the New York originals) has engendered such reverence.
But what about those flagels? Supposedly they were invented by a New York baker in 1994. I first had one in the late 90s at an East Hampton, NY bagel shop called Goldberg’s. When I moved to Maine part-time I would bring those flagels back, cut and put in my freezer. Mr. Bagel started to sell them but they stopped.
Clockwise: Line at Forage; Forage bagel sandwich; Forage everything bagel; bagels at Scratch; line at Scratch
Still, bagel lines here on a weekend morning are ridiculously long. They needn’t be if the various bagel shops installed more cash registers at checkout, something that New York retailers do to accommodate millions of shoppers.
The bagel line at Maples; Maples’ everything bagel
The four most popular places in and around Portland for bagels include Mr. Bagel (the closest thing to a New York style bagel), Scratch Baking in South Portland; Maples in Yarmouth and newcomer The Purple House with the only Montreal style bagel in Maine.
That’s where I’ve been going for my weekly stash, but now that summer is almost here the line to get in is interminable. This past Saturday I waited about 15 minutes to place my order. It would move so much faster with another computerized check out station.
Bagel mania line and diners at The Purple House
Another favorite, Scratch, is impossible on a weekend morning. Not only do you wait to pay at the one lone cash register but you also run the risk of them selling out and you need to wait another half hour for the stash to be replenished. Even Maples has the morning rush on weekends and only one check out.
The Lewiston bake shop Forage is rummaging around to open in Portland. Saveur Magazine proclaimed them to be the best bagel in America. I take issue with that. They’re very good, but best in class is a long shot. I went to their shop in Lewiston and the wait was not long at all given its less populous location. It will be good to have more bagel choices in Portland as if to thin out the lines elsewhere.
Bagels at Forage and their popular bagel meet-up
Still, popular Maine places of all stripes ought to invest in multiple registers to ring up those hefty sales. (Thank Forest Avenue Hannaford on the eve of a snow storm.) The same goes for coffee shops, even Starbucks where waiting to order is a chore as one lone clerk, whose sense of urgency is more fey than frantic, nonchalantly rings up your order.
Line mania at Red’s Eats
Probably the worst-in-waits is Red’s Eats, the ever-popular Wiscasset lobster-roll monger immortalized by Down East Magazine years ago who proclaimed it the best lobster roll in Maine, a questionable epithet if ever there was one.
