UP YOUR (BAGEL) HOLE (The Bagel Hole)

This bagel search is the closest I’ve come to reviewing straight up corner bodegas. However, in the interest of narrowing down the field, I’ve decided to not include every generic deli that sells bagels, but to limit my search to places with noteworthy bagel options and homemade recipes. And with very few exceptions, the store must have the word Bagel in the name. Rest assured, I will not be trying Smiler’s, Cafe Duke, or Broadway Deli.

The Bagel Hole in Park Slope meets all those criteria, yet it still felt like what New Yorkers call “delis” but are actually tiny little convenience stores. However, upon entering, it was clear that the main attraction here were the bagels on the back wall – despite the bags of chips and bottles of soda on display. I’d show you pictures of all this, but I was immediately yelled at by the listless worker for taking photos. Besides giving me a hard time about my camera, he also blocked the door when I was trying to enter the shop and it took him a while (he was on the phone) to get out of my path.

He responded as if I had defaced the property when I started snapping photos of the bagels. He told me if I wanted to take photos, I’d have to come back and talk to the owner on another day. Since I don’t live anywhere near Park Slope, I decided a return visit was not in the cards.  Even if I was allowed to take photos, there was nowhere to sit in the cramped little Bagel Hole so I took my plain bagel with cream cheese to the subway platform where I snapped away to my heart’s content. Technically I’m not allowed to take photos in the subway station either, but fortunately no MTA worker gave me a hard time.

The big complaint most people could have with these bagels is how much smaller they are than at most shops. I tend to think that’s a good thing. Bagels have gotten so much bigger over the years and this was a perfect size for a midday snack.

The outer crust of the bagel was perfectly crispy and crackly. Each bite was a chewy delight, but the bread suffered a little on the inside. Usually the crunch should give way to a soft tender middle, but this one remained rough, as if it had been toasted (it hadn’t been). It made me think this bagel was sitting out for a while and was a few notches away from going stale. I did show up mid afternoon on a very rainy weekday so their turnover might have been less than usual.

The cream cheese appeared to also be rather hard and solid, but a bite revealed it to be much fluffier than it looked and had a wonderful sour freshness. There were also a few stray pieces of poppy and sesame seeds hitchhiking on my plain bagel. I appreciated the added flavor and texture, but would have been much angrier if I had a seed allergy.

The bagels at Bagel Hole are much better than the ones you get at most corner bodegas. There’s clearly bagel craftsmanship happening here somewhere at sometime (probably not as frequently on rainy weekdays) and that’s the only reason I can guess they don’t want any photos taken. Maybe I’m from on eof the other nearby bodegas and I’m trying to steal all their secrets, but who wants to steal grumpy customer service?

Does The Bagel Hole have the best bagels in NY? I liked a lot of things about this little bagel, but some unpleasant service and a lack of a soft interior drops this place down to a 7 out of 10.