Eltana bagels don’t taste like other bagels. And considering our limited local offerings here in Seattle, I think it’s safe to say that is a good thing.

For starters, as is obvious to anyone who has inhaled inside the cafe, the bagels are cooked in a wood-fired oven. Jess Thomson described that experience in a recent Seattle Met article.

“You’re hit with a blast of smokiness,” she writes, “tinged around the edges with onion and garlic. A quick glance behind the counter explains everything—beyond the display of seed-crusted, oddly shaped orbs is a wall of stacked apple wood, used to fire the bakery’s 10,000-pound oven.”

Read the article—which details in full how the malty-sweet skinny bagels are made—here.