Some people take pictures of their children. I take pictures of my bagel deliveries.
Image: Allison Williams
Among Washington’s pantheon of peaks—Rainier, Baker, Si—none blessed our breakfast table better than the inimitable Mt. Bagel, a bakery born in 2019 that did only deliveries and whose bready treasures were harder to score than Taylor Swift tickets. When Mt. Bagel announced a move to Bend in spring 2022, a city mourned; less than a year later, though, they’re back.
Owner Roan Hartzog cited relocation issues in the U-turn announcement in January, saying the first bakery they’d ever utilized for the pop-up had become available. That Madison Valley building at 801 26th Avenue East, located in a residential neighborhood near the Arboretum, marks the bagelry’s first true storefront. It means that Mt. Bagel is not only back, but its wares will actually be available one at a time.
Upon moving to Seattle in 2011, this former New Yorker has done what all former New Yorkers do: bitch about the bagel scene. Can’t say I’ve ever quit. Sure, Eltana is tasty, and in recent years Rubinstein Bagels puts out a decent selection. Zylberschtein’s is impressive, and I visit Westman’s on Capitol Hill regularly. Seattle Met‘s Allecia Vermillion has thoroughly documented the city’s burgeoning bagel scene, but none captured the perfection of Mt. Bagel—the only one, in my book, to approach Big Apple authenticity.
For years, my phone had a weekly alarm at 11:57am, telling me to drop whatever work I was doing (sorry, boss) and hover my cursor on Mt. Bagel’s website. If I refreshed at the exact moment the clock turned to noon and clicked every order box without hesitation, I could score a dozen bagels…sometimes. It was my weekly quest.
Why? It’s in how the bagel was rounder than the Michelin Man, the center hole more of a dimple than a void. The crust crackled when bitten, hiding a chewy center; none of the ‘bread, but make it round’ action you find in a grocery store monstrosity. Flavors were straightforward, though I, like most purists, trended toward the everything. (Mt. Bagel also makes cream cheese, a foodstuff I avoid and thus can’t speak to.) I was an evangelist; Mt. Bagel is the only carb I follow on Instagram.
Which is how I saw the news of Mt. Bagel’s return, singly justifying my use of social media. The test bakes Hartzog has posted online look like bagels of yore, thankfully. The old delivery model is still in place, with the first preorders set for Friday (so someone tell my boss I’m busy that day), though Hartzog notes in his post that “We’ll be building that up to a more traditional bagel shop experience gradually.” He opens his storefront on Tuesday, June 27.
Will there be lines? Assuredly. Sellouts? Probably within minutes. Can Seattle lord this over Oregon for the foreseeable future, having snatched our prized bagels back from the jaws of relocation? Hell yeah.
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