The Sunday Times
Charlotte Ivers reported from the front line of North London’s bagel war, where a “tiny café bang in the middle of one of London’s most genteel neighbourhoods” is besieged every weekend by “every Instagram lurker from within a 20-mile radius”.
They are here for the New York-style bagels presented by New Yorker Dan Martensen and his business partner, baker Jack Ponting – “large, pillowy and extravagant”. The London version, often spelt ‘beigel’, is, by contrast, smaller, more modest and more austere. Like Giles at McDonalds, Charlotte sees sociopolitical possibilities in this humble foodstuff: “For a metaphor illustrating the difference between our two nations, it’s pretty on the nose.”
Taste-wise, she fell for the invader, reckoning it “as good as any I’ve tried in New York”. Her order was the “the works” filling (cream cheese, salmon, capers, onion, lemon, tomato) with the “everything” seasoning (sesame and poppy seeds, dried onion, salt and garlic). “Excellent,” she declared, “yet far too chunky to eat with any dignity or decorum (again, God bless America).”
Charlotte Ivers - 2024-11-03
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