This review has been amended since first posting.
There are many factions in the bagel world. You have Montreal-style versus New York-style. Within Montreal you have the St. Viateur camp pitted against the Fairmount camp, with vocal, die-hard adherents on both sides. In New York, it’s a debate between modern and old school, with Kossar’s and Ess-A-Bagel usually polarizing camps within the latter category.
Within all of these debates you have the sesame seed versus poppy seed versus plain bagel micro battle raging away, along with arguments for plain or flavoured cream cheese, cream cheese only or cream cheese and lox, etc. Even here in Vancouver we have the Solly’s fan base and the Siegel’s fan base, both swearing that their bagelry is every bit as good as anything you can get in Montreal (I’m not so sure that’s true, but more on that later).
Given the natural polarities in the bagel conversation, I figured this week’s column would be a straightforward battle between Queensbury Street’s Mount Royal Bagel Factory and either of Rosemary Rocksalt’s North Shore locations (there is one on Lonsdale Avenue at 17th Street and another at Park and Tilford). I was wrong. You see, what most of the famed, regional “best bagel” debates have in common is that the products in question tend to be exceedingly similar in the first place and it’s the subtle variations that end up taking centre stage. Not so here on the North Shore, where I feel Mount Royal and Rosemary Rocksalt make radically different bagels that may as well be from different planets, let alone from different neighbourhoods.
Before continuing, I need to be transparent about a few things. I lived in Montreal for 13 years and have eaten a shipping container’s worth of bagels in my lifetime. I love Montreal-style bagels, especially from the famous St. Viateur boulangerie (bakery) in that city’s vibrant Mile End neighbourhood. Those in the know will recognize that my professed allegiance to St. Viateur just now has alienated roughly 50 per cent of Montreal’s bagel-eating population, but they at least know where I stand in terms of stylistic preference.
On my first adult visit to Manhattan I grabbed a bagel with a shmear (a slathering of cream cheese) and a coffee from a reputable deli for breakfast and was, frankly speaking, surprised. The bagel was puffy and pillowy, lacking in the gnarled texture and dense chewiness that the Montrealer in me associates with great bagels; it was like a bun with a hole in it. I have come to learn on many subsequent visits to New York that my early deli experience was fairly representative of that city’s style of bagels and I have to say, while I have warmed to them considerably, I am Montreal-leaning in my tastes.
It was within this subjective context that I embarked on my bagel comparison for this column and ultimately arrived at the following conclusion: Rosemary Rocksalt’s sesame bagels are much closer to Montreal-style bagels than Mount Royal’s. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Mount Royal’s bagel strikes me as the northern cousin of the New York bagel: fluffier, softer and rounder than the weighty and misshapen iterations of the Montreal-style.
Now, in case other bagel fans and Mount Royal loyalists are feeling bent out of shape by this comment, let me quickly add that Mount Royal’s bagels are delicious and well-worth seeking out. I grabbed toasted sesame and toasted poppy seed bagels with plain cream cheese one morning last week and couldn’t stifle a smile as I tucked into the fresh, doughy goodness.
Mount Royal also makes their own truly outstanding cream cheese, a silken, softer version than most commercial stuff, with a wonderful tanginess that works perfectly on their baked goods, even on their cinnamon bagel, which is an amazing treat that marries aromatic cinnamon and caramelized sugar in a glaze for the chewy bread. They also sells cinnamon bagel bites, which are like heavy doughnut holes that make a great coffee snack and are well priced at six for $2.
Mount Royal Bagel Factory’s atmosphere is much more production-like and functional that Rosemary Rocksalt’s café-style venues, likely due to the fact that the former enjoys widespread retail distribution and also produces acclaimed granola under the Edelweiss brand. The shop offers bagels with a variety of cream cheese flavours, but no other sandwich options.
Rosemary Rocksalt, on the other hand, augments its Montreal-ness by offering not only closer approximations to the city’s famed bagels, but also a few bagel sandwiches that contain authentic Montreal smoked meat. I ordered one such sandwich – the Mont-Royal – and delighted in the familiar experience of a mountain of moist, succulent, pink, smoked meat served simply with mustard on the bagel of my choice. A plain cream cheese and lox sandwich (the Steveston) featured a generous helping of wild B.C. smoked salmon with onion, capers, and a lemon wedge; this sandwich is another familiar nod to the Montreal Jewish deli experience. Tart, briny, dill-heavy pickle spears accompanied both sandwiches. My third and final sandwich for this review – the Yaletown – contained egg, cheddar and fresh tomato and is offered all day as a breakfast-like bagel option.
Rosemary Rocksalt’s environment definitely feels like a standardized franchise template, but despite this scale-ably efficient vibe, its bagels remain truly outstanding.
Rosemary and rock salt flavoured bagels are available at both shops considered in this column.
– Facebook.com/pg/mountroyalbagels
Editor’s note: This review has been amended to correct an earlier version that misidentified a bagel shop that formerly operated in North Vancouver.
