Bagel Baron

I really wanted to like these bagels. I saw that Market Hall started carrying them instead of Authentic Bagel. Organic, boiled, 48-hr fermented...they're talking my language! But unfortunately, these are dry, flavorless, overcooked, and just miss the mark. And I like big holes in my sourdough, but not my bagels. I'm a New Yorker, but I really don't care if these are "NY style" or "Montreal style", I just want a bagel that doesn't taste like cardboard or like it was baked a week ago. Perhaps the quality has degraded over time, since I see so many positive reviews. Hope the owners read this review and continue to iterate, because the Bay Area really could use more good bagel options.

I came by early early one weekend morning (before they actually opened) and awaited those special bagels to be delivered to their deli, Saul's. $1.50 a bagel.. i bought 5 with my change purse.. that's $7.50 I had to dig up. On Tuesdays, Panera sells you 13 for about $7. Einstein Bagels a la Costco sells you like 12 for $5. Berkeley Bagels has a great chew on their bagels. Here you're absolutely paying for artisan. Imitating the NY style of baking and boiling, effectively resulting in a tough and drier outside, with a hearty chew on the inside. I love the seeds and spices on the everything bagel. Theirs are more pronounced, more pungent, sharper salt... difficult to explain. Definitely for the occasional splurge. Perhaps it's not fair to put a price on an art of a bagel. In the end, though, I felt, after eating one, that for the difference in texture, whatnot, it was not worth the steeeeep price. Weren't differentiated enough for me. And yep, I surely did read that NYT article as well.

I read about these bagels in the New York Times last week, so I decided to try some. You have to orderat least a baker's dozen for $12, a couple of days ahead, for pickup between 8:15-10am. The bagelsare excellent - I can't say I'm intimately familiar with New York bagels, but I think these tastereally good, as good as any bagel I've had in the bay area. You pick them up at the kitchen, which is very close to Berkeley Bowl West if you want to include this in your grocery shopping trip. As the NYT article says, they have a pretzel-like exterior, and are nice and chewy. They also provide bagels at Saul's delicatessen and some other bay area locations.

Okay, it's a little cross cultural, but as my wife is gentile and I am Jewish, it's a holiday tradition to have bagels on Christmas morning. And Dan Graf is here on Xmas, making some very excellent authentic east coast style bagels fresh like it's just another Thursday, which for reasons I won't go into here, warms my heart to a toasty, crispy golden brown!I tried most of the other bagels, such as Beauty and though they did not suck like Noah's, they were just a little too dense.So Barons takes the prize in this Jersey boys opinion!Tip to Dan: putting Bagel in the name of the business might improve the search engine result.

One of my favorite things EVER is the side-by-side blind taste test. (Yes, I am a huge nerd, of the Pepsi Challenge era.) And so my husband, so sweet, suggested a East Bay Bagel Tasting. This was actually prompted by an article in the NYT that described Baron Baking and the fact that California is finally getting some real bagels.So we ran around this morning and got bagels from Beauty's Bagels, Scream Sorbet (they make real boiled bagels), Mariposa (for a gluten-free member of the panel) and of course, Baron. To cut to the chase, Baron kicked the other bagels right in their hole. It didn't even take any consideration --we had a blind taste test, but everyone knew from looking at them which ones were Baron's, and that they were the best. Just looking, the bagels have a certain shine to them, and they bagels have a nice crust and a great chew. The interior was flavorful, just the right amount of salt, and a complexity that probably comes from the 48 hour dough rise. I have to say, Beauty's was great too, and we were surprised that Scream's was pretty decent --but lacking a bit in salt and the dough just didn't have the complexity that Baron's does. Oh, and Baron's were the most affordable, $12, for 13 bagels. A bargain! Cash only.Ordering ahead and going to the kitchen to pick them up feels very underground and cool... But I hope the business blows up and we can get these bagels all over, because they are off the beaten path. Stay tuned for part 2 --when reigning champ Baron's goes up against Brooklyn, Authentic, and Schmendricks....

Disclaimer: This is a review for the bakery in Berkeley (visit their website for more details), where you have to preorder at least a dozen bagels, at least 48 hours in advance. First off, the process of ordering directly from the bakery. Two days before you want your bagels, you have to send Dan the baker an email with your name, the number of bagels you want to order, and what time you want to pick them up from the Berkeley bakery during the period between 8:30am and 10:30am. The process in itself means that these bagels won't fulfill a day-of craving, but if you know that you're going to need a dozen bagels a few days beforehand, the preparation is worth it. On bagel-day, you have to go to an industrial-looking office suite in west Berkeley and get buzzed into the building where the bakery is located. A guy (presumably Dan) comes out of a hall and asks for a pickup name, he grabs the bagels, and you exchange bagels for cash.Is it worth the trouble? I would say yes. I got a mix of everything, sesame, and plain bagels for pickup at 10am. I could tell that the bagels had been out of the oven for a while, so I would recommend an earlier pickup to get the freshest bagels possible. They were dense and chewy, requiring a little bit of effort to bite through them, with a deliciously malty flavor. The everything bagel had a traditional mix of toppings, rather than the West Coast-ified flavors on Beauty's Bagels, and they managed to stick to the bagel well. The crust wasn't as crunchy as I would have liked, but I would attribute that primarily to the fact that the bagel had cooled down from baking.Overall, I would give the bagels ordered directly from the bakery 4.5 stars, with the last half star dependent on how they taste with an 8:30am pickup instead of a 10am.

If I were only rating the bagels it would be 5 stars easily. The 4 star review is merely because Baron is a burgeoning business and as of now it is not yet ready for a full on public release. *Read: No cream cheese. For full-onBaron Bagel representation you may want to try them out at Chop Bar or Saul's Deli. That all said, the bagels are spot on. They are quite chewy--in a very good way. The dough has a very pleasing crumb and savory flavor and the toppings are traditional and toasted to perfection. The flavor is up front and inconspicuous. Did I mention how deliciously chewy the bagels are?If you are from the east coast and you are home sick for that holiest of comfort foods there is about a 50/50 shot that this will do it for you. It's not an east coast bagel but it does hit all the requirements for a true bagel. Now, if you're just a plain ole' bagel fanatic, then this is a west coast pilgrimage destination that should not disappoint.

Best bagels in the Bay Area. It you enjoy the good things in life these are the bagels to try. Life is to short to eat bad bread.I suggest trying the salt bagel. They are unlike anything I have ever had before.

Five stars for the west coast, probably 4 stars when compared to back east. I have these bagels from time to time at highwire coffee on San Pablo and they definitely hit the spot when I'm having a major craving. The flavors are all there; the texture still isn't quite New York. It's slightly crunchier and a little less yeasty/dense, but it tastes great with a cup of tea. I still havent tried their bulk orders, but I know where to go next time I'm hosting a breakfast party.

Nice crust, chewy, dense inside. Worth the trouble to remember to order and then pickup. And the requisite disclaimer:I'm from Long Island. These are the most authentic bagels I have had away from NY.Thanks, Dan!