New York Tax Authorities Shut H&H Bagels
Last Friday, New York State authorities temporarily shut down H&H Bagels, the renowned bagel baker on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The New York Times reports on the story here.
The shutdown affected both the retail store and a second production facility. Opinions vary on how “good” H&H’s bagels are within the New York City bagel bubble, but H&H is among the few producers that sells authentic bagels (parbaked and frozen) wholesale to restaurants and bakeries across the country. A permanent shutdown of the bagel production plant will have a far reaching effect on customers such as Barney Greengrass in Los Angeles, where expat New Yorkers go for their bagel mit schmear.
July 18th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
My opinion of H&H is that it’s a poser within New York City’s bagel bubble…merely a reliable source of warm, fresh bread that happens to be round-shaped with a hole in the middle. But nothing like the hand-rolled, boiled, caramel-colored, crackly-but-chewy gems of my youth in Queens. And H&H cakes so much sesame seeds on its sesame bagel, I feel like I’m eating a Balboa Bar. H&H does get points for serving bagels throughout the day that are so fresh, they will burn a hole in the brown paper bag they’re put in within minutes. (A problem I always solved by finishing the contents before having the chance to descend to the downtown 79th Street subway platform, one block away.) Professor, next time you’re in Manhattan, try Murray’s Bagels on Eighth Avenue around 22nd-23rd Streets in Chelsea.