Bagels and lox

November 22, 2018 6:26 PM

A day in the life of Lloyd Squires, Vermont's 'best' bagel maker, from Burlington Free Press. (Including a soothing 10 min. sound clip of the bakery before the morning rush)
posted by growabrain (22 comments total)

St-Viateur style bagels outside of Montreal! You Vermonters are lucky to have this
posted by thecjm at 6:53 PM on November 22, 2018 [6 favorites]

I work a few blocks from there. They are that good.
posted by meinvt at 7:48 PM on November 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

I love Montreal bagels. You can now find them in Vancouver but they're not as good.
posted by k8t at 8:52 PM on November 22, 2018

Before the inevitable NY/Montreal discussion comes up, let me offer this.

The BEST bagel is made by some poor schmuck who got up at 2 in the fucking morning to bake them fresh. Ingredients and style are secondary.

Additionally, since the fresh bagels in the shop represent their effort to do that every day, "toasting" them is an insult.

Hot Bagels

Filmed in Brooklyn, this shows the process of handmade bagels. From creating the dough to the baking and sale, the process is explained along with the extemporaneous commentary on the changing nature of the bagel business, and the shops place in the neighborhood. Filmed in 1979? by Nick Manning, this is part of the 16mm film collection at the Brooklyn Public Library's local history division, the Brooklyn Collection.

posted by mikelieman at 9:05 PM on November 22, 2018 [10 favorites]

So this kind of freaks me out as my grandfather's name was Loyd [sic] Squire [sic] and Lloyd Squires are common misspellings of both. Is my grandfather still alive and has he taken a new identity across the country? my grandfather was born in 1891 so this question is of more than passing interest.
posted by janey47 at 9:26 PM on November 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

What’s with the scare quotes around “best”, Free Press? Let them own their excellence.
posted by ardgedee at 5:12 AM on November 23, 2018

Now I've left NYC and am pretty permanently back in the UK (note to self: maybe change MeFi user name?) about the best I can do is BSOs (Bagel-Shaped Objects). A shiny bread roll with a hole in it doesn't make a bagel.

The ones from B Bagel in Fulham aren't too bad, but the average bagel here is, like the average baguette, an affront to good baking.

And bialys. I have not seen a bialy in London. Now I want a bialy!

*sigh*
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 5:54 AM on November 23, 2018

I wonder if they bake the gluten-free bagels separately from the glutinous ones.
(Thinking of my celiac-afflicted son, who lives in Burlington)
posted by doctornemo at 6:52 AM on November 23, 2018

"boiled in honey water"? Now that's interesting, writes this native New Yorker and bagel snob.
posted by doctornemo at 6:57 AM on November 23, 2018

This is sublime. A glimpse of a life hidden from most of us, with some best-in-show gif use.

(I worked up in Burlington on a gig last year, and a reporter from the Free Press came over to do a story on the show. The story was good, but the videographer/editor put together an accompanying short video that was *great* - shot and edited better than the stuff that I see in the NYTimes or WashPo. They’re doing something right.)
posted by minervous at 7:09 AM on November 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

I once worked in a bagel shop in Olympia, Washington. Those big slabs of dough, they can be monsters. Once a co-worker forgot to add something to the mix (salt?), and we had this huge batch of unusable dough - what to do? The general consensus was to throw it out; we put it in the dumpster in the alley. Around 10 am the dough had risen so much, it was escaping the dumpster and had to be beaten back with broomsticks.

Fantastic article!
posted by gyusan at 7:16 AM on November 23, 2018 [10 favorites]

I spent a few weeks working for a client that was down the street from Feldman's on Pine Street. OMG I think I ate there nearly every day. There isn't a bad bagel in Burlington*.

* Burlington chamber of commerce please contact me about licensing that slogan kthx
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:16 AM on November 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

"boiled in honey water"? Now that's interesting, writes this native New Yorker and bagel snob.

If you watch the film I linked to above, they add molasses to the pail of water/yeast. Yeast gotta eat...
posted by mikelieman at 8:44 AM on November 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Lovely article. I read it to my daughter as a bedtime story. The gifs were perfect. Adding it to my list for my future dream trip to Vermont.
posted by amanda at 10:07 AM on November 23, 2018 [3 favorites]

I saw this linked from Hacker News earlier and someone there calculated that he is probably pulling in $700k/year in profit, based on production volumn and ingredient cost. Of course he is working 16+ hours a day but some of that is by choice - he could hire a delivery driver and save 4+ hours a day. It did inspire me to try making naturally levaned bagels next after I'm satisfied with my city loaf.
posted by ChrisHartley at 11:02 AM on November 23, 2018

> I saw this linked from Hacker News earlier and someone there calculated that he is probably pulling in $700k/year in profit, based on production volumn and ingredient cost.

That only makes sense if the property, employees, and utilities are free.
posted by ardgedee at 1:23 PM on November 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

Very cool. Thanks for posting.
posted by veggieboy at 4:42 AM on November 24, 2018

I wonder if they bake the gluten-free bagels separately from the glutinous ones.

Says he makes the GF bagels first.
posted by waving at 8:22 AM on November 24, 2018

Making them first helps. Having them made in pots and trays that are g-free would also help.
posted by doctornemo at 9:40 AM on November 24, 2018

These are possibly my favorite bagels on the planet, says this New Yorker, without shame.
posted by the_blizz at 6:43 PM on November 24, 2018

I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to nail the way he rolls his bagels, I just know it
posted by repute at 7:23 PM on November 24, 2018

They called me back and described a serious method for producing GF bagels. I'm very excited about this.
posted by doctornemo at 9:29 AM on November 25, 2018 [2 favorites]