Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Favorite Bagel Shop

Photo: Flickr/CLender

If you were following New York City news last week, then you’ll know that millions of tri-state area residents (including an irate Jon Stewart) were flabbergasted to see Bill de Blasio eating a slice of pizza with a fork and knife. Deeply disappointed New Yorkers (as well as citizens of neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut) were left wondering whether they will ever be able to rely on New York’s new mayor’s taste when it comes to the Big Apple’s signature foods.

The question is not a hypothetical one, because now, just days after Forkgate, hizzoner has passed judgment on the most Jewish of New York foods: the bagel. Brooklyn Magazine reports that de Blasio has named Bagel Hole in Park Slope the purveyor of the best bagel in all of New York. Not only are Bagel Hole’s bagels the best, but they are also “the most authentic, traditional authentic,” according to the mayor.

We are sure plenty of New Yorkers (including devoted fans of say, Tal Bagels, Murray’s and the now shuttered H&H) would beg to differ with de Blasio, but he does seem to actually know what he is talking about. Bagel Hole often appears on lists of New York’s best bagel shops.

The mayor may be bagel-savvy, but he is taking a risk speaking out on culinary matters so soon after the pizza scandal. (Sorry Bill, but no one bought your explanation that you were just following pizza-eating etiquette from your ancestral homeland.) Some people may be so outraged by his use of silverware that they might think it a waste of time to chew on his bagel pronouncement.

Then again, they could cut the new mayor some slack. He’s apparently big on transparency, and even if he was far from transparent about his recent under-the-radar meeting with AIPAC, at least he’s being totally upfront about his eating habits.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.