Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Shelsky’s Bagels Serves An Artisanal Jewish Breakfast In Brooklyn

In the dark ages, otherwise known as 2017, visiting an appetizing store from Park Slope involved some finesse, some planning, and some knowledge of the precarious subway system. And what was an appetizing store? Just the spunky younger sister of the deli. As per Jewish law, milk and meat cannot be eaten together. This meant that folks who wanted a pastrami sandwich headed to a deli while folks who wanted a crisp bialy invented the appetizing store, which specialized in fish, dairy, bagels and often baked goods.

But Park Slope was a bagel desert, instead inundated with a swamp of kimchi shops – until now. Shelsky’s’s Park Slope location, the newest venture of Peter Shelsky and Lewis Spada, is there to fill that gap. From homemade bagels and bialys to knishes and pletzels (sort of a salty, flat disc), from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving New York nostalgia is the name of Peter Shelsky’s game.

“It looks like a very clean, nice corner deli,” said Grub Street. Gothamist called them an “instant New York classic.” And of course, the New York Times called their bagels “crisper than the usual examples of the genre,” which is high praise from the Times.

And yes, they deliver.

Shira Feder is a writer. She’s at [email protected] and @shirafeder

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

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.