Bagels and Pigskin

GREEN and Mean: From left to right: Warren Bell (Bagels by Bell), Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Jacob Bell (Bagels by Bell), Pat Kaufman (NYS Governor?s Office of Motion Picture & Television Development) and Matthew Weitzman. Image by Danielle Orsino

By Michael Kaminer January 18, 2011

They don’t look that appetizing in photos. But Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz swears that green bagels from a Canarsie bakery taste like “heaven” with a little butter or cream cheese.

It’s a good thing Markowitz has a taste for the emerald-colored dough rings; Brooklyn’s Bell Bakery is producing a million of them to cheer on Jets fans before Sunday’s big game against the Steelers.

The bagels, as a press release today breathlessly trumpeted, have also been named an “official food of the world-famous Sundance Film Festival,” which kicks off Thursday in the presumably bagel-deprived burg of Park City, Utah. “Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and other officials will hold a press conference on Tuesday, January 18, 11:00 AM at Brooklyn Borough Hall (209 Joralemon Street) to announce the official bagel of New York, which tens of thousands of filmmakers and other Sundance Film Festival-goers from all over the world will be enjoying,” the press release says.

Bagels by Bell “was chosen from thousands of bagel shops throughout the region. Over one million green bagels will be announced that will be distributed throughout the United States on Sunday in support of the New York Jets during the NFL Playoffs, from Sheepshead Bay to Sundance. Samples of the green bagel will be handed out at the conference for bagel warfare.” The press release did not specify selection criteria that led to Bagels By Bell’s culinary coup. Regardless, “when the actors and actresses sit down to eat they can sit down and watch our Jets win this Sunday,” bakery owner Warren Bell told CBS2. Interestingly, Bagels by Bell did not make CBS2’s own ranking of New York’s best bagels in November.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

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. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO