Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Bagels and Pigskin

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.

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

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.

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.