Beauty's Bagel Shop Begins Baking Montreal-Style Bagels

By Alex Hochman Thu., Apr. 28 2011 at 8:19 AM

Frank Milward

Blake Joffe of Beauty's Bagles

Blake Joffe's memories of childhood vacations aren't of beaches or landmarks. Instead, he reminisces about the Montreal bagels he scarfed during many visits to his dad's hometown. This fall, Joffe, who currently cooks at Pizzeria Delfina, and partner Amy Remsen will bring Montreal-style bagels to the Bay Area with the opening of Beauty's Bagel Shop. While the pair scout locations in Oakland, they're for now using the ovens at Berkeley's Addie's Pizza, where Remsen is a server, to test recipes and provide bagels for Wise Sons Delicatessen, the Saturday morning popup in San Francisco.

Joffe told us that Beauty's bagels will be hand-rolled, boiled in honey water, and baked in a wood-fired oven. Though they'll be a bit smaller in size, they will have larger holes than traditional bagels. Classic flavors such as sesame and poppy will prevail, as Joffe is adamant about "no fruit bagels." The shop will also offer sandwiches, including egg and cheese, smoked steelhead trout (they hope to offer only sustainable fish), smoked salmon, chopped liver, and vegan paté.

Don't go looking for Beauty's bagels at Wise Sons the next few weekends, however. The pair are off to Montreal, where Joffe will apprentice at the legendary St-Viateur bakery.

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Tags:

Amy Remsen, Beauty's Bagels, Blake Joffe

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Mark Johnson

I like this post. And I agree to no fruit bagels as well. Montreal bagel has been my favorite always. I would like to share a quote for it here:"It’s a delightful thing to think of perfection; but it’s vastly more amusing to talk of errors and absurdities."

filippo

right on. i live in sf, so it's highly unlikely i'd ever get to try these (hehe, it's actually more likely that i'd visit to my hometown of montreal before i'd cross the bay all the way to oakland), but i'm glad these folks are there. truly readers, this is good.

two things: as some have mentioned elsewhere and my baking experience suggests, the water ph will probably be an issue, something that the st viateur folks may or may not know to mention - you'll probably find that you have to tinker a little to get the right consistency. also, when you're up apprenticing, for sure to compare the three main forms of st viateur bagel: the mother shop; the mt royal shop; and from some bag in a grocery store. these will give you a sense of the live cycles of the best of the city.

and i do mean the best. personally, the maison du bagel is one of my favorite bakeries anywhere, so in my books, you've come down on the right side in the timeless fairmont v saint viateur debate.

Yes! Finally.....We need you, especially in Marin.

Janice Schiff

Good Luck Blake and Amy. We will order the bagels when you do mailings to Pa.

Love Jan and SamSchiff

Dave the neighbour

Please make this happen! Bagels here suck and I sorely miss a good Montreal bagel. And yes, there should only be three options - plain, poppy, or sesame. Fruit bagel - yuck.