Water, Flour, Yeast, and a lot of Northeasterners: The Growth of Austin’s Bagel Scene
By Kiernan McCormick
As a breakfast taco city, Austin and the word bagel do not belong in the same sentence. Yet, the northeastern breakfast staple has become increasingly popular in Texas’ capital, with the opening of numerous bagel spots.
First on the scene — Rockstar Bagels. The year 2009 saw the birth of this Eastside joint, started by drummer and New York native Joe Humel. Rockstar Bagels makes East Coast-style bagels, which entails a lengthy process of preparing and fermenting dough, boiling it, and then baking it on what are known as bagel boards — planks covered in burlap.
While there are several different types of bagels, such as the thinner Montreal-style bagel and the controversial St. Louis-style bagel — shockingly cut into vertical strips — Austin’s bagel shops stick to the East Coast version.
Britta Nippert, lead baker and project manager at the shop, says texture is key in an East Coast-style bagel.
“Sometimes you’ll find bagels in the grocery store, and they’re weird rolls that are kind of in the shape of a bagel. I think for a lot of people that don’t live on the East Coast, that’s probably what they think of when they think of a bagel,” the Pennsylvanian-turned-Texan says. “For me, it comes down to texture, like that kind of crunchy outside and fluffy inside.”
Nippert and fellow Rockstar Bagels bakers have mastered this texture, along with the size of the breakfast food. Perfectly plump, the bagels appear as if their golden brown crust is just waiting to burst open and reveal a doughy dream.
Dean Cote, director of operations, says that food is a memory for many people, and he hopes that Rockstar Bagels can remind northeast transplants of their roots.
“If they come to Austin and they have a bagel [as] close as we can get it to [one] in New York, then they’re thinking about the time that they were in New York, or when they lived in New York, or when they were getting on the subway,” Cote says. “And it’s really meaningful.”
Rich Spiegel, co-owner of Wholy Bagel, has a similar desire. He wants East-coasters in Austin to know that they can experience a taste of home at the shop.
“This type of comfort food is available. It’s here in Austin. It’s made the same way that it’s made in New York and it’s a rival-comparable product,” Spiegel says of his bagels. “It’s not like a shooting facsimile of a New York bagel. I feel like it can stand up next to a good New York bagel.”
Originally opened by New Jersey transplant Scott Campanozzi in 2010 at its first location on William Cannon Drive, Wholy Bagel is one of Austin’s longest-running bagel spots. Spiegel, hailing from the Garden State himself, and his wife Nicole Spiegel — a native New Yorker — were among the store’s earliest customers. They befriended Campanozzi and eventually purchased the business in 2015.
Wholy Bagel uses the same traditional East Coast boil-and-bake technique as Rockstar Bagels. Spiegel says this process defines a proper bagel, and results in a chewy consistency characteristic of New York bagels.
“(A New York bagel) is large, plump, [and] seeded on both sides [with a] crispy outside [and] chewy inside,” Spiegel explains. “You get an aroma of the yeast and the malt when you break into it.”
The shop’s dense yet cushiony bagels make for salivating sandwiches, such as the northeast classic — a Taylor ham, egg, and cheese — and the Nova Lox — a buttery and savory stack of cream cheese, tomatoes, red onions, capers and lox.
Wholy Bagel has built most of their customer base through word-of-mouth rather than advertising, Spiegel says. Transplants typically suggest the business to people who have never experienced a New York bagel.
“They try it [and] they’re like, ‘Oh my god, this is amazing. I’ve been going to Einstein’s or Panera,’ Spiegel says. “This is like night and day, or like ordering Domino’s and then going to Home Slice [Pizza].”
Chris Cunningham, co-founder and co-owner of Nervous Charlie’s, says one of his intentions for the business is to introduce people who are unfamiliar with East Coast-style bagels to the breakfast staple and its versatility.
“The second intention … would be to steward someone on their first bagel journey,” Cunningham says. “(Customers will) come up and they’ll be like, ‘Wait, this stuff goes on a bagel? Like on the bagel as a sandwich?”
Perhaps these customers are referring to sandwiches like “The Empire” — a piling of fried chicken cutlet, bacon, coleslaw, mozzarella, and Russian dressing (oh my!) on a bagel of one’s choice.
Long Islander Cunningham and his wife, Pennsylvanian Ali White, opened Nervous Charlie’s in 2018 on North Lamar. It was born out of the couple’s desire for New York-style bagels in their immediate vicinity. Nervous Charlie’s literally brings New York to Austin by shipping their dough in from Long Island.
Tom Rosen, founder and owner of Rosen’s Bagels, is another transplant who took matters into his own hands after struggling to find a good bagel in Austin. A culinary school graduate, Rosen began making bagels himself, and in 2017, he kicked off his business, first as a pop-up bagel shop with local coffee spots. In 2022, he opened his first two restaurants — one on Burnet road, and the other on Guadalupe street.
Rosen may be from Kansas, but he knows how to make a mean East Coast-style bagel with the boil-and-bake method. The business makes about 300 bagels per batch, and produces more than 2,000 of the product on weekends. Pillowy and thick, his bagels reiterate the importance of the proper baking technique.
The founder and foodie believes the Austin bagel scene is slowly but surely evolving. He says the more shops in the city overall, the better for each individual business.
“We pride ourselves on our process and using only the best quality ingredients, so we will definitely go bagel-to-bagel with all of our fellow ‘bagelers’ in town,” Rosen says. “At the same time, we’re also all part of the same team trying to raise the bagel standards.”
Rosen’s Bagels Basic Recipe
- Forty-eight hours before baking bagels: create a “sponge.” Mix flour, water, and yeast.
- Twenty-four hours before baking: mix the “sponge” with flour, water, salt, malt powder, and yeast. Shape the dough into bagels.
- Refrigerate dough for 24 hours.
- Boil dough in water until cooked.
- After removing them from the water, cover each side with seeds of your choice.
- Bake bagels in the oven until they’re golden brown.
