Good Bagels in LA: They Exist!

When it comes to pastrami, Los Angeles boasts its fair share of respectable purveyors: Canter’s, Langer’s, and Junior’s in Culver City all come readily to mind, offering menu items (pickled herring, anyone?) to appease even the hardest to please of homesick New Yorkers. But where’s an Angeleno to get hold of a decent bagel around here? Sure, the Noah’s New York Bagels chain—seemingly omnipresent with locations on Larchmont and Venice, as well as Brentwood, Pasadena, Burbank, El Segundo, and Manhattan Beach (just to name a few)—gets the job done for the quick, relatively inexpensive bagel fix. Please, don’t get us wrong! We at LA-Chaim have enjoyed our fair share of Noah’s, and oh how we’ve enjoyed it: bagels embodied in their myriad Californian forms, injected with spinach and Swiss or Cheddar and jalapeño, topped with salsas and garden veggie spreads. But there are times when Noah’s just won’t cut it: When grandma announces she’s visiting from Queens, for instance, or when it’s necessary to order scores of bagels for ravenous teen girls and weary event planners the morning-after-Bar-Mitzvah. Come Sunday brunch, when our respective clans are jonesing for true blue bagel noshes, the only Los Angeles locale we trust to fill our bellies with the deliciously chewy boiled bread of our forefathers is [The Bagel Broker (http://www.bagelbroker.com/)] at Beverly and Fairfax (across from the CBS studios).

The ideal bagel is of a certain puffiness and texture. Having been boiled to perfection, it toasts impeccably so the outside remains chewy and the insides reveal a pleasant softness. Since 1987, The Bagel Broker has been in business delighting the Jews and Gentiles of Los Angeles with this precise perfection, offering 19 different bagel varieties (including poppy seed, an LA-Chaim favorite) and a number of meat spreads (the whitefish simply can’t be beat), in addition to fresh pastries, fine coffee, a large juice selection, and salad menu (this is LA, after all!). Service is quick and friendly, bagels are made fresh all day long, and the whitefish, again, is a thing of beauty. It’s no wonder that The Bagel Broker caters to the tastes of both common people and Hollywood stars alike. For the past decade and a half, The Bagel Broker has supplied its goods to bagel-hungry stars of [The Young and the Restless (http://www.cbs.com/daytime/yr/)] and [Bold and the Beautiful (http://www.cbs.com/daytime/bb)]. Every day, it delivers to a number of Los Angeles restaurants, cafes, and television companies. We should also note that we here at LA-Chaim are stringently thrifty types. That said, we are pleased to report that nursing your bagel hankerings at The Bagel Broker will not break the bank, either. A dozen bagels sets you back a mere $9; a half order, $5. Whenever we find ourselves in the Fairfax district, we like to buy dozens upon dozens of The Bagel Broker bagels to save for rainy El Nino days. We have found that they freeze remarkably well, and can go directly from the freezer to the toaster. We recommend pumpernickel, poppy seed, and anything with cheese.

The Bagel Broker is located at 7825 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. Tel. (323) 931-2251. It is open from 6 to 4, Monday through Friday, and Saturday and Sunday, from 7 to 3.