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H&H bagels at Barney Greengrass

johnnycab

By johnnycab
in California: Dining

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johnnycab

johnnycab

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On the 31st, a couple of friends and I ate at Barney Greengrass at the top of Barney's in Beverly Hills for the first time. Two of us were former East coasters, and were looking forward to getting some real New York H&H bagels for a change.

Instead, we were thoroughly disappointed: the so-called "H&H bagels" were small and airy, nothing like the big, dense NY bagels that we love. Something I could have easily gotten at Noah's. I don't see how anyone who's even eaten a bagel from H&H in NYC could ever be fooled.

The people at the restaurant did claim they were H&H and I even saw an H&H box behind the deli counter. The waiter did mention that the bagels were frozen for the trip west.

So I don't know what's up. Has anyone else been as disappointed as we were? Or perhaps they weren't really H&H? (They ran out temporarily?).

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Joe Blowe

Joe Blowe

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My question to you is: When's the last time you were in New York, and did you have an H&H bagel while you were there? The B.H. H&H you described sounds just like a current N.Y.C. H&H bagel...

So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

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johnnycab

johnnycab

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You're right, I haven't had an H&H bagel for at least a couple of years, though I've had East coast bagels about a year or so ago - which were really good. I think I'll ask my brother to check out H&H on the UWS when he gets a chance. I can't believe it's that bad now.

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Bux

Bux

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You might also be interested in know what Ed Levine had to say in The NY Times this Wednesday.

HOW and why did bagels get so big? The bagel sold at the excellent Ess-a-Bagel on First Avenue is a whopping seven ounces now, or more than twice  the size of the traditional union bagel of yore. (It's a pretty good bagel, truth to tell, though sweetened with honey.) The ones at H&H Bagels on the Upper West Side (and at the unrelated H&H Midtown East) aren't much smaller than that, and are baked with so much sugar that they almost qualify as a dessert

The full article Was Life Better When Bagels Were Smaller? is online at the moment and worth reading if you're interested in the state of the art of the bagel in NY (not in great shape) or the history of bagels in NY.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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