Guess I'm in a New York mood today. Here's a profile of Utopia Bagels, a firm which claims to make 100,000 bagels by hand each week. I'm a little skeptical of the numbers but their bagels sure look good in this video.
Alas, I'll probably never taste a freshly-made Utopia bagel. I never have any other reason to visit Queens and I sure ain't making a special trip there just for a bagel, no matter how wonderful it might be. They presumably have them in some Manhattan shops and I can order them shipped out this way…but notice I said "freshly-made." It has been my observation that a great bagel is only a great bagel for about 18 hours, 24 at most. Any older than that and they're all about the same.
Right now, the Goldbelly company will ship me a baker's dozen for $59.95, which works out to…well, you can do the math. They'll take 72 hours to get here and by the time I eat the last few, they'll be indistinguishable from any bagel I can buy in L.A.
So I shall just gaze longingly at this video. And I'll marvel at how if you were making a movie and casting someone to play the guy in charge of this place, you couldn't do any better than Scott…