NEW YORK — Hundreds braved icy winds to get a taste of the best in bagels around at the 2025 New York BagelFest, held Nov. 16 at Citi Field stadium.
In the sixth edition of the event, created by BagelUp and sponsored by King Arthur Baking Co., 25 bagel shops from across the US and abroad put their best boiled-and-baked goods forward, sharing with industry peers and bagel lovers alike. A pool of 31 judges with backgrounds ranging from seasoned professionals to culinary enthusiasts evaluated each bagel shop’s products.
“This isn’t celebrating the bagel; it’s celebrating these people who work so tirelessly,” said Sam Silverman, founder of BagelUp. “This is the one weekend a year that they can take a step back from the grindstone and feel love and appreciation from their customers, friends, colleagues and community. It gives them a sense of belonging and purpose that really helps recharge and re-energize.”
The 2025 BagelFest winners are:
- Best Bagel: Starship Bagel
- Best Bialy: Potchke Bagel
- Rising Star: Tali’s Bagels
- Most Creative: Potchke Bagel
- Best Showmanship: Starship Bagel
- Schmear of the Year: Fantzye Bagels
- Best of the Boroughs: Ess-a-Bagel
- Best Beyond the Boroughs: Potchke Bagel
- People’s Choice: Baltik’s Bagel
For Oren Salomon, founder of Starship Bagel in Lewisville, TX, taking home the big win this year is a major moment for the bagel shop after placing second for the category in 2024.
“It feels like it’s a long road back to the top, but we did something this year, which I’m really excited about,” Oren told Craft to Crumb. “I went to IBIE and learned so much while I was there. One of the things I got turned onto was a bagel-specific par-baking technique.”
It was through this technique that the Starship team was able to make its winning bagels a week in advance back in Texas, ship the frozen par-baked products to New York and bake them day-of.
“We really wanted to show that this is a quality improvement,” Oren said. “This is something we believe is better. That’s why we competed with this bagel, and we can’t wait to roll it out in our store and serve this to everyone.”
While traversing the country in celebration of bagels may be a lot for some business owners, it’s a worthwhile investment for the Starship team.
“The first time we won, it really put us on a totally different scale,” Oren said. “It got us national attention in a way we never had before.”
Associate Editor Maddie Lambert contributed to this article.
