< Go back to Readers’ Choice 2020 Listings
SAN FRANCISCO
Daily Driver
(415) 852-3535 • dailydriver.com
Daily Driver is a three-way marriage of organic wood-fired bagels, hand-batted organic butter and cream cheese (and quark, a yogurt/cottage cousin). Plus they offer trade-direct small-batch java from Red Bay, and it’s all served up from a community location in Dogpatch, home of the artisan and craftsperson. Catering, delivery and pick up available — check the website for details.
House of Bagels
(415) 752-6000 • houseofbagels.com
The shop, which houses a New York-style deli, bakes its breads daily, including challah and rye, as well as its cookies and the ever-popular cragels, with the taste and feel of the intersection of croissant and bagel. House of Bagels brought its recipe from Brooklyn to San Francisco in 1962, boiling the bagels in water before baking them on stone, which is how, according to those informed in such matters, the best bagels are made.
EAST BAY
Boichik Bagels
BERKELEY
(510) 858-5189 • boichikbagels.com
One need only to read the comments from ecstatic transplanted New Yorkers to know why Boichik has baked its way into the hearts and stomachs of the denizens of Berkeley. One person said it all: “You are doing God’s work! The East Bay needs you and they need your bagels!” What more can we possibly say? Run straight to Boichik’s for real New York-style bagels.
Beauty’s Bagel Shop
OAKLAND
(510) 788-6098 • beautysbagelshop.com
Still a true love among J. readers is Beauty’s Bagel Shop. Located on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland’s legendary Temescal, Beauty’s shop and catering service take inspiration from Montreal, “where bagels are rolled by hand, boiled in honey-sweetened water and baked in a wood-fired oven,” according to the website. The oven is gone now, but the bagels never stop. Beauty’s menu includes many breakfast and light lunch dishes, including smoked trout salad and organic fried chicken.
SOUTH BAY/PENINSULA
Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels
(650) 329-0700 PALO ALTO
(650) 322-5700 EAST PALO ALTO
izzysbrooklynbagels.com
Izzy’s, a popular kosher eatery in Palo Alto with an East Palo Alto branch, offers 17 varieties of Brooklyn-style “unassimilated bagels,” plus lox, shmears, salads and cookies. It also serves breakfast and lunch, and caters to Silicon Valley homes and businesses.
NORTH BAY
New York Bagels
MILL VALLEY
(415) 381-3599
Relocated a couple of months after the Covid SIP orders, this bagel shop is now better able to service customers well. Serving up great New York-style bagels and breakfast bagel sandwiches — try the Bronx Bomber, the Empire State or the Times Square for a bit of nostalgia for those far from their East Coast roots.
