I was going to publish my take on gritty movies of the 2000s-10s this month. But then my friend Elaine (you remember Elaine) demanded I write out my theories on Chicago bagel spots for the Reader. The Reader doesn’t seem likely to take a chance on an amateur culture writer, even one as beautiful and clever and devoted to Maya Dukmasova as I am, so I decided to put together something here instead.
Bagel culture’s been creeping up on us for years. More than just a breakfast option, it became a symbol. The easy-but-indulgent meal for the millennial on the go. Universality balanced with cultural specificity. Available everywhere, but few places get it just right. And the associations with New York certainly helped it catch on in a mass culture that orbits Brooklyn.
It’s weird to see bagels having a moment when I’ve always been a devotee. I started nearly every day of high school with a toasted bagel and cream cheese. Now I start nearly every workday the same way. Frankly, the bagel is the perfect breakfast—warm and bready carbs to fill you with energy for the day, rich cool cream cheese bringing some protein, lox doing whatever lox does. Straightforward, easy to prepare, and with lots of flavor options for variety. Bagels are the obvious go-to breakfast, and yet, until recently, it’s been nearly impossible to find a good one in Chicago.
We’re a few years into Chicago’s Jewish deli revival. Steingold’s has been serving high quality cold cuts since 2017, filling a void left when the North Side’s deli old guard followed our Jewish population to the suburbs. Right before the pandemic, it was joined by vegan spot Sam and Gertie’s. The spate of lockdown popups brough Jeff and Jude’s into the mix. Most recently, Rye opened in the West Loop with a very West Loop take on deli fare (blue corn matzoh balls and labneh schmear), and Wisconsin shop Gotham Bagels set up two Chicago storefronts and quickly became my favorite bagel in the city.
Lakeview is fast becoming the epicenter of Chicago bagelry. One of Gotham’s locations joins the well-established Chicago Bagel Authority, the classic diner The Bagel, and the disappointing Great American Bagel Bakery. As I was researching Gotham, I also discovered a lakeview shop that quietly opened in 2019, Taste of New York, which imports parbaked bagels from that city out east to be baked hot in Chicago every morning.
It’s nice to see a revival of a food scene that should never have disappeared the way it did, but I can’t help wondering why now? My theory: the Jewish Deli Renaissance is a reaction to gentrification.
As big, homogenizing developments sweep the city and polish city living to its most inoffensive sheen, locals and wannabe locals hold on even tighter to whatever urban idiosyncrasies we have left. So proud Chicagoans new and old develop a fondness for cheesy advertisements and ethnic grocery stores, garish hot dog stands and unadorned dive bars. Anything that resolutely defies the glossy real-estate marketing trying to sell Logan Square or Pilsen to business school grads.
Old-school Jewish delis generally fit the bill, but in city limits they’re few and far between. These new spots don’t quite meet the off-trend nature of the old. Many of them are very much part of the latest wave of highbrow takes on ethnic food. But there’s only so much zhuzzhing-up you can do to a cold cut sandwich. The appeal of these new restaurants is in cuisine that’s tasty, hearty, and unpretentious. Whatever steps are taken to dress up the ambiance ultimately come second to the food itself.
None of these new delis are quite at the level of that spot in the strip mall in the burbs with the cranky owner (every city has one). But in a couple decades they’ll get there. And in the meantime, the Dr. Brown’s are cold and the bagels are hot and we’re hungry. It’s not like you can go all the way to Skokie every time you want some schmear.