Rainbow Bagels – Lynzi Judish

Bucket List item #966 – Eat rainbow bagels @ The Bagel Store

New York, New York

You heard that right: rainbow fucking bagels!

I guarantee you’ve seen this massive craze in NYC for years now. There are lots of stores serving up something similar these days, but we went straight to the source for the OG rainbow bagel.

Approaching the shop, it’s surprisingly unassuming, but there’s a line at the door. This is a grab-and-go joint, so don’t expect to sit and enjoy your colorful goodness. You’ll have to be patient and take your bagel to go.

They have a plethora of bagel and smear options, but we went straight for their claim to fame: the unicorn bagel. It’s swirls of rainbow delight, basically topped with sugar cream cheese. It’s a dessert bagel. Honestly, it wasn’t my favorite because it was much too sweet for me. We also opted for an alternate rainbow they had on special paired with the strawberry cream cheese. Again, color for effect because the gram! The strawberry cream cheese was very sweet as well. Just know that if you choose this and go the rainbow option that it’s going to be really fucking sweet. If I could do this over again, I would go to lunch and come back for a bagel as dessert and split it four ways amongst friends because it’s just too much. However, we didn’t try any of their other bagels, so option two would be to get a savory and do the rainbow as dessert.

Overall, I give this experience a 6 out of 10. If you’re looking for the best bagel in NYC, this isn’t it. I thought the bagel itself was too fluffy for a proper NYC bagel and too thick, so the ratio of soft inside to crisp outside was off for me. Dave thought even less of them, and he’s the actual bagel connoisseur here. They’re good bagels, but they’re not great. They’re great bread, but mediocre bagels. I might be totally wrong overall though because there was a line out the door. IDK. Everyone has their own opinion on how a bagel should be, so I would say this argument is a difficult one. If you like your bagels on the soft side, then you’ll love these! HOWEVER, the experience makes up for it and they couldn’t possibly be more fun. Plus, there are some very colorful murals in the surrounding streets, and it makes for some great photos. The neighborhood is super cute as well, so this trek to Brooklyn makes for a great afternoon adventure.

Tell me in the comments where your favorite bagel lives.

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