Hand-rolled bagels, made fresh every day.

For some people, a bagel is just bread with a hole in it. For us, it was always something more: the classic New York bagel you can find on almost every street corner there, with its shiny, crispy crust and that dense, chewy bite. The idea of bringing exactly this bagel to Graz has been on our minds for almost five years, and we have spent the last three of them baking, testing and tweaking until we finally got it right.

The ingredients themselves are simple: strong high-gluten flour, water, salt, yeast and a little barley malt, which gives the bagel its slightly sweet, malty flavour. What really makes the difference is the work that goes into it. Every single bagel is rolled by hand, one after the other. It is time-consuming, but there is no other way to get the texture we are after, and it means that no two of our bagels ever look quite the same.

Did you know?
You can often tell a hand-rolled bagel just by looking at it. Take a closer look and you might spot a little swirl in the crust, where the dough was rolled and pressed together by hand. You'll see it best on our cinnamon raisin bagel, and it is the little detail that inspired the Montclair Bagels logo.

Once we had our bagel, we wanted everything around it to feel like stepping into a real New York bagel shop. That's why you'll find a whole range of house-made spreads and fresh toppings for every possible combination. All of that tastes best on a fresh bagel, which is why we bake several times throughout the day.

Ordering is easy. Start by picking your bagel, maybe an everything or a cinnamon raisin. Then choose one of our house-made cream cheeses, like herb garlic or honey sriracha. Finally, add your favourite toppings, from tomatoes and pickled red onion to a fried egg straight from the griddle.

If you'd rather not build your own, our signature sandwiches are there to help. You'll find two of New York's most famous bagel sandwiches on the list: The Lox, with plain cream cheese, red onion, capers and lox (that's salmon, for all non-New Yorkers), and the classic Bacon, Egg 'n' Cheese. Looking for vegan options? Just ask us, we always have something ready for you.

Interesting fact!
Our Red Hawk sandwich is named after the mascot of Montclair State University, where Judith spent her exchange year and where the whole idea came from. Read more about the sister cities in our story.

New York has always been a melting pot of cultures and immigrants, and the bagel is no different. It came to the city in the late 19th century with Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In small bakeries on the Lower East Side, they were rolled by hand at night and sold fresh the next morning.

For decades, the city's bagel bakers even had their own union, Bagel Bakers Local 338, and the craft was passed on from baker to baker. That's where the New York bagel got its reputation: a shiny, crispy crust and a dense, chewy inside.

Back then, bagels were a lot smaller: around 1915, an average New York bagel weighed about 85 grams. Thanks to the hole, they could be strung on a rope or a wooden stick to carry and sell them. Today, a typical New York bagel weighs around 170 grams and comes fresh out of a basket behind the counter.

Bagel trivia
The word “bagel” comes from the Yiddish beygl, which goes back to the old German word böugel, meaning “ring”. So in a way, the bagel has come home to the German language.