Gotham Bagels - Chicago
In the United States, the best bagels are
probably in New York…and Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois, because it’s in those three locations that you’ll find bagels made the traditional way, served fresh, never frozen, firm yet fluffy, the bagels of dreams. That’s what you’ll get at a lot of places in NYC, and in the two Midwestern states, at Gotham Bagels.
Old Town’s Gotham Bagels, which opened mid-2020, is giving the Near Northside what it deserves: some of the best bagels you will find anywhere. Made with a strong commitment to the old ways and quality ingredients, Gotham Bagels may well be serving the finest examples of the bagel-maker’s art in the city of Chicago.
You can buy a dozen bagels to go, of course, and at Gotham Bagels they come in the traditional ways: Everything, Sesame, Plain, Poppy, Salt, Super Egg Everything, Egg, and Cinnamon Raisin. Alas, you will not find a blueberry bagel, or a chocolate chip bagel or any of that frou-frou stuff your great aunt and kids might love. These are bagels for those who love bagels; they’re the real thing. If you, too, are real, you will like them.
Open for breakfast and lunch (and now accepting only online ordering; thanks again, Covid-19), Gotham Bagels has the kind of sandwich that when you eat, you will know you’ve just had a hearty breakfast or lunch: big, substantial, and filled with goodness.
Some of the standout sandwiches include the traditional lox and cream cheese, but we encourage you to take a step outside your usual order and get one like the OMFG (pardon the cheeky name), with fried egg, aged cheddar, thick cut bacon, spicy aioli, Gotham’s Finest pickle and (wait for it) Nashville fried chicken. “The V” is a vegan- pleaser, stuffed with scallion tofu, poblano salad, arugula, avocado, tomato and Gotham’s Finest pickle. Or, you can just get a bagel and cream cheese, and you’ll still be very, very happy with your choice.
In the great deli tradition, Gotham Bagel offers by-the-half-pound orders of salmon, pastrami and “traditional tuna fish” – an incentive to buy a pound or two, a dozen bagels, and have lunch for the next week or so.
