Bagel Joint, a globally-inspired appetizing and bagel shop that has popped up at Smorgasburg and McGolrick Park, is opening a permanent storefront at 230 Calyer Street.
The neighborhood’s newest bagel shop will open on December 21. “We’re thinking of it as a Jewish Christmas present for the neighborhood,” Bagel Joint’s founders Lanty Hou and Will Sacks told Greenpointers.
Hou and Sacks started Bagel Joint in their Greenpoint kitchen as a social media baking project, and their bagels became incredibly popular at the markets.
Bagel Joint’s menu features unique and eccentric flavors that are inspired by the Taiwanese-Jewish fusion that Sacks and Hou cook for themselves and by the vibrant global flavors around New York City.
“Our mission is to honor global cuisine through the format of Ashkenazi Jewish baked goods like bagels, bialys, babka, knishes, and rugelach,” Sacks previously told Greenpointers. He said he and Hou want to “expand the vocabulary of the appetizing and dairy restaurant with our signature global flavors.”
The menu at Bagel Joint’s new store includes “non-traditional bagels the traditional way.” Some flavors featured are miso, saffron, and gochujang. The bagels and bialys come with cream cheese, butter, egg salad, tuna salad, or egg and cheese.
The second half of the menu features sandwiches like the Broome, which is a riff on a niçoise salad, the Rivington with scallion cream cheese, smoked salmon, tomato, onion, capers, and dill on a classic bagel, and the Newtown with caper dill cream cheese, cucumber, nova lox, and chives on a duck egg bagel. There’s even the McGolrick, which Bagel Joint calls “a supercut of our farmer’s market favorites.”
The St. Marks sandwich, with wasabi cream cheese, smoked tuna, and cucumber salad on a miso bagel, was named one of Time Out‘s top 10 bites of 2024.
One thing not on the menu is meat. “In keeping with our motto to do the least traditional thing the most traditional way possible, we only serve kosher-style food in honor of the roots of New York’s bagel making tradition,” Sacks said.
“This decision was also important to us because kosher is halal, and from day one we’ve wanted to have a little something for everyone. We don’t have kosher or halal certifications yet, but we intend to in the near future.”
For the carnivores, Sacks and Hou are unveiling tuna bacon with fried smoked tuna as a non-pork alternative. “Let’s just say turkey bacon ought to be embarrassed,” Sacks joked, adding that his recommendation for visitors is a tuna bacon BLT on a miso scallion bialy.
Bagel Joint will be open Wednesday through Friday 6 a.m. – 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 6 a.m. – 4 p.m.