Fairmount Bagel

The First Oven in Town

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Fairmount will tell you, politely and often, that it came first. Isadore Shlafman opened Montreal's first bagel bakery on the Main in 1919, rolling the dough by hand and baking it in a wood-fired oven. The shop now sits on Fairmount West in Mile End, a few blocks from its great rival, and the method has barely moved an inch in more than a century.

The recipe leans on unbleached flour and whole fresh eggs, and the result has real chew and a faint sweetness that makes cream cheese feel optional. The room is cramped. It always was. The famous Bagel Toss, bakers flinging finished bagels across the kitchen, started as a way to save space in the tiny original kitchen and became a bit of theater the city now expects. Watch the bakers. They are the show, and they do not seem to care whether you are watching, which is exactly how it should be.

Which is better, Fairmount or St-Viateur? Montrealers answer that question with the conviction of people defending a hockey team. The honest answer is to buy a bag at each and walk between them, eating. Fairmount is the elder, a little gruffer, a little more about the dough. Reader's Digest once called Montreal the bagel capital of Canada and named Fairmount as the reason.

Order this: sesame bagels, hot, a mixed dozen to go, a second bag for the people who did not come
The damage: $
Go: Early morning, with a plan to walk to St-Viateur afterward
Find it: 74 Av. Fairmount O, Montréal, QC H2T 2M2