St-Viateur Bagel

Wood Fire on Saint-Viateur

3.5 of 5

The oven is the point. It burns wood, it is open daily from six a.m. until midnight, and the bakers in front of it roll every bagel by hand while customers shuffle past the counter. Montreal has argued with New York about bagels for decades. St-Viateur does not bother arguing. It just keeps feeding people.

The flagship on Saint-Viateur West has been at this since 1957, and the hours tell you who the customer is: the night shift, the early shift, the hungover and the homesick. The Montreal bagel is smaller, denser and sweeter than its puffed up New York cousin, with a crust that pushes back before it gives. Get sesame. Buy a dozen, because the bag will be half empty by the time you reach the corner. The business now runs cafés and outposts around the island, which is fine, but the original room is where the work happens, and you can stand there and watch it.

I have spent enough years in airport lounges to distrust anything sold to me as artisanal. Nobody here uses that word. This is a bakery doing one thing the same way for generations, by hand, by fire, for people who will eat it on the sidewalk without shame. Join them. Eat the first one on the sidewalk. Eat the second one on the sidewalk too, then go back in for more.

Order this: sesame bagels, still warm, a dozen to go, cream cheese on the side, if you insist
The damage: $
Go: Early morning or late at night; the flagship runs 6 am to midnight every day
Find it: 263 Rue Saint-Viateur O, Montréal, QC H2V 1Y1