San Francisco-founded Boichik Bagels now operates a storefront and bagel factory in Los Feliz.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angles Times)
25 of the best bagel shops in Los Angeles
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A bagel renaissance is boiling over in Los Angeles.
For years now, local bagel makers have been perfecting recipes and styles. While at first these bakers sought to replicate the nostalgia of New York- and Montreal-style bagels, regional styles have since emerged. Often, the toppings highlight seasonal produce, and the bagels themselves are airier, with crispy and chewy crusts. Some of the best bagel shops in L.A. are standing out by taking extra time to let their dough rise naturally.
It’s been five years since Arielle Skye and her husband Chris Moss opened Courage Bagels in a former panaderia in Virgil Village, but customers still line up daily, rain or shine. Now, the perennially popular shop is far from an outlier, and you can find noteworthy bagels in just about every L.A. neighborhood.
In Highland Park, Mustard’s Bagels pop-up is selling out of its 72-hour-fermented sourdough bagels — sold loose, in bulk or as open-faced sandwiches topped with house-cured Nova lox or miso-scallion schmear — nearly every weekend. Santa Monica bakery Jyan Isaac Bread supplies its bagels to numerous spots across the city, while next-door neighbor Layla Bagels expanded to a second Beverly Hills location within two years of its bricks-and-mortar launch. Iconic bagel shops from the East Coast and Bay Area have planted roots in Burbank and Los Feliz, eager to gain notice in our city’s now-competitive scene.
You can grab bulk bagels and pints of schmear for an affordable price from most of the shops featured on this list, but be prepared for bagel sandwiches topped with pastrami-seasoned lox, an ounce of caviar (yes, really) or honey-drizzled mandarinquat to be priced accordingly.
From Irvine to Cypress Park to Long Beach, here are 25 bagel shops for a taste of L.A.’s overflowing scene.
Everything everywhere bagel notes
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Bagel Boss
Burbank Bagels $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
For a literal taste of the East Coast, head to Burbank. A long-running, Long Island-founded bagel shop made its way to L.A. in 2024, bringing not only an array of schmears and New York-style bagels to the city but bagels made using New York water (if that happens to be a prerequisite for your authentication standards). Bagel Boss began with fourth-generation bagel and bialy maker Mel Rosner, who opened the shop in 1975 with his sons; one of his sons and a grandson still operate the business today, along with a decades-long employee of the original shop.
Dough is imported from the East Coast operation, then once it arrives in Burbank, it’s hand-rolled into bagels, kettle-boiled and baked on site. Plump and dense, they’re the perfect conduit for fillings like a classic bacon, egg and cheese; house-made whitefish or baked-salmon salad; cold cuts; or the rainbow of schmears from the case. Bagel Boss features an extensive bagel menu along with pastries like rainbow and black-and-white cookies, so come hungry.
Dough is imported from the East Coast operation, then once it arrives in Burbank, it’s hand-rolled into bagels, kettle-boiled and baked on site. Plump and dense, they’re the perfect conduit for fillings like a classic bacon, egg and cheese; house-made whitefish or baked-salmon salad; cold cuts; or the rainbow of schmears from the case. Bagel Boss features an extensive bagel menu along with pastries like rainbow and black-and-white cookies, so come hungry.
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Bagel + Slice
Eagle Rock Bagels Pizza
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
It’s only logical that a half bagel shop, half pizzeria would make one of L.A.’s top spins on a pizza bagel, but Bagel + Slice nails each independently too. This dual-concept spot launched in 2022 and uses regenerative flours as well as a rainbow of produce. The everything bagel is the most popular, but the most inspired is the option flecked with dried rosemary and za’atar; they’re enjoyed a la carte, with cream cheese or as part of a bagel sandwich in options such as the Huevos a la Mexicana, with egg, grilled jalapeños, tomatoes and onions, or the quintessential pick: the open-faced Goldilox, which piles scallion cream cheese with lox, dill, capers, red onion and a drizzle of vibrant lemon-infused olive oil. There are New York-style slices and whole pizzas too, but the bialy-like pizzettes are one of Bagel + Slice’s most distinctive offerings.
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Belle's Delicatessen & Bar
Highland Park Bagels
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
The hand-rolled-bagel operation from Nick Schreiber and J.D. Rocchio has lived many lives over the last decade-plus: A home operation grew to a pop-up out of La Perla, then moved down York Boulevard to a takeout window in former music venue the Hi Hat. Now, what was formerly known as Belle’s Bagels is a full restaurant and bar, all while still selling the neighborhood’s beloved bagels. There are deli sandwiches and pickle martinis, but the stars remain the bagels. Not adhering to any intentional style or regionality, they’re delightfully chewy with just the right amount of bite from the golden outer shell, and come in classic flavors as well as the more unusual (and fan-favorite) cacio e pepe variety. The bagel sandwiches are some of the best in L.A., available as stacked breakfast versions sporting cage-free eggs, or the bevy of “newish and Jewish bagel classics” like pastrami smoked lox, house-made whitefish salad or vegan options. Don’t skimp on the extras: The tomato jam, perfectly toeing the line between sweet and spicy, is a must-add on any breakfast sandwich.
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Boichik Bagels
Los Angeles Bagels $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angles Times)
A throwback to the New York-style bagels of her childhood, Emily Winston’s Boichik Bagels are dense, lightly sweet and come in all the classic flavors, plus an onion-centered bialy. But Boichik Bagels also offers new spins such as “pumperthingle” (everything pumpernickel), gluten-free options and cinnamon raisin swirled with pumpernickel. The Bay Area-founded menu is straightforward, and intentionally so: Bagel sandwiches include Nova lox, white fish, PB&J or a build-your-own set, plus a rotating daily special, while cream cheese leans classic with a few must-order outliers like the Hatch chile. The point isn’t to overwhelm with options but nostalgia. You can bring home even more Boichik with bags of frozen bagels found near the register, or pick up some bagel-themed merch and stationery.
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Boil & Bake
Costa Mesa Bagels $
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
This place makes everything, from the butter to the cured lox, from scratch. The bagels, which begin with a sourdough starter named Luna, are boiled and then baked in a wood stone oven. The crust is crispy, wrapped in tiny bubbles. Inside, the dough is chewy but not dense. It’s an excellent bagel I can enjoy toasted with butter. But Boil & Bake specializes in spreads and toppings that will transform your bagel into a sandwich. For a more classic open-faced bagel, lox and cream cheese profile, the Fully Loaded is exactly as advertised. But I’m partial to the Don’t Go Bacon My Heart, with a layer of scallion chive cream cheese, Neuske bacon and a thick slab of pickled green tomato.
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Bread Lounge
Downtown L.A. Bakery $
(Betty Hallock / Los Angeles Times)
Something about the Jerusalem bagel is awe-inspiring: Maybe it’s the impressive size, or its plump oval shape, or the amount of seeds its exterior accommodates. And while the bagel is of Eastern European descent, the Jerusalem bagel is related to Middle Eastern breads such as Turkish simit and Lebanese ka’ak. An important distinction is that it isn’t boiled before it’s baked, so it’s soft and fluffy inside rather than dense and chewy. In Los Angeles, Jerusalem bagels are far less common than the New York-by-way-of-Warsaw round bread. Ran Zimon, who grew up outside Tel Aviv, stocks his Arts District bakery with plenty of Jerusalem bagels, with sesame seeds or multiseeded, including zingy caraway. Order a side of labneh and za’atar.
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Calic Bagel
Koreatown Bagels $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Husband-and-wife duo Alex and Sun Sohn went viral during the pandemic when they launched a garlic bread pop-up via Instagram, and now, at their Koreatown cafe, you can try hand-rolled bagels coated in everything seasoning, cheddar jalapeño or sesame seeds and stuffed bagels bursting with corn cream cheese, cheddar and mozzarella. Breakfast-oriented bagel sandwiches are also available and can be ordered in variety packs. Schmears depart from your usual options, including bacon scallion, basil sun-dried tomato and yuzu flavors. Coffee and matcha drinks round out the menu, with Korean snacks and other grab-and-go items available.
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Courage Bagels
East Hollywood Bagels
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
No current discussion of L.A.’s bagel scene can ignore Courage Bagels. The game-changing business began when Arielle Skye started selling her compact, smoky-crisp, Montreal-inspired bagels from the back of a bicycle. In October 2020, she and her now-husband, Chris Moss, moved into the Virgil Village space previously occupied by Super Pan bakery. The lines have been legendary since; these are truly some of the best bagels in the U.S. My standard order is the Winter in Sardinia — a sandwich layered with sardines, herbs, lemon and a fistful of capers — and also half of a purposely burnt bagel pounded with everything seasoning and draped with smoked salmon. However, no matter what you order or when you show up, there will be a line, and it will be worth the wait.
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Dtown Pizzeria
West Hollywood Pizza $$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
As the name suggests, the focus at Dtown Pizzeria is Detroit-style pies — some of the best in L.A. — puffy, rectangular and cheese-crusted, with chef-driven ingredients like brick cheese from chef-owner Ryan Ososky’s home state of Wisconsin or bacon jam, pickled jalapeño and caramelized pineapple, for a take on Hawaiian pizza. But recently, in anticipation of a coffee shop soon to open next door, and with a dearth of good bagel options in West Hollywood, Ososky is flipping his pizzeria to a bagel shop on weekend mornings. The newly launched menu features malted sourdough bagels in plain, everything, sesame seed, poppyseed and blue corn flavors, all of them chewy and toasted to crispy perfection. The open-faced bagel sandwiches are where Ososky gets creative, including the Pop’N Lox’N with beet- and citrus-cured salmon, house-made lemon-chive cream cheese, pickled onions, capers and fresh dill; a pizza bagel with pepperoni cheese frico (take it up a notch with a supplement of burrata on top); and the Oaxacan in Weho with crushed avocados, lime, cilantro and black garlic salsa macha on a blue corn bagel. As with the pizza menu, house-made vegan replacements are available by request. Follow Dtown on Instagram to stay updated on the bagel shop’s hours.
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Gjusta
Venice Bagels $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
The bagels at Gjusta are textbook good: crunchy shells with soft, chewy middles. The place is more conservative than most when it comes to the amount of seasoning on the everything bagel, with more of a smattering of dried onion and sesame seeds that allows you to really taste the onion. As good as the bagel is on its own, it’s even better with a schmear of the labneh spread, a couple of slices of pastrami lox and pickled onions.
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Hot Water Bagels
Bagels $$
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Jesse Furman knows a thing or two about a good bagel — especially when it’s done with a modern, sourdough edge. The New York native grew up frequenting the city’s bagel shops and Jewish delis, and when it came time for the former Grá chef to take his holey hobby professional with a bagel pop-up, he lifted inspiration from his New York haunts as well as L.A.’s baking scene, with Clark Street, Bub and Grandma’s and Tartine influencing his sourdough-bagel process. The result is a flavorful, light-as-air center with a satisfying crust in straightforward flavors such as sesame, everything and plain, served with throwback accouterments: hand-sliced cured trout, house-smoked whitefish salad, crispy latkes, seasonal salads and chicken liver pâté. For now, find Hot Water Bagels popping up around the city, both on Furman’s own and with collaboration menus via the likes of Maison Matho, Lasita and Pizzeria Sei.
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Jyan Isaac Bread
Santa Monica Bakery $$
(Betty Hallock / For The Times)
Baker Jyan Isaac Horwitz launched his sourdough business during the shutdowns of the COVID pandemic, and when he outgrew his home kitchen (because the Instagram orders kept coming), he opened his own bakery on Ocean Park Boulevard in 2021. The line to the takeout window extends down the block for his whole grain porridge loaf, cinnamon raisin brioche, babka, rugbrød, baguettes and sourdough bagels. The bagel selection includes everything, sesame, onion, pumpernickel, plain and an especially beautiful blue poppy seed. The bagel sandwich of choice? For me, that’s wild Alaskan salmon roe with a thick layer of cream cheese, fresh dill and paper-thin slices of red onion on a sourdough everything bagel. It costs $22; the half-sandwich version is $12. In summer, the tomato sandwich is a top contender, garnished with basil and lemon.
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Layla Bagels
Santa Monica Bagels Coffee
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
On a cozy stretch of Ocean Park Boulevard next to Jyan Issac Bread, Layla Bagels comes from brothers Harry and David Wexner, with Sammi Tarantino overseeing sandwiches and drinks and Sergio España heading up the bagel program. Sourdough bagels are hand-rolled, boiled and baked fresh each morning, available plain, with jalapeño cheddar or sprinkled with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, everything seasoning, plus a few gluten-free options. The nearby Santa Monica farmers market lends seasonal produce like kumquat and mandarinquat to items like the Pre-Jam bagel that’s slathered with cream cheese, drizzled with honey and served open-faced, and the Bruce with tuna salad, arugula, banana peppers, avocado and pickled Fresno chiles. The pastry menu has expanded with chocolate-miso banana bread, a babka muffin and an assortment of cookies, perfect for pairing with a brown-sugar cardamom latte or poached pear matcha. Last summer, the shop expanded to a spacious second location in the former Umami Burger space in Beverly Hills.
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Kitchen Mouse Bakery
Highland Park Bakery and desserts
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Some of the best bagels don’t need cream cheese at all, but if you’re looking for an array of plant-based options, Erica Daking’s Kitchen Mouse Bakery has you covered. The chef-owner’s bakery and cafe is located just around the corner from her full (and also fully plant-based) restaurant. Kitchen Mouse Bakery’s pastry case is full of chewy, fresh-daily bagels in options such as za’atar, rosemary fennel, everything and plain; they can come dressed simply with cashew-based schmear, or done up as sandwiches like a banh mi variant rich with lentil-and-walnut pâté but also tangy with cilantro and pickled vegetables; the deli-inspired Lox Down made with capers, red onion, smoked-carrot “lox” and dill; and even a plant-based breakfast sandwich with vegan sausage, egg and cheese.
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Maury's Bagels
Silver Lake Bagels $
(Betty Hallock / Los Angeles Times)
On sunny weekend mornings, the crowd of locals — flocking with kids and dogs in tow from the surrounding Silver Lake neighborhood — spills onto the sidewalk. Just as popular as Jason Maury Kaplan’s everything bagels are the ones dusted with za’atar. His are chewy, dense East Coast-style sourdough bagels to eat on their own or as the foundation for schmears, smoked fish and fish salads, served sandwich-style or open-faced. Kippered salmon — flaky, baked chunks of it — is one of the corner bagel shop’s bestsellers.
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Mustard's Bagels
Highland Park Bagels $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Get to Mustard’s early — or better yet, preorder — because fans line up for as long as an hour to taste some of the city’s best new bagels. A morning at Mustard’s could include a nori-flecked everything option slicked with an umami-rich miso-and-scallion schmear; a toasted-sesame bagel with chimichurri cream cheese; or order-ahead boards of bagels, cured fish and all the accouterments. The new pop-up is a partnership between brothers and Go Get Em Tiger vets Brent and Kyle Glanville, who draw lines in Highland Park every weekend with a tight menu of inventive a la carte options and open-faced bagel sandwiches, some draped in Nova salmon and fried capers, others in plenty of produce.
The duo ferments their dough for 72 hours and boils it in malt syrup, resulting in a chewy sourdough tang that’s cocooned by a crispy, shattering shell when pulled fresh from the oven — and that’s exactly how they’re served. There are a few rules at Mustard’s: no substitutions or omissions, no creamer for the coffee, no toasting the bagels (again, they’re already fresh from the oven). Preorders open on Wednesdays for each weekend’s pop-up, which runs Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until all bagels are gone.
The duo ferments their dough for 72 hours and boils it in malt syrup, resulting in a chewy sourdough tang that’s cocooned by a crispy, shattering shell when pulled fresh from the oven — and that’s exactly how they’re served. There are a few rules at Mustard’s: no substitutions or omissions, no creamer for the coffee, no toasting the bagels (again, they’re already fresh from the oven). Preorders open on Wednesdays for each weekend’s pop-up, which runs Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until all bagels are gone.
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Olive & Rose
Long Beach Farm-to-table $$$
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times )
Philip and Lauren Pretty, the sibling team behind Long Beach’s Heritage restaurant and farm, are behind this dual-concept restaurant that opened at the newly renovated Sonder City Center motel in downtown Long Beach last fall, including a daytime bagel shop with naturally leavened rings from Costa Mesa’s Boil & Bake. The toppings reflect the Prettys’ broad commitment to local produce and sustainable sourcing, from cream cheese with Humboldt Fog goat cheese and caramelized onion to a bagel that’s dressed with Meyer lemon ricotta and seasonal jam, plus plenty of savory sandwiches, including a take on jambon beurre. If you’re really looking to splurge, try the $100 bagel that’s topped with cream cheese, chives and an ounce of caviar. The beverage menu features coffee drinks from Orange’s Play Coffee (including a play on the “Zoolander”-invented orange mocha Frappuccino) and matcha that’s shade-grown and stone-ground. Enjoy your selections in the sun-dappled dining room or the poolside patio. And be sure to return for dinner at Olive & Rose, the French-inspired bistro the space flips to in the evenings.
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Pop's Bagels
Culver City Bagels
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
After six years of tooling around with recipes and scouring the city for a bagel that would match the New York-style rings his grandfather introduced him to as a child, Zach Liporace officially entered the universe of bagel-making. Pop’s Bagels has expanded from an apartment operation in Los Feliz to locations in Culver City, Brentwood, Fairfax and Beverly Hills. Pick up tightly wound bagels generously dusted with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or everything seasoning, in addition to plain, onion, jalapeño cheddar and blueberry varieties. Dress them with buttermilk cream cheese that’s made fresh daily; whitefish, tuna, chicken tarragon or egg salad; smoked Nova lox with capers, cucumbers, tomatoes and red onion; or lunch-y options such as turkey, a BLT or pastrami, egg and cheese.
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Rye Goods
Orange Bakery $$
(Sarah Mosqueda)
The pastry case at Rye Goods in Tustin can be overwhelming in the most delightful way. Rows of caramelized onion and Brie croissants, thumbprint cookies dotted with seasonal jam and morning buns are just a few of the items baked fresh daily. But it is the bagels that keep me coming back almost weekly. The bagels, like nearly everything at Rye Goods, start with a rye sourdough culture that owner Sara Lezama has loving named Winona Ryeder. The Tustin location is tucked behind an office building and serves as the commercial production kitchen for Rye Goods’ other locations in Lido Isle and Laguna Beach, with a third opening soon at Costa Mesa’s Paseo 17.
The bagels are earthy and naturally nutty with an exterior that toasts up nicely and an interior that is perfectly chewy. The menu offers sesame, plain, jalapeño cheese and everything bagels, along with house-made cream cheese flavors to accompany them. Any combination of bagel and cream cheese makes an excellent quick breakfast on a weekday, but for weekend brunch indulge in the Egg Bagel Sammy. A bagel of your choice gets a healthy smear of chive cream cheese before getting stacked with crispy smashed potato, an over-medium egg, house-made chili crunch, a bundle of fresh chives and a squeeze of lemon to brighten the whole thing up. The equally heaping sun-dried tomato bagel sammy melts cheddar cheese onto a soft-scrambled egg, with avocado, basil and sweet sun-dried tomato aioli all wedged in a toasted bagel of your choice. The bagel sandwiches cannot be eaten with one hand while you drive, so grab a table at the communal seating area shared with the office building to dig in.
The bagels are earthy and naturally nutty with an exterior that toasts up nicely and an interior that is perfectly chewy. The menu offers sesame, plain, jalapeño cheese and everything bagels, along with house-made cream cheese flavors to accompany them. Any combination of bagel and cream cheese makes an excellent quick breakfast on a weekday, but for weekend brunch indulge in the Egg Bagel Sammy. A bagel of your choice gets a healthy smear of chive cream cheese before getting stacked with crispy smashed potato, an over-medium egg, house-made chili crunch, a bundle of fresh chives and a squeeze of lemon to brighten the whole thing up. The equally heaping sun-dried tomato bagel sammy melts cheddar cheese onto a soft-scrambled egg, with avocado, basil and sweet sun-dried tomato aioli all wedged in a toasted bagel of your choice. The bagel sandwiches cannot be eaten with one hand while you drive, so grab a table at the communal seating area shared with the office building to dig in.
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Saint-Raf Bagels & Bread
Cypress Park Bagels Coffee
(Betty Hallock)
To toast or not to toast? The default answer at Saint-Raf, the Cypress Park bagel-shop-inside-a-coffee-shop, is the nontoasted bagel. That’s because these doughy orbs are of the extra chewy kind. So the recommendation here is to order them untoasted, the better to enjoy their distinctive texture. The Saint-Raf bagel has many charms. Its addictive chewiness, for one; its visible dough seam (indicating a rolled-log shaping technique); and a bottom that is nearly as well-rounded as its top. And I appreciate the sesame, poppy and everything bagels with as many seeds on the bottom as the top too. The only bagel sandwich here that automatically comes toasted is the kaya toast, a bagel riff on the Singaporean snack, smeared with thick coconut jam. I’m inclined to buy fresh a la carte unsliced bagels for schmearing at home. Varieties, besides the aforementioned sesame, everything and poppy, include plain, onion, and salt and pepper.
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Tomorrow Bagel
Hollywood Bagels
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
These naturally leavened, hand-shaped bagels are worth setting a weekend alarm clock for. Helmed by Alex Crow and baker Saranee Muengfoo, Tomorrow Bagel popped up at coffee shops like Obet & Del’s and Alibi before securing weekly residencies at Old Town Newhall Farmers Market every Saturday and Hollywood Farmers Market every Sunday. This March, you can also find them at Boulevard coffee shop in Venice every Saturday. The bagels are boiled and baked, but what makes them stand out is a barley malt syrup that lends a golden hue and a toasted and nutty flavor. Available plain or with za’atar and sea salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, everything seasoning or onion, the bagels are so thoroughly coated that hardly any of the bread is visible until you take that initial bite. Stock up on bagels to take home or order a bagel sandwich with such toppings as lox, tomato, red onions, dill, capers and extra virgin olive oil, or scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon and Thai chili honey, with rotating seasonal options.
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Wake and Late
Downtown L.A.
(Betty Hallock)
Wake and Late bagels are extraordinary: They are fluffy, nearly spherical, pillowy soft and slightly chewy inside, with a thinner-than-paper crispy-crackly crust. During the bagel-making process, they’re boiled with honey. So when the bagels are toasted, there’s some extra magic that happens during browning, and the caramelization — especially on the onion bagel — results in a soul-lifting eating experience. These are bagels meant to be torn into and dipped into an accompanying cup of schmear. When you rip open a warm, toasty bagel the interior smells fresh and yeasty. The schmears are extra creamy, and there’s enough that I don’t run out before I’m finished with the bagel. Wake and Late might be known for its breakfast burritos, but I’m team bagel. Note that there is an order minimum of two bagels.
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Wexler's Deli
Downtown L.A. Bagels $
(Betty Hallock / Los Angeles Times)
Wexler’s is the “new-wave old school” deli founded by Micah Wexler and Michael Kassar with locations in Santa Monica and downtown’s Grand Central Market. Wexler, who is a veteran of restaurants such as Craft and Joêl Robuchon, opened the iconic Grand Central Market spot 10 years ago, slinging bagel sandwiches with house-cured lox, smoked sturgeon, white fish salad and pastrami. Wexler’s has the distinction of being one of the only delis in L.A. to cure, smoke and hand-slice all its fish and meat in house. You can’t go wrong with the classic lox, velvety slices draped over a thin layer of cream cheese, topped with a few slices of red onion and sprigs of dill. A few key touches: The capers are sprinkled between the cream cheese and lox (so they don’t roll off), and your sandwich is served with a side of either cole slaw or potato salad, along with pickles and wedges of lemon.
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Uncle Stevey's Bagels
El Segundo Bagels $
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Husband-and-wife duo Tom and Tiffany Levy were raised in the San Fernando Valley but had parents and grandparents from New York so they made frequent trips to the East Coast growing up. That’s how they came to love East Coast-style bagels (including the ones made in Maine), and you’ll find similar renditions at Uncle Stevey’s Bagels, a small shop that the pair opened in old town El Segundo in late 2023. Here, bagels are steamed and baked in a specialty oven, resulting in a crispy crust with a chewy interior. Bagel flavors include plain, sesame and everything, as well as less-common options such as cheddar hot honey and one option that combines mushroom, black garlic and Gruyere. A selection of bagel sandwiches is also available, including a BLT with avocado and the namesake Uncle Stevey with smoked salmon, cream cheese, pickled red onions and dill. Pair your bagel with a coffee, soda or tea and find a seat in the cozy shop or on the street-facing patio.
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Yeastie Boys
Beverly Grove Bagels
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Some of L.A.’s favorite bagels can be found at Yeastie Boys’ roving food trucks, where founder Evan Fox shares his take on the New York-style bagel. Yeastie’s hand-rolled bagels are designed to be plump, doughy and extremely squishable to stand up to the onslaught of schmear and other items they manage to cram between the halves. These aren’t just bagels, they’re vehicles for folds of lox, slabs of hash browns, pit-smoked pastrami, jalapeño cheddar schmear, yolk-oozing fried eggs, vegan red pepper spread and other savory options. The $6 order of mini bagels allows for multiple schmears on two sized-down bagels, but for those looking to level up, the Reubenstein, one of the trucks’ most popular items by far, reimagines the classic Reuben on a heaped everything bagel that’s been flipped upside down for maximum grillage; salty, rich and messy, it’s a satisfying meal in ode to the iconic sandwich by Reuben Kulakofsky — a distant relative of Fox’s.
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Updates:
3:00 a.m. March 13, 2025: This guide was last updated on March 8, 2024. It has been updated with new information, including the removal of Hank’s Bagels and Smogen Appetizers. New points of interest have been added, including Boichik Bagels, Wake & Late, Mustard’s Bagels, Bagel Boss, O&R Bagels and Dtown Pizzeria.
3:00 a.m. March 8, 2024: This guide was originally published on March 9, 2023. It has been updated with new information, including the removal of Bagel Broker. New points of interest have been added, including Hot Water Bagels, Kitchen Mouse, Wexler’s Deli, Jyan Isaac Bread, Smögen Appetizers, Calic Bagel, Rye Goods and Uncle Stevey’s Bagels.
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