When I was growing up, the weekends were for ārealā breakfasts. During the week, especially during the school year, it was cereal for ten minutes and out the door. But on the weekends, we had pancakes or waffles or bacon and eggs and hashbrowns or any of the other beloved breakfast foods. But my absolute favorite weekend breakfast was bagels.
My father would go out to the local bagel shop before anyone woke, and when weād get up and saw that bulky brown bag on the table, we knew we were in for a real treat because these were real bagels, made fresh daily from New York Bagel and Bialy on Dempster in Niles (across from Lutheran General Hospital), a few blocks from my house. The bagels were so fresh they were still warm, and when we opened the bag, their signature bagel aroma filled our whole kitchen. Iād jump right in and grab a garlic bagel and a poppy seed bialy and slather them both in cream cheese (from foil, not whipped from a tub). Biting into a fresh REAL bagel or bialy with real cream cheese was bliss. (Of course, my sister would go and ruin hers because she put butter AND cream cheese on each slice but to each her own…I guess.)
Bagels on a weekend morning are among my absolute favorite memories from my childhood, and itās a tradition Iād love to pass on to my own family (though with my son nearly six now, Iām years behind on introducing this tradition!), except thereās on problem. One big, huge, colossal, problem: There isnāt a single ārealā bagel place anywhere around here.
Sure, there are Jewel bagels, which are bagel-shaped breads. Thereās Einstein and Panera, if you like previously frozen, par-baked rings posing as bagels. And there are a couple bakeries in the area that produce passable bagels, but they still arenāt real bagels. And this is one of those things where you either know what Iām talking about or you donāt. Those who know, know!
Frankly, I havenāt had a real bagel or real bialy in years, and itās driving me mad!
Itās not often I bring my complaints to the public through this newspaper, but Iām going to make a public plea to anyone reading. Please, for all things great and good, if someone is reading this that knows how to make a real bagel, open a bagel shop in Huntley…or at least somewhere within 25 square miles! Iād be your first customer bright and early on a Sunday morning, despite that Iām not at all a bright-and-early person.
Or, to anyone reading this with knowledge of a ārealā bagel place (that also serves bialys), please write me at chris@whitesilomedia.com and share! Because at this point, bagels have become the unicorns of the far North-West Suburbs of Chicago.
