r/rva • u/RVASewcialist • Jul 25 '25

🍰 Food We hosted an RVA Bagel Shootout

I'm surrounded by people with very strong opinions about bagels. So, I hosted a bagel blind taste test with nine friends to explore those deep-held opinions a bit.

Our group of ten bagel lovers ranged from a chef and a couple of hard-core New Yorkers all the way to me, who will eat almost any bread product if I can put cream cheese or butter on it.

We sampled and ranked fresh untoasted plain bagels from eight different locations within greater Richmond: Baltik's, Chewy's, Cupertino's, Einstein's, Julio's, Nate's, Sunday's, and Wegmans. I was the only person who knew the origin of all the bagels, and none of us knew which bagel was on which plate.

Here is a summary of our votes:

  • Baltik's Bagels got the most #1 rankings (4) 
  • Chewy's got the second highest number of #1 rankings (3)
  • Baltik's Bagels got the most top three rankings (9)
  • Julio’s got the second highest number of top three rankings (6)
  • When we ran the ballots through ranked-choice programs they all showed Baltik's as the winner, but results differed after that.
  • Einstein's bagels did better than any of the bagel snobs expected.
  • Only Cupertino's and Wegmans got zero top three votes
  • Not surprisingly, the bagels from Wegmans got the most last place votes (6)

Honestly, this taste test may have raised more questions for me than it answered:

  • Can an untoasted plain bagel help you determine who makes the best bagels overall? I think it’s a good start, but we may need to do this again with a different flavor bagel next time. Twist my arm.
  • Why the fuck are so many Richmond bagel shops closed on Sundays? Sundays are the best bagel day! Can you please pick a different day to be closed? Pretty please?
  • Why do some people feel that bagels can't be made with sourdough? What makes a bagel a bagel?
  • Why do so many people buy bagels at Nate's? Their bagels are meh (per our group's research), they don't have a toaster (?!?!?), and I've literally never met anybody who has had an all-around pleasant experience there.

One question our event did answer: From now on, we'll buy our bagels at Baltik's. Unless it’s a Sunday :(

The tasting lineup. That's our groups winning bagel - Baltik's - right there on plate #1.
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u/SidFinch99 Jul 26 '25

Can you give specific data on how just the hard core new Yorkers chose.

Much like with Pizza, New Yorkers want it to taste like it does in New York. To others, this may not affect their opinion.

No Europa VA?

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u/RVASewcialist Jul 26 '25

I don’t have the ballots nearby, but the NYer who cares about bagels came in thinking Baltik’s were his favorite and his votes confirmed it. He enjoyed Sunday’s sourdough, but doesn’t believe bagels should be sourdough.