Grab a bagel and growler over at The Bushwick Bagel House! This mashup you didn’t realize you needed is located at 299 Wyckoff Avenue at Linden Street, and it has neighbors in Old Stanley’s, Talon Bar, and Fairweather Bushwick.
Owner Louie Selimaj, a lifelong New Yorker who hails from Glendale and also owns The Ridgewood Ale House, tells Bushwick Daily that opening a bagel house is a business venture he’s wanted to make reality for years. “I knew that the neighborhood needed a bagel store,” he says. “We are definitely filling a niche.”
“We’re one of the few bakeries, slash delis, where you can actually drink a beer on the premises,” says Selimaj—and the $5 pint paired with a fresh bagel is a killer combo.
But patrons are also welcome to bring their suds home. The house offers 64 oz. growlers for those who’d like to carry out some of the beers that are on tap. A growler full of beer costs $20, or $30 including the price of the reusable growler, and the beers currently on tap are Radiant Pig’s Mango Meat Saison or Brooklyn Lager.
The place is scenic enough that you might want to stick around, though. High ceilings, lots of wood, and stainless steel make for a simple, smart design. There’s a long wooden family-style table with seating in the sun-drenched forefront of the shop.
Customer’s eyes are immediately drawn towards a mural in remembrance of 9/11; Selimaj, who served in the NYPD from 1985-2010, was among the responders the day the towers went down.
The shop walks the line between what a bar feels like and what a bagel shop feels like, striking a perfect balance between the two.
Bushwick Bagel House’s bagel program is in very good hands with bagel pro Jonas Gahona in charge. Gahona used to work in the East Village at the hugely popular Tompkins Square Bagels. According to USA Today, his birthday cake cream cheese (which is, of course, available at Bushwick Bagel House) is one of the city’s most Instagrammed bagel fixings.
All of the bagels ($1.25) are baked on site, which fills the space with that wonderful aroma we drool over and dream of.
Selimaj is proud that Gahona’s bagels aren’t baked industrially in an electric oven. “They’re hand rolled, boiled in water, and baked in a gas oven,” explains Selimaj, characterizing this method as the difference between a yummy bagel and a “bagel.”
The Bushwick Bagel House truly has a bagel for everything: there are more than a dozen different bagels and sixteen different types of cream cheese, including seven varieties of tofu cream cheese.
Unsurprisingly, Selimaj says that their highest seller is the everything bagel with bacon, egg, and cheese ($4.45).
Patrons seeking an unusual, indulgent meal: try the french toast bagel with birthday cake cream cheese and make every day your birthday. The french toast bagel is a delight all on its own, though, and would taste great accompantied by just your morning cup of joe!
From the menu beyond the bagels and beer, try the loaded tater tots, the house’s take on the traditional loaded baked potato, for $10 (Though we’re pretty sure you’ll be most interested in the bagels. And beer).
Grab a bagel before work or sit back with a beer after work at The Bushwick Bagel House!
All photos by Gustavo Ponce for Bushwick Daily.
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The Bushwick Bagel House
A Bagel house hand rolling both savory and sweet bagels, pouring beer, and filling growlers near the Myrtle Wyckoff L & M subway stop.
299 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood (off the Jefferson St stop in the L train)
thebushwickbagelhousebrooklyn.com
Mon-Fri: 6:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. – 11: 00 p.m.
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