The 'Secret' Behind Utopia Bagels' Famed Bread Revealed By Eater

WHITESTONE, QUEENS — A northeast Queens establishment revealed the secret behind its boiled and baked bagels, which have consistently been named among the city's best.

"It takes an individual to be at the top of his game to make it good... and [people who know how to hand-roll bagels] are a dying breed. It's not like there's a school for bagel rollers," Utopia Bagel shop co-owner Scott Spellman told Eater, pointing to the importance of hand making bagels — which his shop has been doing for over 40 years.

The compact store, located at 1909 Utopia Parkway across the Clearview Golf Course from Bay Terrace, makes 70,000 bagels on-average per week, according to Spellman (who notes that on especially busy weeks he's made as many as 100,000 bagels).

Each of the shop's thousands of bagels get its start in an industrial mixer, where malt, flour, yeast, and salt is combined to make 1,000 bagels at a time.

Hand rolling is next, followed by time to rise (or "proof," in bread speak) at room temperature and an overnight proof in the fridge. Utopia Parkway prides itself on having multiple fridges, each of which is routinely full of pan racks, stacked 1,000-bagels high.

The bagels are then kettle boiled and bake to feel. "It's a look, it's a touch," Spellman told Eater as to when you can tell that a bagel is finished.

From 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, Utopia Bagels serves up fresh blueberry and everything bagels with cream cheese, plus over 30 sandwiches.

This 40-year-long handmade process is what Spellman says differentiates his shop from others in the city.

"If water was the main thing that happened to a bagel that makes it great, there are about five bagel stores around my store here — they would make as good of a bagel as we make," he told Eater, dispelling the myth that NYC water makes the city a bagel haven. "It's what you do with the water," he adds.

Watch Scott Spellman walk through this entire bagel making process at Utopia Bagels in an Eater video, titled 'The Secrets Behind One of New York’s Best Bagels.'