A bag of bagels — some say the perfect within the metropolis — from Absolute.
Picture: Melissa Hom
The Higher West Facet’s Absolute Bagels isn’t any extra: On Thursday, the neighborhood weblog West Facet Rag reported that the store was probably closed, citing conversations with staff. This instantly set off alarm bells amongst neighbors. “Have you learnt something about this?” one texted me. “I’m crying.” Once I requested one other if he’d heard the information, he wrote again, “oh my god, oh my god.”
The suddenness of the closing — why wasn’t there an announcement? — has folks questioning what’s happening. Some initially theorized it has to do with the Division of Well being, and certainly a December 11 report reveals the store acquired 67 factors for violations that included “proof of rats or dwell rats,” “dwell roaches,” and “pesticide not correctly labeled or utilized by unlicensed particular person.” (At the very least they had been attempting to do one thing in regards to the roaches and the rats?) The Rag confirmed the closing yesterday with the constructing’s real-estate dealer, Rafe Evans, who instructed them that the shuttering got here “out of the blue.”
Round 3 p.m., after I stopped by, the metallic gate was nearly totally down and a “we’re closed” signal was taped to the entrance. A small crowd had gathered, seemingly on the verge of rioting. Some had been kneeling down, asking the employees inside what was happening. At one level, an worker began handing out small baggage of bagels. “It’s an absolute shonda!” an older girl with a petite canine yelled. “That is Trump’s America.” One worker, who solely gave his first identify, Jose, stated that the proprietor had repeatedly stated the shop was going to shut however folks instructed him to not.
Absolute Bagels was opened in 1992 by Sam Thongkrieng, who got here to New York in 1980 and discovered the commerce on the well-known Ess-a-Bagel. He was one in every of various Thai immigrants who ended up within the bagel enterprise throughout the Nineties, a lot of them after the Thai authorities despatched members of Native 338, the bagel union, over to Thailand to coach locals. Absolute Bagels is possibly essentially the most seen and well-known piece of this specific second in New York meals historical past — but it surely’s additionally an excellent place to eat. Relying on whom you ask, Absolute Bagels is both the perfect bagel store in New York or the most effective bagel retailers in New York. There was nothing fancy about it: Its appeal got here from its full lack of frills, and in addition the truth that you can get a Thai iced tea.
As the standard of bagels across the metropolis declined, it was held up as a spot that preserved what nonetheless seems like a disappearing custom. In 2003, Ed Levine referred to as Absolute’s bagels “one thing close to perfection” and the minibagel “an ideal simulacrum of the Fifties New York bagel.”
Ethan Levenson grew up a number of blocks away and can’t recall a time earlier than Absolute Bagels. He knew that to get the complete expertise, one wanted to “undergo the rhythms of the store,” even when that meant ordering a sesame whenever you actually needed an all the things. “There was a sure degree of spontaneity and roulette-ness to the store that I’d let dictate my expertise,” he says. “I’d ask the individual, ‘What’s the most popular?’ As a result of to toast an Absolute bagel can be a travesty, a shonda.”
What Levenson appreciated finest about Absolute, he says, is the speed at which they turned out the bagels: “There’s no bagel prefer it, it’s form of undersized, it has a sure elasticity and bounce. I feel it simply traps warmth rather well.” He provides, “Folks speak about scrumptious meals, like whenever you’re in Mexico Metropolis, you simply inhale the tacos. There’s some high quality to an Absolute bagel the place it simply warrants inhalation.”
Yesterday afternoon exterior the shop, regardless of the sharpness of the whipping wind, folks saved stopping to linger and ask what was up. One buyer, who recognized himself as Mark and has lived within the neighborhood since 1977, stated he couldn’t bear in mind when he began going to Absolute. “I come right here and get two plain bagels — as a result of I don’t like them to take a seat and I dwell 5 blocks away — each different day,” he says. “If it’s the Well being Division, I can’t purchase it.”
One other native, Jane, came to visit to affix the dialog. She stated she’s lived within the neighborhood for 20 years. “I come right here as soon as per week for a bag of bagels. It’s a loss.” However she is aware of that — regardless of the purpose for the closing — that feeling of loss is, to some extent, the worth of residing within the metropolis. “What are you going to do?” she sighed. “You reside in New York, you’re used to it.”
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