Only in New York can you find a food that combines your love of unicorns, gay pride, and gluten.
Rainbow Bagels in Williamsburg
Scot Rossillo’s Rainbow Bagel immediately recalls happy memories from childhood. Specifically, those precious few moments of magic before all the play-doh colors you mashed together turned an ugly brown. Is it this feeling of nostalgia that’s made the Rainbow Bagel NYC’s biggest circular food trend since the cronut?
I visited the The Bagel Store in Williamsburg to see what the fuss is all about. Was this bagel as delightful in taste as it is in design? Does all that food coloring stain your teeth? What flavor is “Rainbow”?
At 11AM on a Thursday morning, the place was crowded but I didn’t have to wait in any sizable line to place my order. From the outside, it looks like your typical neighborhood bagel shop. I think they should get a street artist to come jazz up the outside with color. Inside it looks like a typical bagel shop too, with different sandwich options, a dozen different kinds of shmear.
No frills until you get to the far end of the counter where all the color in the store rests brightly behind the glass. Rainbow is just the beginning of the novelty bagels. They have patriotic, red, white, and blue 4th of July bagels. Pink and purple “Barbie” bagels that my four year-old self would’ve sold her soul to eat. A cotton candy bagel that sounds absolutely disgusting to me.
Then there’s the Breaking Bad Bagel. It’s the blue one topped with sugar crystals in the corner. A yeasty homage to Walter White’s “product”. I would’ve tried them all, in fact I ordered 3 different kinds.
Then I got up to the register and realized trendy AF bagels cost waaaay more that your typical poppy seed and this place is cash only. I paid $4 per bagel.
That’s enough to make any Brooklynite baulk, “Fuhgettaboutit!” Food coloring is not that expensive, folks.
Scot Rossillo, the guy who came up with these doughy creations, calls himself the “World’s Premier Bagel Artist”. If I think of it as spending $4 on art rather than a bagel, it does make me feel better. These bagels are fun just to look at, to be around! There is something about rainbows and bright colors that just makes me happy. That’s probably half the reason I love macarons so much.
But to taste? Eh, they’re nothing special.
Mine was fresh out of the oven, still warm, and still I said, “Meh.” The taste was sweet, only slightly so. It wasn’t a bad bagel, it was fine. But I with every bite I wished it was a everything bagel from Absolute Bagels instead.
Hey, maybe that’s because I didn’t order right. I ate my Rainbow Bagel naked, with nothing on it. Obviously I shoulda ordered the:
Did you just contract diabetes from reading that description? My teeth feel like they’re all going to rot out of my head, just like in my re-occuring anxiety dreams. But that’s just me. If cotton candy on a bagel sounds amazing to you (and you want to start your morning off with a crazy sugar rush) please go to The Bagel Shop, order a “Rainbow Supreme” and report back on how it is!
The Bagel Store is located at 394 Bedford Avenue and people from all around the world trek out to Williamsburg every day just to try these bagels. Will you join them, or are you glad I saved you the trip?
Thanks for reading! Until we meet again next post, OR on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat @newyorkcliche!
It just looks so toxic to me, all I can think about is what that dye is doing to my insides. I think I’m too much of a bagel purist. I like Pick-A-Bagel 23rd and Third.
We like visual feasts as much as the next guy, but gimmicky Instragram bait is a red flag for us. We’re fans of food that tastes good vs. looks good, so this was a pass! 😉 Thanks for reaffirming!
Mad Hatters NYC recently posted…IKON by Nychos at Jonathan LeVine Gallery
That is one EXPENSIVE donut!!