Born To Bake Bagels

When third-generation bagel baker Steve Ross was invited to demonstrate bagel making at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., last spring he took all the ingredients in his grandfather's recipe: -- high-gluten flour, fresh yeast, salt, malt and 30 gallons of New York water.

In fact, when he ran low on H2O, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection airlifted another 20 gallons down to the nation's capital to ensure festival visitors would get the real McCoy.

Is there truly something in the water that makes New York bagels the best in the world?

"Oh, without a doubt," says Ross, owner of Coney Island Bialys and Bagels. "We even tried to make a few bagels and bialys with Washington water and we couldn't get a rise out of the dough. I can't pinpoint what it is -- the chemicals in the water, the filtration process, or what - but New York water's the best water around."

If anyone should know how to make a bagel, it's Steve Ross. His grandfather, Morris Rosenzweig, an immigrant from Bialystok, Poland, established the family's bagel and bialy bakery in East New York in 1920. (Bialys are similar to bagels but are flatter and softer and have a dent -- often filled with chopped onion or garlic -- rather than a hole in the middle.)


Rosenzweig and his two brothers later relocated the business to Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island. In 1954, the bakery moved to its current location at 2359 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn.

Ross's father inherited the business in 1959 and Ross, who began sweeping floors there for 25 cents an hour when he was 8 years old, took over in 1990.

Many modern bagel bakeries use machines to form the bagels and steam rather than boiling water to cook their products before baking. But Ross makes his bagels the old-fashioned way, just the way his grandfather did.

"Our bakery is one of the few left that hand rolls and hand shapes both the Bialy and the Bagel," Ross says in a description of the process on his company's Web site. The bagels are then kettled in a huge cauldron of boiling water before they're baked on canvas-covered wooden trays in a brick-lined, rotating, gas-fired oven.

While Ross, 42, is faithful to his family recipes, he doesn't let tradition get in the way of progress. Over the years, he's added dozens of variations to keep his product line fresh and novel. The shop now offers more than 40 varieties of bialy and bagel, including sun-dried tomato basil, cranberry, blueberry, raisin bran, and banana nut. (For various reasons, peanut butter, corn and bacon-bit didn't fly.)

"Some people think it's sacrilegious," says Ross. "But as times change, so do people's tastes. We are fully customer-oriented."

Doesn't he worry that his grandfather, who died in 1959, is turning over in his grave?

"He was always looking to improve the product and come up with something new," Ross says. "I think he would be very proud to see the amount of people we have coming in and the new varieties we sell."

Morris Rosenzweig, may he rest in peace, may also take comfort in the fact that most customers stick with the more traditional flavors - sesame, onion, everything.

And the most popular of all? Plain.

NEXT: History of the Bagel: The Whole Story

Holey Bagel: From New York With Love
Born to Bake Bagels
History of the Bagel: The Hole Story
How To Make A Bagel

Photos by Iwona K. Hoffman

Steve Ross of Coney Island Bialys and Bagels makes bagels the old-fashioned way.