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We'll just say straight out that Fairmount Bagel on Fairmount Street in Montreal is not your average bagel joint.
This is no place for quaint, boutique coffee, nor the place for painful displays of multi-layered bagel sandwich fusion. Heck, it's hard enough just to get in the door, especially when an order for 1000 of these amazing little treats (as delectable as any pastry) stands in between you and the tiny take-out counter.
Fairmount is the best of the bagel joints in a city whose bagels are nothing less than epic. We were told that this style of bagel originated in eastern Europe, and agreed that they are simply unlike any other bagel out there. They are smaller and less chewy than their American counterparts, and less chewy, light and almost airy.
The mounds of leavened dough are shaped into rounds, boiled in honey water, then coated in either sesame or poppy seeds (we prefer the sesame) and wood-fired on 12-foot-long paddles, all right before your eyes. Four to five industrious workers bang them out to the rhythm of a too-loud 70's rock station.
Best of all, Fairmount never ever closes, and a fresh bagel at 3:00 in the morning is an indulgence we won't soon forget.
