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I finally went to the most famous bagel shop in LA: Courage Bagels!!
These Montreal-style bagels have caused quite a commotion in LA since they opened their brick-and-mortar in October 2020. Even LA transplants who grew up on the East Coast have deemed Courage Bagels the best bagels they’ve ever had in their lives. Courage Bagels was also featured in this super interesting article from the New York Times, which depicts the booming bagel scene in California.
I’m not a bagel person, but after hearing about people waiting in line an hour and a half on the weekends and seeing how popular they are on Instagram, I knew I had to give them a try to see what the fuss was about.
Piece of advice: If you can, go there on a weekday! I went there twice and the first time I got there around 1:30 pm and waited less than 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how short the line was! It looked like the bagel angels wanted all the odds to be in my favour because, just when the person ahead of me was placing his order, the girl put out the Sold Out sign. “You and the person behind you should be good” she said. I sighed in relief. On my second time, I got there at noon and there was a slightly longer line than the one I encountered the previous week, but it moved pretty fast.
Courage Bagels was founded by Arielle Skye, originally from Saginaw, Michigan and her fiancé Christopher Moss, who lived in NYC most of his life and worked in the food industry.
Before we get into the bagels, let’s just take a look at Arielle’s story, which I find fascinating. All this information is gathered from interviews and the food podcast The Stew, where she was a guest in 2018. All the links to her interviews will be listed in the sources section down below.
Arielle’s journey started in the summer of 2016, when she worked in marketing at a bikini company for 2 years before she got abruptly fired. Arielle, who was 24 at the time and was unsure about her future, knew for sure that she wanted to use her hands in her next job.
She started experimenting with bread. Then, she woke up one morning and had a lightbulb moment: bagels were going to be her next business venture. The first recipe she found online was a Montreal-style bagel. Prior to making her first bagel, she had never tried or heard about Montreal-style bagels, nor had she been to the Canadian city of Montreal.
In the podcast, Arielle said that before making bagels, she “hadn’t eaten a bagel in like 8 years”. She was never even a bagel person to begin with! Prior to my visit to Courage Bagels, I would have thought of Arielle as a bagel connoisseur, but this could not be further from the truth.
Arielle and Christopher also immersed themselves into the history of bagels, specifically in the book The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread by author Maria Balinska. One of the things that resonated the most with Ariel is how Jews were denied permits to sell their bagels and bialys on the streets, so kids would have to scope out street corners for their parents to sell them and be on the lookout for the police. “A bagel represented courage”, she noted. This line became a determining factor in the business name.
Christopher described their bagels to Tablet Magazine as: “Thinner, crispier, more charred, and not billowy bagel that resembled what was being baked in Eastern Europe a hundred, or a hundred-fifty years ago.”
Arielle told VoyageLA.com: “Our bagels are Montreal inspired. Which means our bagels are a little bit thinner, crispier and have a bigger center hole than the typical NYC bagels you’re used to.”
Before the brick-and-mortar location, Arielle would sell her bagels off her bicycle through the streets of Silver Lake yelling: “Bagels!” to passersby. She would wake up at 4 am and make bagels. The dough was made two days before so that the bagels could have a more complex flavor. “It’s so fun”, she said on the food podcast The Stew and compared it to a meditative experience.
In 2017, Arielle and Christopher got a stall at the Silver Lake Farmers market. They also sold their bagels to a few coffee shops before making the permanent move to Virgil Street in late 2020. What a beautiful and seamless transition! From selling bagels off a bicycle to having people wait in line almost two hours for your product? Mad respect!
“step into my office”
When she talked about selling bagels off her bicycle, this is what she shared to VoyageLA.com:
“I had no idea what I was doing. All I knew was – I wasn’t going to let the fear hold me back from this adventure. I was going to find my courage! So after a year and half of riding around slanging the bagels off my bike – we got a spot at the Silverlake farmers market, which felt sooooo gooooooooood! It’s also been a struggle to hold on to my own courage sometimes, to throw myself out there and burst out of my shy shell. But I think the struggle is an important part of this thing – sure, smooth sounds dreamy. But without the struggle, you can’t learn and grow, and that’s all I want – to learn and grow.”
When she sold the bagels off her bike, customers could also order regular cream cheese or scallion dill cream cheese.
Once they started selling at the Silver Lake Farmers Market, they topped the bagels with local ingredients such as tomatoes, avocadoes, lemon, cucumber and parsley. If they wanted to get fancy, they would add caviar farmed from the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservancy.
Arielle’s story is a clear-cut example that whatever your passion is, it’s never too late to go after it.
“I’m most proud of our perseverance – we keep showing up! We keep going! I don’t think most people realize how laborious making bagels and building a business can be.” Excerpt from her interview with VoyageLA.com
When they asked her on The Stew what made a pop-up successful, she said community because she loves people.
The pictures on Instagram are not deceptive in the slightest. The bagels are as beautiful in person as they are in the pictures. Just look at this piece of art. If you’re indecisive, you can order half and half! I ordered half Hand Sliced Smoked Salmon and half Cream Cheese Tomato.
I liked this combination so much that I got the same order on my second time. Other options include Run It Thru the Garden, a veggie-only bagel, and Wild Alaskan Salmon Roe, which, as you will see in the picture, are those orange balls.
If you’re a salmon fiend and you love fresh tomatoes, the one I had will be the best option for you.
I have gum sensitivity and the last time I went to a bagel place, I almost ripped my gums open. It wasn’t toasted, and it was so chewy that I almost didn’t eat it.
The bagels at Courage Bagels have the perfect balance between chewiness and fluffiness. The outside is lightly charred, which I personally loved.
On my first time, they were out of the regular bagels, so I had the Sea Salt Sesame bagel. It was delicious! The second time I got their most popular bagel, the Burnt Everything bagel.
I’m a salmon aficionado, but I usually tend to stay away from store-bought smoked salmon as these are way too salty compared to the ones you’ll find in Europe. The smoked salmon from Courage Bagels was sweet and the texture was delicately soft. The onions were sliced really thin, so they were not overpowering. Many times, onion flavors can be overly strong and they linger on your breath afterwards, which didn’t happen here. I’m also not a caper person, but I ate them all! They added a tangy and salty flavor that elevated the bagel. The cashew cream cheese was good, but it didn’t blow me away.
I don’t think you need further proof of how fresh the ingredients are. They all balanced each other out beautifully. Whatever bagel you get, rest assured your taste buds will appreciate all the layers of flavors and nuances.
The ratio of cashew cream cheese to bagel was a 10/10.
The tomatoes on the Cream Cheese Tomato bagel were like eating tomatoes someone just picked from the garden. They were so fresh and luscious that I could have eaten them on their own.
My total for the two half bagels came to $14. Many people will complain about the pricing, but honestly, you’re paying for the quality of ingredients. All of them are locally sourced and if you were to go to a Farmer’s Market and purchase the produce yourself, it would add up to even more.
Plus, if you look at each bagel, they do not skimp on the amount of ingredients!! The slice of salmon was a very generous one, as well as the two glorious tomato slices. With this being said, for being an artisanal bagel shop, Courage Bagels is reasonably priced.
There’s a menu in Spanish in the front window as an attempt to be more inclusive of the Hispanics who live in this area. Also, don’t forget to check out their coffee menu!
I got lucky and found a parking spot on one of the side streets, but parking is notoriously bad here. The parking situation and the lines are the only two deterrents that keep me from going to this place more often. If you’re hungry and you want something quick to fill you up, this is not the place for you. If you’re hungry and you’re in a hurry, forget about going there. They also don’t take online orders. The line on the weekends, even at 8:30 am, can be a 40-minute wait. So, if you’re going to make the trek from somewhere far, clear your schedule.
But if you do decide to go to see what the hype is all about, you will be rewarded with heavenly bagels that will grace your taste buds and make you forget the hurdles.
I was going through the Yelp reviews and read a one-star review from a woman that had to be somewhere at a certain time. As the wait time increased, she started getting antsy when the customers ahead of her took too long to place their order. This resulted in her getting a parking ticket!
All deterrents aside, eating these bagels was a unique culinary experience that I would recommend everyone try at least once.
Hours: Thursday – Monday 7am – 2pm.
777 N Virgil Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029
Sources:
Bagel Talk with Ari Skye – The Stew – Podcast – Podtail
Meet Ari Skye of Courage Bagels – Voyage LA Magazine
Interview: Arielle Skye of Courage Bagels — Capisce
Have you been to Courage Bagels? Do you have a favorite bagel shop in LA?
