Restaurant Review: Fairmount Bagel VS St-Viateur Bagel
FAIRMOUNT BAGEL
VS
ST-VIATEUR BAGEL
74 Avenue Fairmount Ouest - www.fairmountbagel.com
263 Rue Saint-Viateur Ouest - www.stviateurbagel.com
I have been wanting to do this for a long time. A battle for the ages! When it comes to bagels, it is an undisputed fact that Montreal bagels are the best of the best. They make store-bought grocery store bagels look like a ridiculous joke. There are two bagel bakeries in town that are equally regarded as the two very best and they're both located in Mile End, only a block away from each other, both named after their respective streets.
Fairmount was opened in 1949 by Russian immigrant Isadore Shlafman (Canada's first bagel shop!) and has been named in National Geographic magazine's Canada's 50 Places of a Lifetime as well as winning the award of Best Bagels in MTL Blog's MTL Awards 2014.
St-Viateur was opened in 1957 by Polish immigrant Myer Lewkowicz and was visited by Anthony Bourdain on both his shows No Reservations and The Layover. It too was named in National Geographic magazine's Canada's 50 Places of a Lifetime and was voted #1 Best Bagel 2013 and #1 Best Bagel 2014 in Cult MTL's annual poll.
Needless to say, they both boast some serious accolades.
Fairmount only has the one original location, while St-Viateur has expanded to four bakeries, three cafes, and a food truck (however this review is based on their flagship bakery). Luckily for me, both original bagel shops are located only a block or two from my house!
Both shops are take-out situations that are open 24 hours a day, where you walk in and can see the bagels being made the same way that they were doing it 66 and 58 years ago. Both shops hand roll their bagel dough, boil them in honey water, and then bake them in a wood-fired oven. The original flavour was poppy seed, but now both shops offer a wide array of types with the most popular being sesame seed. There is nothing else like them and most Montrealers seem to favour one shop over the other, yet the split is quite even. I wanted to get to the bottom of this once and for all! And so one morning I picked up freshly baked Sesame Bagels from each shop and prepared for a proper (and very scientific) taste test.
When it comes to looks you can barely tell the bagels apart. They are both heavily and thoroughly coated in sesame seeds, not like those seed-bare varieties that you'll find in regular stores. But is there actually a difference in taste? A team of four friends were assembled and each were given a half slice of both a Fairmount and a St-Viateur without knowing which was which. All they had to do was taste them and determine their favourite!
Normally I prefer to enjoy my bagels toasted with butter, plain cream cheese, and either smoked salmon or smoked salmon spread (HJS smoked salmon spread is available for sale at both locations and is from dreams) on top (it's the only way and everyone must try it), but for this taste test we began with simply eating them bare in order to taste their individual flavours. Both bagels are dense and chewy, yet light and flavourful. They both boast a famous slightly sweet taste from the honey water. The verdict wasn't unanimous, but the favourite ended up being Fairmount Bagel. While both bagels are super close in taste, I noted a slightly more wood-fired flavour from the Fairmount one that I really liked.
But honestly, the difference is so small that getting to eat either of these superior bagels is a major win in itself!
I thought that I would also sample one of the newer varieties from each shop as well, and selected the Power Bagel (No eggs, 100% organic whole wheat flour, all natural honey, raisins, walnuts, sun flower seeds and sesame seeds. A power packed bagel.) from Fairmount and the Rosemary & Sea Salt bagel from St-Viateur.
I don't usually stray from the trusty sesame, but thought that this would be a good layer to add to the taste test.
The Power Bagel is definitely a great breakfast bagel in the sense that you will feel as if you ate an entire proper breakfast even on the go. It was super dense and I liked the tasty nuts and raisins. However the Rosemary & Sea Salt was the easy winner in my book! The texture was the same as a regular sesame bagel, but the new and different delicious flavours came through so beautifully. It was herby with a hint of salt and I can see this one becoming a part of my regular rotation.
There is honestly no going wrong with either of these legends. As a Montrealer, one gets used to the bagel requests that start streaming in as soon as you go to visit anyone located outside of the city or province. If you have never tasted a proper fresh Montreal bagel in your life it simply must be added to your to-do list.
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