Fairmount Bagel is a

Montreal-style bagel The Montreal-style bagel or Montreal bagel (sometimes beigel; yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; french: Bagel de Montréal) is a distinctive variety of handmade and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, which also cont ...

bakery in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

in the

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

neighbourhood of the

Plateau-Mont-Royal Le Plateau-Mont-Royal () is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Plateau-Mont-Royal takes its name from its location on a plateau, on the eastern side of Mont-Royal and overlooking downtown Montreal, a ...

borough. The first location opened on September 7, 1919 on

Saint-Laurent Boulevard Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in french: boulevard Saint-Laurent), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north–south through ...

by Isadore Shlafman. The current location, on 74 Fairmount Avenue West was opened in 1949. Fairmount Bagel remains a family-run business.

History

Fairmount Bagel was the first

bagel A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is fi ...

bakery of its kind in Montreal. Isadore Shlafman, known as Grandfather Isadore, moved from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, and opened the bakery in 1919 – originally called the Montreal Bagel Bakery, located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard. In 1949, Grandfather Isadore moved from the Saint-Laurent location to a cottage on Fairmount Avenue. The location of the bakery was moved to the first floor of their home, and the family lives upstairs. The Shlafman family changed the name, in accompaniment to the new location, to “The Original Fairmount Bagel Bakery”. Since the opening, Fairmount Bagel has remained a family-run business. Grandfather Isadore passed the business down to his son Jack Shlafman, who then passed it to his son, Irwin Shlafman. The same methods are used to make the bagels – rolled by hand and baked in an old-fashioned wood-burning oven.

Culture

Jewish immigrants from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...

, specifically

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, introduced the Montreal bagel to North America. Originally, the “beugel” was a traditional gift, first, to the King of Poland,

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobi ...

, then more commonly to new mothers. From here, the bagel ended up being sold in the city streets of Russia and was called "

bublik Bublik (also ''booblik'' or ''bublyk''; rus, бублик, búblik, plural: ''bubliki''; uk, бублик, lit=, translit=búblyk) is a traditional Eastern European bread roll. It is a ring of yeast-leavened wheat dough, that has been boile ...

". In the first half of the 20th century, after being brought to North America, these bagels were almost exclusively made and sold within the Montreal Jewish communities. In the 1970s, the Montreal bagel gained popularity on the other side of the Canadian border and were mass-produced to supply this demand.

Products

Montreal-style bagels are smaller, less chewy, and sweeter than the New York style bagel. The former is also made with honey and malt syrup. The process of making this baked good consists of hand-rolling and then submerging the bagel dough in boiling water for roughly 3 minutes, then baking it in a wood-fired oven for 20 minutes. At Fairmount, sesame bagels make up 70 percent of their sales. Nonetheless, the company has a range of fresh products. The store sells several “schmears”, such as tubs of cream cheese, for customers to apply to their bagels.

Media and news

Fairmount Bagels in space

In May 2008, Astronaut

Greg Chamitoff Gregory Errol Chamitoff (born 6 August 1962) is a Canadian-born American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He has been to space twice, spending 6 months aboard the ISS across Expedition 17 and 18 in 2008, and another 15 days as part of STS-13 ...

, the nephew of the owner of the store, took products from Fairmount Bakery with him on a mission,

STS-124 STS-124 was a Space Shuttle mission, flown by Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' to the International Space Station. ''Discovery'' launched on 31 May 2008 at 17:02 EDT, moved from an earlier scheduled launch date of 25 May 2008, and landed safely at ...

, to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

Future of wood-fired ovens

There was concern that new environmental laws would lead to the outlawing of the wood-burning ovens that contribute to the character of the Montreal bagel. However, existing ovens have been grandfathered under the new legislation and are safe for now.

Documentary about Fairmount Bagel

Filmmakers Jonathan Keijser, from Halifax, and Daniel Beresh, from Edmonton, who spent time in Montreal pursuing musical-theatre projects, created a documentary about Fairmount Bagel, “Bagels in the Blood”.

References

External links

Fairmount Bagel
{{coord, 45.5229, N, 73.5952, W, region:CA-QC_type:landmark, display=title 1919 establishments in Quebec Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Montreal Bagel companies Montreal cuisine History of Montreal Landmarks in Montreal Bakeries of Canada Jewish Canadian history Le Plateau-Mont-Royal Jews and Judaism in Montreal Russian-Jewish culture in Canada Shops in Montreal