Clash of Ottawa’s Montreal-Style Bagel Titans: Kettleman’s vs. Ottawa Bagel Shop
We at foodiePrints wrote a backgrounder on the Ottawa Bagel Shop (1321 Wellington St W.) in 2008. It was to be one of many on the various fine food shops in the Hintonburg and Wellington West neighbourhoods. Two more are in the works, one for Parma Ravioli (1314 Wellington St W) and another for Il Negozio Nicastro (1355 Wellington St W).
Needless to say, Jenn and I frequent the Ottawa Bagel Shop often. We purchase their bagels for lunches during the week. We take out-of-towners there for Sunday brunch on weekends, its toasted bagels making great breakfast sandwiches.
Sunday Brunch at the Ottawa Bagel Shop
They usually buy a dozen to take home with them.
Since we live down the street, we drop by first thing in the morning to avail ourselves of bagels from the day’s first batch and fresh Art-Is-In bakery.
Bagels from Ottawa Bagel Shop's Morning Batch
Kevin Mathieson, owner and operator of Art-Is-In, operates a satellite bakery in the back of the building that houses Ottawa Bagel Shop’s store front, coffee bar, and cafeteria-style restaurant.
Kettleman's Logo
While we are fond of the Ottawa Bagel Shop’s bagels, we have been often told Kettleman’s are superior.
Both are arguably Montreal-style. Montreal-style bagels are hand-rolled and shaped, the dough containing no salt. They are bathed in a honey or malt syrup sweetened boiling water and baked in a wood-fired oven. Compared to the other predominant New York-style, Montreal-style bagels tend to be smaller and less bready. Also, according to Serious Eats’ Erin Zimmer, Montreal-style bagels are chewier. They sport a crisper crust and tend to be more singular in flavour. The most popular: sesame or poppy seed.
Regarding Kettlemen’s, unlike the Ottawa Bagel Shop, there are multiple retail locations in Ottawa (912 Bank Street, 1222 Place d’Orleans Drive, and 2177 Carling Avenue). We visited the Carling Avenue one. There, we discovered the bagel chain offers more than just bagels. They sell just about every other baked good as well, from pies to cakes,knishes, and cookies.
Kettleman's Baked Goods
Everything, clam shelled and ready for sale.
When we walked in, we felt oddly drawn to the well worked wood oven beside the front counter with its cash and till.
Front Counter with Cash and Till
Wood Oven
The bakers had just finished their day’s run of sesame seed bagels, one yelling across the room that the bagels were still too hot to bag. Unbagged, bagels are .85 cents/each, $7.50/dozen (any variety or combination thereof), $4.50/half dozen (also any variety or combination thereof).
With the air smelling of spent yeast and fresh bakery, we were eager to try a bagel. Happily, like the Ottawa Bagel Shop, the Carling Kettleman’s is an eat-in establishment, complete with gourmet coffee. It offers a variety of bagel sandwiches on any of their in-house made bagels.
Bagel Sandwiches
What surprised me was the sheer variety of sandwich fixings available. Among the in-house made spreads was a favourite, chopped liver.
Chopped Liver
I never understood why comparing oneself to chopped liver is self-disparaging. It is not easy to make a good batch of equally flavourful as light on the tongue chopped liver.
Without a second thought, I ordered the chopped liver with fried onions on an onion bagel ($4.55), a double hit of onion goodness.
Kettleman's Famous Chopped Liver in a Bagel
Halved
What I was served was a generous portion of good chopped liver topped with onions tasting of dark sugars, everything in a bagel that tasted of baked onion. It was delicious. Best of all, my eating the sandwich did not make a mess. The bagel was yielding enough I could bite through without pushing chopped liver out the other end onto my fingers. Such was what happens every time, I tuck into a Zoe’s Chopped Liver “bagel-sub” ($5.99, $4.95 before Christmas) at the Ottawa Bagel Shop.
Jenn ordered a BLT (bacon, lettuce, and tomato) bagel ($4.50).
Kettleman's BLT Bagel
Halved
She likewise enjoyed her bagel sandwich, also remarking at how yielding her bagel was.
Intrigued, we bought several of the just made sesame bagels to go. We then picked up several sesame bagels from the Ottawa Bagel Shop to compare.
2 Montreal-Style Bagels from Ottawa Bagelries
Split
Jenn actually blindfolded me and asked me to tell her which bagel was which.
It wasn’t particularly difficult to discern the chewier Ottawa Bagel Shop bagel. Both tasted of toasted sesame.
Left: Kettleman's, Right: Ottawa Bagel Shop
A cross section explains why. The Ottawa Bagel Shop bagel has more developed gluten. It was worked further, becoming denser. We later discovered Kettleman’s bagels also toasted up crisper when placed in a toaster.
Having discovered a significant textural difference between the Kettleman’s and Ottawa Bagel Shop bagels, we understood why the city could be polarized bagel-wise. We feel the Ottawa Bagel Shop bagels are better suited for simple sandwiches with no more than one ingredient like jam, butter, or cream cheese. Open-face, they could be topped with more ingredients.
Like Ottawans, Montrealers are staunchly loyal to their favourite bagel purveyors. The two predominant bagelries there are Fairmount and St-Viateur and the rivalry between them is decades old. Technically, Fairmount is the original, opening in 1919. St-Viateur opened in 1957.
Now there is a link between one of the famed Montreal bagelries and the Ottawa Bagel Shop. When I asked why the bagel shop’s advertising includes “…affiliated with the St-Viateur Bagel Shop, Montreal”, one of the cashiers told me the owner learned to make bagels from his wife’s cousin, one of the bakers at St-Viateur. Once a year, the current owner of St-Viateur even comes to Ottawa to observe and inspect how the Ottawa Bagel Shop’s bagels are made.
Authenticity-wise, I guess this means the chewier bagel follows the tradition better.
Still, many of my Montreal-born friends tell me, there is nothing better than a Montreal-baked bagel. I am eager to verify that one day.
Particulars:
Ottawa Bagel Shop and Deli
1321 Wellington Street
(613) 722-8753
Kettleman’s Bagel
2177 Carling Ave
(613) 722-4357
Tags: Bagels, Kettleman's, Ottawa Bagel Shop, St-Viateur
March 26th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Nice write up! I’ve always thought that the Kettleman bagels are kind of scrawny compared to the Ottawa Bagel Shop begals — not as much cross-section to butter. If you look at the comparison photos you took, you can see what I mean. Still, both are better than the mass-market bagels you’ll find in the grocery store.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
I find the Ottawa Bagelshop does a great job of replicating St-Viateur style bagels… on the other hand, the Kettleman’s bagels come off sweeter, closer to Fairmont Bagel’s recipe.