Montreal-style bagels in Seattle

On Friday I ate at Seattle's new, Montreal-style bagel bakery:  Eltana. Opened by a friend from our synagogue, Eltana is on 12th Avenue near Pine Street on Seattle's Capitol Hill. The bagels are hand-formed, boiled in honey water and baked in a wood-fired oven. More hole than dough, with a soft center and chewy crust, bakers place the bagels in the oven on very long paddles and remove them the same way onto a chute and hopper, just like the bagels at Montreal's St.-Viateur bakery.

Eltana serves plain, sesame, poppy, everything, wheat, and sesame wheat bagels with a variety of spreads, salads, coffee and cold drinks, and beer and wine (it's on Capitol Hill after all). Everything is vegetarian.

I LOVED these bagels! I brought home a dozen and the resident Canadian was very impressed.

The only catch? Just like Montreal bagels, you have to eat them the day they are made or freeze them for future noshing. Otherwise they turn into hockey pucks.

It appears I'll be bringing home a dozen every week. Yum!