It's Bagels - a shop name to chew over
The Primrose Hill shop with a name that isn’t really a name has quickly made a name for itself.
When American photographer Dan Martensen announced he was bringing New York-style bagels to London I regained the hope I’d lost soon after moving to the UK nearly 20 years ago. Would the hometown bagel yearnings of transplanted New Yorkers like myself at last be satisfied?
Just think, no longer would I need to smuggle a dozen Absolute bagels (4 sesame, 3 everything, 3 pumpernickel, 2 plain) on return flights from New York to London. The freed space in my carry-on could be used to stash pastrami, sour pickles and cheesecake.
Excited as I was, when Martensen told me he was calling his bagel startup It’s Bagels I was dumbfounded. Did he think I was some kind of numbskull?
“I know it’s bagels,” I told Martenson, “but what name are you planning to give your business?
The unlikely name reminded me of the legendary “Who’s on First?” comedy skit by Abbott and Costello. Lou Costello keeps asking what the name of the first baseman on the baseball team is and Bud Abbott, his unsympathetic sidekick, keeps telling him. Costello’s calm give way to fits of exasperation.
COSTELLO: Who’s on first?
ABBOTT: Yes
COSTELLO: I mean the fellow’s name
ABBOTT: Who
Martenson opened for business in Primrose Hill in September. The bagel shop with a name that isn’t really a name quickly made a name for itself. It was a viral sensation on Instagram, leading to queues on both sides of Regents Park Road.
The bagels are terrific, with the kind of tough shell and chewiness New Yorkers expect. A true New York bagel isn’t pillowy in the manner of an East End beigel you might find on London’s Brick Lane. Fittingly you can’t cut all the way through an It’s Bagel bagel with your teeth alone. To tear off a mouthful you have to either pull your face away from the bagel, or pull the bagel away from your face.
I couldn’t help wondering what Abbott and Costello would make of It’s Bagels. The name, not the bagels.
COSTELLO: What’s it called?
ABBOTT: It’s bagels
COSTELLO: You already told me it’s bagels!
I expanded that exchange into a short sketch. In the video just below I play the oblivious sidekick to the exasperated actor Oliver Fishman. Or is it the other way around? As Abbott and Costello might have wondered, who really knows who is who?
Omg!!! So the east end brick lane beigel isn’t the real New York deal?