The bagel, a baked, ring-shaped piece of bread, had its origins among the Jewish population of Poland, probably in the 13th century. Since then, it has become a favorite food of people around the world. In the United States, among the best-known bagels are those made in New York City, which might be called America’s bagel capital. Supermarket bagel sales topped $600 million a decade ago.
The recently released 2022’s Best Cities for Bagel Lovers list from lawn care provider Lawn Love is based on several metrics. The first is places serving bagels per square mile in each city considered. Others are the number of places serving bagels that get high consumer reviews and the volume of bagel searches in each city, according to Google. The primary sources for these data are Google Ads and TripAdvisor.
The study pointed out that bagels are not only simple circles of bread. Among the versions are those made with Apple pecan streusel, pumpkin spice, cheddar jalapeno or blueberries.
A review of bagel prices from New York Bagels, which ships its products overnight, reveals that a dozen bagels starts at $39.50. It also has packages priced at over $400.
The Lawn Love study provides an index for the best bagel cities that has a maximum score of 100. It includes grades based on access to bagel shops and the quality and popularity of bagels. The analysis covers 158 cities.
New York City tops the list with an overall score of 87.74, much higher than second-place San Francisco, which had a score of 39.75. Boston and Washington follow. At the bottom of the list, with a score of 1.23, was Plano, Texas, the only city with a score below 2.0.