A Tale of Two Montreal Bagel Bakeries

Salmon spread, BLT and traditional bagels at St-Viateur

Following our consumption of smoked meat, next on our list was Montreal-style bagels, which were brought to the city by Jewish immigrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries. 

Montreal-style bagels differ from New York ones, which are considered better for sandwiches because they have smaller holes and are chewier and saltier. On the other hand, Montreal bagels are crunchier, not as dense and thick.

The traditional bagel was a winner at St-Viateur

St. Viateur and Fairmount are the two oldest bagel establishments in Montreal, and we decided to try both of them for our breakfast. 

Since the TV series Heated Rivalry came out in December and mostly set in Montreal, writer and director Jacob Tierney features many of his favourite places, and bagel shop St-Viateur is one of them. The character Rose Landry played by actress Sophie Nelisse wears the shop's T-shirt in the show, and actor Francois Arnaud who is Scott Hunter in the show likes the bagels at both St-Viateur and Fairmount.

In interviews he has said New York bagels aren't bagels, just bagel-shaped bread. Ha!

We first went to St-Viateur and it was not quite busy yet, which gave us time to carefully peruse the menu and make our choices. We settled on traditional on a sesame bagel, which has smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomato, onion, capers and a lemon wedge.

The shop also has bagel-themed merchandise

Another was the BLT, or bacon, lettuce and tomato on a wholewheat bagel with a pesto or mayonnaise spread. We asked which one was better and the staff suggested both which is what we did! The last one we sampled was an all dressed bagel with salmon spread. 

The traditional hit all the right notes, the sesame bagel had a slightly crunchy exterior, soft inside, accompanied with thick slices of smoked salmon that were complemented with cream cheese, and the richness cut by the onion and capers.

Meanwhile I didn't try the BLT but heard it was very good too, but the salmon spread was the weakest of the three. It didn't look very appetising with this bright orange gloopy sauce, when I had been expecting a thicker consistency. On top of it, the spread had a fishy taste.

Then we digested our food by walking to the Fairmount shop, which was opened by Russian immigrant Isadore Shlafman in 1919. His shop was first called Montreal Bagel Bakery, and in 1949 moved it to Fairmount Street, and later adopted the Fairmount name.

Fairmount is one of the oldest bagel shops

Shlafman's grandchildren continue to run the business, the bagels still rolled by hand and baked in wood-burning ovens.

We really liked the smoked meat in between the onion bagel, making smoked meat such a versatile protein! It's good with any kind of carbs! 

When comparing the smoked salmon bagel, St-Viateur tasted better than the one at Fairmount, though we still liked the all-dressed bagel at Fairmount. We also liked the blueberry bagel with a simple (or lavish) spread of butter that melted on the toasted slices.

During our visit at Fairmount, I saw some people come in just to get a bagel sandwich for work, and it was packaged in a simple square box that was easy to carry around. 

Smoked meat in an onion bagel at Fairmount

It made me wish I could have bagel sandwiches more often!