Fairmount Bagel

Fairmount Bagel is a family-run bagel bakery at 74 Avenue Fairmount Ouest in the Mile End district of Montréal, Québec, Canada. Operated by the Shlafman family and on avenue Fairmount since 1949, it is one of the two bakeries most closely identified with the Montreal bagel, a style that differs from the New York version: the dough is hand-rolled into smaller, thinner rings with a larger hole, boiled in honey-sweetened water, and baked in a wood-fired oven rather than a steam deck oven. The result is a denser, slightly sweet, chewy bagel with a crisp crust. The shop is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so bagels are available at any hour, including late at night after the bars on nearby rue Saint-Laurent and avenue Laurier close. The sesame bagel is the classic order and the all-dressed bagel, topped with a mix of seeds and spices, is also widely associated with the shop. Other varieties are sold by the dozen from the counter, where the baked product is bagged straight from the oven when production is running. The dining arrangement is takeaway-oriented: customers queue at the counter, order by the piece or the dozen, and eat on the sidewalk or in nearby Mile End parks. Cream cheese, smoked salmon and other fillings are available at some counters, though many Montrealers eat the bagel plain and still warm. Prices are low, with most visits costing roughly CAD 2-15 per person. No reservations are taken and none are needed; the only planning consideration is the wait, which grows on weekend mornings and when visitors are carrying out boxes for travel. Bagels freeze well and travel well, which makes the shop a common last stop before leaving the city. The surrounding Mile End streets, with their cafés, record shops and Jewish and Portuguese heritage businesses, make the bakery an easy starting point for a walking route through the neighbourhood.