Dan's Bagels
Remember when avocado toast was all the rage in the mid-2010s? The dish was simple enough — avocado spread on toast — and it became a blank canvas on which chefs and foodies could add garnishes, flourishes, and drizzles. It became an edible form of self-expression, if you will.
Ten years later, another highly customizable breakfast item, the bagel, is having a similar moment — albeit, with one big difference.
Avocado toast was a brand-spanking-new food fad that, while still popular (as lines outside Camp Bowie’s La La Land can attest), is no longer at its 2015 peak. Bagels, on the other hand, have 800 years of history on their side and have proved more than capable of hanging around for the long run. For bagels, this isn’t a fleeting fad; it’s a renaissance.
After all, Dan’s Bagels, which opened its doors on Forest Park Boulevard two weeks ago and has since had lines out the door and sold-out signs by noon, is far from the first, second, or even third Fort Worth spot to specialize in the Jewish culinary item. Einstein Bros., Boopa’s, and Lucky Duck all have the word “Bagels” tacked to the end of their DBAs and serve up a variety of bagel options, toppings (which in the bagel world means cream cheeses), and sandwiches.
Where Dan’s differs is in the way they craft their bagels. Where the traditional recipe uses a stiff dough of wheat flour and yeast, Dan's made-from-scratch bagels are prepared with triple-fermented sourdough. While Dan’s version of the bagel still has the dense, chewy consistency of a traditional bagel — the result of boiling the dough before baking it — the tangy flavor from the fermentation process is a welcome addition. According to the company’s website, it’s “what makes us different from the crowded landscape of the denser NY Tri-state recipes.”
Dan’s Bagels, owned and operated by husband and wife team Dan and Jen Hilbert, also offers an array of colorful bagel options (rainbow swirl is flat-out psychedelic and the blueberry pie option’s purple hue will be a favorite among TCU fans), making their items well suited for the Instagram generation.
The new Forest Park location, just a hop, skip, and jump from TCU, represents the franchise’s fourth location — all of which are in North Texas. The spot, in the cramped shopping and dining center with atrocious parking at the intersection of Park Hill, was previously occupied by Black Rooster Bakery, whose other location remains open on Camp Bowie Boulevard.
Thirty-year residents of the East Coast — Dan and Jen Hilbert kicked off their bagel business in April 2020, when they began making and selling their sourdough version of the breakfast staple from their home in Trophy Club. And increased demand — at one point selling 1,000 bagels in 7 minutes — would lead to the opening of their first brick and mortar in August 2021.
Though the breakfast baked good is typically associated with the Northeast — New Yorkers like bagels, Texans like doughnuts — the Southern palate has, in recent years, become more open to the flavors of the 13 colonies. And, much like bagels over the past 800 years, we suspect it will stick. After all, doughnuts are a confection. Bagels are a breakfast.
