Bagelfeld’s Cooks Up Bagels with a NY Accent
WHEN I MOVED to Phoenix 45 years ago, I had to give up some of the favorite foods I’d grown up eating in New York. I learned to love chimichangas (unheard of in New York back then) and salsa and chips and various other Arizona delights. But I did miss bagels. I figured I’d only have them when I went back home to visit or when my mother visited me here, her suitcase laden with bagels, pickles and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
I grew up eating bagels—plain bagels, of course—for breakfast most mornings. Bagels my mother got from the bagel place a few blocks from the house because in those days there was a bagel place a few blocks from everyone’s house. Walk into just about any deli or bakery back then and you’d get a good bagel. I have no idea if things have changed in New York but here in Phoenix, getting a good bagel, one that is slightly crisp on the outside and chewy inside, has always been difficult—until Charles Blonkenfeld decided to try his hand at making bagels thanks to the pandemic.
I admit that although I’ve had some OK bagels from bakeries and delis here, I have mostly gotten the ones in the supermarket bakeries. Let’s face it: They’re really more like rolls than bagels. But I toast them, smear them with cream cheese and they’re edible. Not memorable, but edible.
Enter bagels by Charles Blonkenfeld. I can’t remember when or how I got my first Bagelfeld’s bagel. Could have been at the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market I guess, but I honestly do not remember. What I do remember is that after tasting that bagel I jumped on Facebook to let everyone know that real bagels were finally here. Trust me, I thought about keeping it a secret. What if hordes of people went to buy the bagels and there were none left for me? Thankfully, that has not been the case although it is true that crowds of people now line up at the farmers markets to buy Bagelfeld bagels. And you do have to show up pretty early or you can miss out.
Who is the man behind the bagel? Charles Blonkenfeld, a Brooklyn-born Arizona-raised chef with years of experience cooking but, funnily enough, not years of experience baking bagels.
Blonkenfeld found himself in the same predicament many of us did when the pandemic hit. With a wife and kid to support, he had to figure out some way to make money once his regular cooking jobs dried up as we entered lockdown. His first impulse was to leave town. He considered moving to a state that was “doing a better job with the pandemic than Arizona” so that his daughter could attend in-person school.
Before he packed up to leave, he heard a random guy say, “There are no great bagels here in Phoenix.” To a guy like Blonkenfeld, an idea man who is willing to take chances, it was a light bulb moment.
“I saw an ad for a bagel place in Connecticut. And that was one of the states that we were considering moving to. I decided to try to bake a bagel even though I’d never made one in my life. I figured I should know something about bagels before I take the plunge if I’m going to move to bake bagels.”
His first attempt was a success. Yes, he had a recipe from a cookbook, but he didn’t exactly follow the directions as written because that’s the kind of guy he is. The method said to make the dough, let it rest, form it, refrigerate it, boil it and then bake it. At the time, Blonkenfeld was renting space in a commissary-type kitchen. Paying by the hour meant there couldn’t be any downtime so if he was going to let the dough rest it had to be when he wasn’t around so he didn’t have to pay for the kitchen time. That’s how the best bagels in Phoenix were born. Blonkenfeld let the dough rest in the fridge for much longer than is recommended, more to save money than for any other reason. The resulting bagel, allowed to ferment longer than the instructions suggested, “tasted just like the bagels I remembered eating on a trip to New York City with my family. I figured I was onto something.”
He started out slowly, baking mainly for Uptown Farmers Market and eventually adding the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market and then a few eateries around town that make sandwiches with his bagels.
Blonkenfeld believes there are two reasons his bagels are closer to what is considered a New York bagel: “I allow my dough to ferment longer, which gives my bagels more flavor. I also believe that the temperature of the room is important. Here in Phoenix, bakeries can get very hot especially in the summer. We keep our kitchen cooler while we’re preparing the dough and I believe that makes a difference.”
Perhaps you’ve read that it’s New York City water that makes the difference and that’s why bagels baked here in Phoenix could never approximate bagels baked in New York. Blonkenfeld uses what we would consider bottled water. But not New York City water.
“Maybe it’s the minerals in the water that account for having the right texture. I don’t know,” he says. Whatever it is, the commonly held belief that only bagels boiled in New York City water (which, by the way, is delicious water to most water connoisseurs) are the only good bagels seems to be a fallacy.
Charles Blonkenfeld is a philosophical guy who had knocked around a bit in his early years. In some ways, that gave him the confidence to try things because he believes “It’s OK to fail. I go into every venture with the idea that if I fail, I’ll just move on.” And fail he has many times! There was the sandwich shop Chaka in downtown Phoenix (“ahead of its time for sure”) and various and sundry other ventures. But there’s always something new over the horizon for him to try. He actually went into the bagel business thinking it “wouldn’t work” but he figured he’d give it a try.
But surprise surprise. Bagelfeld’s was and is a huge success. Such a success that he had to move his operation into his own bakery and out of the hourly rental space he was using.
Blonkenfeld didn’t have the money himself to move his operation so he tried Kickstarter believing, in his typical fashion, that if it didn’t work, he’d figure it out. Within days, he had enough money to rent space and buy some equipment. His Kickstarter appeal was a success because Bagelfeld’s already had a following of loyal bagel eaters who all wanted the bagels to continue to be available.
“Sometimes things just fall in my lap. I was nearby getting tags for my car and saw the ‘for lease’ sign. This place isn’t perfect but it’s a good start.”
Even though the East Thomas Road location had been a bakery before, Blonkenfeld had a lot of work to do to get the space ready for his business. “I did a lot of the dirty work myself with the help of a plumber and a few other people. The biggest obstacle was waiting for inspections before I could open. We were ready to bake. We had all the equipment in place. We had cleaned and spruced up the place. But we had to wait. I opened slowly in February, a bit later than I had hoped, on Saturdays while of course continuing to sell at the farmers markets and to a few local shops who make sandwiches with my bagels.”
Charles Blonkenfeld is the kind of person we’d all like to work for. He knows his craft. He doesn’t mind sharing. He’s easygoing as a boss. “If someone wants time off, they get it. We’ll figure out how to cover in their absence. I just want my employees to be happy and in turn I want them to make sure that my customers are happy.”
With any luck, we bagel lovers will be able to get our bagel fix for a long time to come.
Bagelfeld’s Bagels
Bagelfeld’s Kitchen
2940 E. Thomas Rd.
Phoenix
bagelfeld.com
kitchen@bagelfeld.com
Bagels, spreads, brunch platter and other goodies Breakfast and brunch catering also on offer
Bagels also available at Uptown Farmers Market and Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market.
