Meet the Indispensable Bagel Rollers of NYC - A machine still can’t provide a schmear experience up to New York standards.


AF5EAEF6-D7B6-4A2E-8107-390E9C71910D.jpeg

PASQUALE FUENTES ARRIVES AT SHELSKY’S Brooklyn Bagels around 4 p.m. and gets to work making dough, cutting it into slabs, and rolling it into ropes. On most days, he heads home around nine, but some nights he’ll spend another few hours rolling bagels in another shop. “There aren’t a lot of bagel rollers with experience,” says Fuentes of the many calls he receives from bagel-shop owners. If it weren’t for folks like him, New Yorkers would have to start their mornings with soft, machine-made bagels rather than the taut, chewy, hand-rolled bagels the city is famous for.
Bagel rolling has been passed down by generations of immigrants since bagels first arrived in New York in the late 1800s. To this day, despite decades of advancement in bagel-making automation, shops devoted to proper New York bagels rely on their labor and skills.


F4ED2E71-966B-4FB7-8EF8-A17C595E27C2.png

0389AB3A-FDE6-4AD2-95F1-9C311348FB73.jpeg


B7833A15-B8A3-41D5-A8FA-F3C2BC51DA8A.jpeg


B08E8CD9-FBFA-417D-9475-3FECD0A31956.gif



https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...bagels-by-hand