REAL good bagels 🥯
UPDATE: Well, Dot Bagels got itself into a lot of legal troubles in 2022, but re-emerged without its former owner and is now a collab with Kennedy & Rhind. Same great bagels!
What does a successful lockdown business look like?
How about Dot Bagels (250 Chillingham Rd, NE6 5LQ)? Hard to believe it was just 18 months ago that we didn’t have access to bagels like this in Newcastle.
Elbowing its way to the title of surely the biggest NE lockdown success, it has expanded faster than my waistline since I’ve been working in the city centre again. From Chilli Road to Acorn Road to Backyard Bike Shop, Fenwick Food Hall, and Gosforth and another NE1 location coming soon, it’s bloody everywhere. Understandable when you learn the owner’s experience CV lists heading up expansions of Gail’s Bakeries and Prets. So I would expect that the Dot takeover of Newcastle certainly won’t let up. Surely, only world domination can be left. Or how about one at Central Station (please?).
Dot Bagels‘ ‘do one thing well’ is hot and cold filled hand-made bagels. I wonder how long they’ll be able to keep this up for, but the USP here is that all bagels are shaped, boiled and baked in the Chilli Road shop, by hand. Which for me, is the differentiator. It does make all the difference. The bagels are as good as you get in NYC or anywhere, but without the New Yorker tourist attitude. Always fresh, and even just eaten on their own with some butter or cheese, you’re gonna be impressed.
They’re really, always great. Well-proportioned (see: big-fist-sized-chonkers), have a nicely blistered crust with a supple yet satisfying chew. And best of all, the fillings nearly always match up to the quality of the bake. It just adds up to a great sandwich.
It’s become far too easy to say ‘shall we get a Dot for lunch’, so I already have a few favourites.
I recently cited I Scream for Pizza’s bodega roll as the best sandwich out there at the moment and it’s gotta be close competition from the OG bagel. (Update: handy seeing as Scream have pulled the bodega rolls 😭). The Dot Bagels Reuben is balls to-the-wall sandwich perfection.
If you’re a Dot virgin — start here. Sauerkraut. Gherkins. Mustard. Cheese. Get the hot version, with Block & Bottle’s superb pastrami on an ‘everything’ bagel. It’s just mega. A two-handed, salty and fatty, £7 worth of joy. Which might seem a fair whack for ‘just’ a sandwich, but I’ve never not felt like I’ve gotten value from what is undeniably a big and beautiful eat. The opposite of the sad, cold meal deal sandwich culture we have in this country.
See also, the Boujie Lox 👇🏼
We’ve joked a few times that this has too much salmon in it. As if 😂. Half of it ends up spilling out, but if that isn’t the hallmark of a top-tier sandwich, I dunno what is. Cream cheese + capers, it’s another classic that’s (thankfully) a menu mainstay.
There’s breaded chicken in bagels in the guise of parmos in a bun. Shredded five-spiced duck in bagels with hoisin sauce. Vegan versions which aren’t just afterthoughts. Fried fish in bagels. Sausages in bagels. Breakfast bagels. And while some of them I’ve loved slightly less, that’s like choosing your least favourite child. They’ve all been stonkers.
Where they’ve been really smart is a quarterly menu, meaning there’s always something new worth a try. I really can’t think of anyone doing this better in the casual sector in NCL at the minute. Prime example is the current menu, where I’m yet to try, but hopelessly want at least four of the newbies (General Tso’s chicken, It’s PBJ Time, BIRRIA, short rib, if you’re wondering).
Some of Dot‘s initial success has gotta be in part thanks to collaborations like a mac & cheese bagel from Redheads, or the Scream for Pizza bagel (below) which really pushed the brand out there.
It’s just smart business, they don’t miss a trick. Yesterdays less than perfect bagels? Sell for cheap the next day. Getting towards the end of the day? The 3pm box deal (bagel, hash pops, dip, drink, tenner) is an easy, no-fuss tea. Plain bagels to take home and add your own silly toppings? Nigh on £2 a pop (they do freeze/reheat well).
It’s just an epic sandwich, every time. It is difficult to become a North East institution overnight. Think Seventeen Going Under, Amanda Stavely, The Vegan Sausage Roll. But if anyone else were to do it, I’d imagine it’d be Dot Bagels 😘
Contact: dotbagels.com
Food hygiene rating: 5/5
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