These guys told me they used to sell Belly Lox here in Los Angeles and now it’s just the smoked.
But they’re going to sell the belly lox online. Sure it’s not as good as Russ & Daughters.
BTW, Maury’s had it in stock a couple of days ago. $10.50 for a closed sandwich, $18.50 open faced. So R & D may actually be a better value.
Or a bagel with bad morals… 
Acme / Blue Hill Bay makes great stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised if Russ & D’s is one of their wholesale customers.
I was so busy looking for belly lox I didn’t notice that they were also Blue Hill Bay. That’s the whitefish salad that is sold at Costco. Excellent.
Well that’s good to know. Great article! Thanks, @robert
Not my usual review, wifey brought me a salt bagel from Bagel Nosh.
Texture was better than usual. Not as bready. A one off? Excellent today. Serious salt coverage.
Really great today. If they were like this every day I would definitely move them up in my pecking order.
Got a bagel from yeastie boys as I waited to pick up from Jon and Vinny’s on Sunday and I will just say that I am sticking to Bagel Nosh or NY Bagel or TJ’s pre-packaged bagels in a pinch and leave it at that. Must’ve been a bad day.
if you love smoked whitefish as much as I do, my new move at Costco is to buy the whole acme smoked whitefish ( in gold foil) - super easy debone- add fish to sour cream/ creme fraiche and add some chopped chive & cracked pepper. IMHO, Way healthier and better tasting than Blue Hill Whitefish Salad!
What do you think is less healthy about their whitefish salad?
I’d characterize my experience deboning one of those fish as a super-messy pain in the ass.
deboning whitefish is a pain in the arse
celery, onion, dill, kewpie, pepper and a pinch of salt
just look at the ingredients on the salad, youll see vs ingredients in whole smoked. The debone is super easy bc its all cooked already and peels off. I usually do 2 or 3 passes running fish thru fingers making sure no bones. Try it!
Acme whitefish salad is basically smoked fish and mayonnaise. I like it better than the homemade version I made from scratch, even though I used better mayonnaise.
awesome that you tried for myself. I realized that what I like the best about doing it myself is the control of fish to mayo etc ratio.
The salad is far too goopy for my preference. I love keepin it real chunky and use creme fraiche or hampshire sour cream plus herbs like chive, parsley depending whats in my fridge.
So, it’s been a while since my last bagel expedition. Had to be up early here in Santa Monica so it was a good time to try a place I’ve had recommended before. Sams. They have a location on Main here in SM. I assume they’re related.I once had a decent bagel at Sams in Larchmont. But that was 10 years ago so my memories may not be that accurate.
I did my usual photograph against the tiles so you can compare sizes in my photos above. The bagels were very large, however they were not very heavy.
VERY soft, kinda spongy. But not doughy.
No crisp. Very much in the vein of Noah’s. Even Western’s bagels are more dense. Not much chew, good flavor.
Eating the side without the toppings and I was transported back in time to when I was in a town with no bagel shop and was forced to eat a Thomas’s.
The toasted was better, but obviously did not help these chew-challenged objects.
This “bagel” is probably well-suited for “bagel” sandwiches. But this was my least favorite of all bagel places, except Noah’s and Einstein. Bummed I wasted probably 500 calories.
The 4 hole-y breads cost a tad over $5.
Btw, sign said they were moving to Montana. I was thinking I’d probably consider them a good bagel for the State of Montana, but I think they meant Montana Ave in SM.
So in my pecking order, these fit the category of “Not Bagels that call themselves bagels.”
So ranking those:
Gjusta
Western
Sam’s (Santa Monica)
Noah’s*
Einstein*
*these should not be on anyone’s list … for anything. Lender’s, Sara Lee, Thomas’s, any store brand from the market are ALL better.
Went to the location in Sherman Oaks on Ventura Boulevard. It had been a while since I’ve been.
These bagels are far from traditional. But I find the texture to be really appealing because I personally enjoy a chewy bagel and the bagel itself does not rely on toppings for its flavor
EVERYTHING BAGEL with nova cream cheese ($5.25)
(though they mistakenly call it “lox)
Most of their bagels have very few if any toppings. Their onion bagel has no discernible onion. But the everything bagel they top well.
Some bagel places only cream cheese one side and put it together as a sandwich. Hanks does it right by putting cream cheese on both sides. You can eat it open-faced.
ONION BIALY ($5.25)
Their version of an onion Bialy. They are $1.50 more than their bagels.They put sweated onions on them. Very unusual. I found that little bit of oil to be offputting
Doggie is pissed I left him in the car
They have another location in Toluca Lake, maybe it’s Burbank.
How is that roll with no hole in the middle a bagel?
Lol that’s a good point, I was too busy devouring
You could tell where there was a hole before they baked it.
Love me some Hanks!
Is there a single place in LA that has proper lox and calls it such? (Other than Barney Greengrass back in the day.) I feel like we should all just come to grips with the fact that most places outside NYC call it lox and it’s gonna be nova.
Always thought Wexler’s served nova and they just call it “lox.” Is that not the case?
