Razava Bagel

BORN IN NEW YORK. MADE IN SAINT PAUL.

WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT

🥯 Our Kind of Classic
A New York-style bagel, made the Razava way.

🔥 Dark and Burnished
Baked past golden for a deep, caramelized crust that's impossible to miss.

💧 Lighter Than It Looks
A high-hydration sourdough that sits easier in your stomach.

🧈 Malty. Tangy. Deeply Satisfying
The complexity that only long fermentation can produce.

THE STORY

Ask 10 different people what makes the perfect bagel, and most of them will describe a classic New York bagel. (Unless they’re from Montreal, in which case they’re just wrong 😇) 

What they tend to agree on: a thin, almost crackly exterior that gives way to a dense, chewy, malty interior, with a small hole in the center to allow for maximum schmear coverage. 

The challenge: That type of bagel is typically made from very strong high-gluten flour, very low hydration,  and is almost exactly the opposite of how we bake at Razava.

So we set out to make a Razava version of the New York-style bagel, a high-hydration sourdough bagel, long fermented, and with a darker bake.  

We launched the NY Bagel when we opened in 2024, and it became one of our most beloved products, and the surface for countless Smoked Salmon Bagels and Schmear sandwiches since then. 

But over the past year and a half, it has justly earned a heated debate around the question: is it really a New York Bagel? The truth is, it has become our own bagel: shaped by our process, our philosophy, and our ingredients. 

We are damn proud of it, and of the fact that so many of our customers have been coming for it and loving it. 

So we're making it official: From here on out, we give you …

… the Razava Bagel. 

WHY WE MAKE IT

We were already set on the Jerusalem Bagel, and we thought we needed something more approachable for people unfamiliar with the Razava Bagel’s elongated, sesame-coated sibling. 

Plus, did we mention that we just really, really like bagels?

Because bagels aren’t just any bakery item: They’re comfort food, nostalgia, texture, and taste, rolled into one hand-held package. They’re a food that fits every mood, from celebratory brunch to somber gathering. Keep calm and eat bagels. 

FLAVOR PROFILE & CRAFT

The classic New York bagel is a stiff, dense dough that is easy to shape and quick to process. It's also, by our standards, very difficult to digest and not particularly nutritious. So we faced a straightforward problem: how do you make something that tastes and feels like a New York bagel, using an entirely different philosophy?

The answer started with the scald. We introduced it here for the same reason we use it in our Pain de Mie — to get more water into the dough in a way that maintains the structure of the dough without making it too slack. The scald pre-gelatinizes the starches, allowing the dough to absorb significantly more water while still behaving like a lower-hydration dough. It's what gives our bagel that tender, yielding chew, without the density or the digestive heaviness of a traditional New York bagel.

From there, the fermentation does the rest. Where most bagel shops do their long fermentation after shaping, we do ours in bulk, before the bagels are shaped. A long, cold bulk fermentation develops the flavor and structure we're looking for. From there, the dough is shaped, given a warm final proof, and then briefly chilled before going into a very hot oven. That final chill, combined with intense heat and plenty of steam, is what gives us the characteristic exterior.

Like everything else at Razava, we bake them dark, coaxing the sugars in the dough toward that deep, burnished exterior that adds another layer of flavor and makes them unmistakably ours.

The result is a bagel that shares the spirit of its New York inspiration while being more digestible and more flavorful, than any bagel you'll find at a traditional shop. It's rustic, it's complex, and anything but straightforward.

HOW TO EAT IT

For a fresh Razava Bagel, our default is untoasted, because they’re already nice and caramelized from the dark bake. But if you prefer to pass them through a toaster, no hard feelings.

• With Schmear or Butter — Don’t overthink it, and be generous with the amount you’re putting on. 

• The Classic — St. James Smokehouse lox, toasted caper schmear, and roasted tomato. Come in and let us make you one, or build your own at home with the best lox you can find.

• The Cucumber Club — Beet horseradish schmear, cucumber, sliced tomato, pickled red onion, and sesame seeds. A great home build for when you want something lighter.

• Pizza Bagel — Split, toasted, topped with crushed tomatoes and melted cheese. The best possible outcome for a day-old bagel, and a perfectly legitimate dinner.

HOW TO STORE IT

Thanks to the scald method, our Razava Bagels stay fresher longer than most. They're at their best the day they're baked, but still very enjoyable the next day.

If you're not going to finish them within a day or two, freeze them. Slice lengthwise before freezing, then pop them straight into the toaster when you're ready. Or wrap them whole, microwave them for a minute to freshen up, and toast from there.

Either way, they take well to the freezer.

WHERE TO BUY IT

You can find the Razava Bagel Wednesday-Sunday at our bakery at 685 Grand Avenue in St. Paul; on DoorDash; on Uber Eats; or at one of our neighborhood pickup locations in North Minneapolis (Wednesday), Minnetonka (Thursday) or St. Louis Park (Friday).