Stopsky’s Delicatessen Wins First Place in Bagel Taste Test

, Mercer Island newest restaurant is already popular both on-island and off. A blind taste-test conducted by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine rated Stopsky’s onion bagel number one among all the local bagel shops, seen here: http://www.seattlemet.com/blogs/nosh-pit/seattle-met-taste-test-bagels-june-2011/  The Stopsky’s onion bagel is the  number 12 photo in the slideshow, and it is the only bagel that has no complaints from the Seattle Met magazine judges. Stopksy’s sesame seed and plain bagels were mentioned as well.

Stopksy’s “Bread Maven” and bagel baker Andrew Meltzer was surprised by the win because he didn’t know about the contest. “The (magazine) had a contest earlier but it was cancelled at the last minute,” Meltzer said. “So one day Jeff (Sanderson, the owner) grabbed some bagels off the shelf and didn’t let us know that he was taking them to the contest…if he had told us what was going on, I probably would have tried to do something special and ruined it, so we wouldn’t have won.”

The process of making Stopsky’s bagels takes three days, starting with locally-sourced unbleached flour, which is mixed with water, yeast, malt, salt and a fermented starter culture called “biga.”

“It’s the way they make bread in Italy,” said Meltzer. “The biga is already fermented and adds flavor and extends the shelf life of the bread.”  Then Meltzer and his assistant baker Erik Carlson allow the dough to proof and rise for hours, after which they put the dough into a “duchess press” which compresses and cuts it into 36 pieces of 3 ounces each. Unfortunately, the dough has to be a specific size and weight in order for the duchess press to cut it, so often Meltzer and Carlson end up cutting the dough from big slabs by hand, weighing them on an old fashioned scale and taking the 3 ounce pieces and shaping them by hand, as they usually do. “We ‘retard’ the bagels overnight in the walk-in refrigerator,” said Carlson. “We come in at 4 am the next morning and get 16 gallons of sugar water boiling and boil bagels for 30 seconds on each side, which adds to their shinyness and cooks the exterior slightly.” The bagels are then baked, along with all the sandwich bread, rolls and buns used at Stopky’s, and set out by 7 am, ready for the eating public.

Melitzer, who grew up in New York eating at Jewish delis, said he will only make the three kinds of bagels that he grew up with. “I make regular (plain) bagels with sesame seeds, poppyseed and onion—I’m not interested in making blueberry or chocolate chip bagels, which are not traditional. If I’m going to eat something with chocolate chips, I’d rather have a cookie.”

Meltzer started his baking career in Pennslyvania and soon got a job in Las Vegas, where he admits he was ‘baking garbage’ for tourists. “All the casinos have big bakeries where they pay you 2 times what you’d make working anywhere else,” he said. “But what you’re doing everyday is making huge quantities of mediocre cuisine.” Meltzer yearned to learn artisanal baking from a master, and got his chance when he read an article in Sunset Magazine about Macrina Bakery in Seattle. Meltzer wrote a letter to Macrina’s owner Leslie Mackie, who hired him after one phone call. “She was a genius and I learned a lot from Leslie,” Meltzer said. “There weren’t many places to learn to bake good bread back in 1994, and San Francisco had the only place on the map that was making crusty sourdough bread, so I knew if I was going to learn to make traditional European breads I’d have to go to where all the good baking was happening on the West Coast.”

Meltzer moved to California and then to Portland in 1997, and moved back to New York to teach at the Culinary Institute of America a few years later. He moved back to the Seattle area in 2001, and after working at Canlis Restaurant, decided to open Columbia City bakery with a friend in South Seattle in 2005. Meltzer sold his share in the bakery to his business partner, and started working with Laura and Jeff Sanderson on the Stopsky’s menu last year.

On a busy day Meltzer and Carlson bake about 275 bagels and baked goods by hand, which is about a third of what most commercial bakeries create. Assistant baker and chef Erik Carlson notes that the breakfasts at Stopky’s are popular not just because of the bagels, but because he is allowed to produce all the meats in-house as well. “I saw this episode of "Seinfeld” where he talked about ‘kosher’ bacon, so I had the idea to make beef bacon from maple cured boneless beef shortribs that are lightly smoked, sliced thinly and cooked crispy. People rave about it.” Carlson also creates Stopsky’s pastrami, salami, corned beef, smoked salmon and all-beef hot dogs. “That’s part of the over-riding philosophy of this restaurant,” Carlson said. “We make everything in-house so it’s fresh...that’s why I feel (the first place award) is justified. I appreciate that (Seattle Metropolitan Magazine) recognizes our awesomeness.”