Squid Ink Bagels Are Coming to Black Seed
Apart from classics like the bacon, egg, and cheese, Black Seed bagels always has innovative sandwich (and non-sandwich) offerings on the menu, thanks to an ongoing monthly chef collaboration series that’s included Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm and John Nguyen from Hanoi House. Last September, the Montreal-style bagel company teamed up with Gramercy Tavern to create a breakfast sandwich piled with “house-made Vermont wagyu pastrami, soft scrambled eggs, Fresno chiles, and a smoked onion sauce atop a rye bagel;” earlier this year, Black Seed and Luke’s Lobster made a $16 bagel sandwich with tarragon lobster cream cheese, topped with Maine lobster knuckle and claw meat, and celery salad. The latest addition to the roster? A squid ink bagel sandwich.
“The Txikito Bialy” sandwich, which launches June 3, was created by Black Seed’s executive chef Dianna Daoheung and chef Alex Raji, of Txikito, La Vara, and Saint Julivert. She and her husband, chef and co-owner Eder Montero, were recently nominated for the James Beard “Outstanding Restaurateur” award—and the sandwich she created is fittingly elevated, drawing inspiration from Argentinian, Spanish, and New York City cuisines. The bagel is made with a custom squid ink bialy, then laden with a whipped spring pea spread and topped with sweet red onions. The result is a visually dynamic sandwich, with bright green popping out against the black.
“When Black Seed approached us with the idea of a collaboration, I wanted to draw on my relationship to my Argentine Jewish roots, the Lower East side where we live, and the Spanish space we cook in,” Raji said in a statement. "For me, all these places have always been inextricably linked and influenced the small details that personalize our cooking. I wanted to riff on the importance of the onion in Basque cooking and the bread traditions preserved in my favorite coca, the coca de pèsols, so I decided to do a squid ink bialy with sweet red onion standing in for the traditional cebolla de zalla onion of Euskadi.”
If you want to try the new sandwich, it will be on Black Seed’s menu through the end of June, ringing in at $5 a pop. In other Black Seed news, the company recently teamed up with Brooklyn-based brewery Folksbier to create a beer brewed with leftover bagels. It takes Glow Up, a Berliner Weisse-style sour by Folksbier, and replaces a portion of the grist (usually a malted grain cereal) with bagels—multiple flavors are used, except for everything-style. We got to try the new beer the day it launched, and were pleasant surprised by the results (no, it didn’t taste like a bagel). Find out what we thought and where you can buy the beer in our full review.
