The Big D > The Big Apple. This past Sunday, New York BagelFest 2025 held its sold-out festival at Citi Field in New York City. The festival saw competitors from across the country, and the world at large, among 2,000 attendants. Showing up the likes of New York bagel shops on their home turf, was Starship Bagel in Dallas – crowned the “Best Bagel”.
BagelFest, held recently at Citi Field in Queens, is essentially the Olympics of bagels. The festival drew two dozen competitors from across the country as well as contestants hailing from as far as Madrid, Copenhagen, and Montreal. And in a blind tasting judged by the “Breadhead Expert Judging Panel”—an expert group of serious food journalists, chefs, and bakers—the Dallas-area phenom clinched the highest honor.
For further insult to injury, Starship Bagel didn’t just win the festival’s highest honors of best bagel, the Dallas bagel shop also won the Best New York Style Bagel sub-category as well as Best Showmanship. Starship was also runner-up in Schmear of the Year and Most Creative.
This victory is especially sweet because it wasn’t a fluke. This is actually the second time Starship Bagel has won the prestigious Best Bagel award at BagelFest (first winning in 2023), proving their dominance is the real deal.
“Bagel makers play an important role. They feed people, create comfort, and build careers,” said Sam Silverman, founder of BagelFest. ” But the work can feel lonely because the challenges are so specific. BagelFest brings the community together so no one has to navigate it alone, and so everyone can learn from those who’ve already lived it”.
Starship Bagel is the shop of James Beard-nominated baker, Oren Salomon. As far as the secret of his success, Salomon credit: Lewisville water.
“It was a huge risk, and it could have easily not worked…. In a way, we kind of debuted this new approach to baking bagels, and the judges validated it… We won with Lewisville water”!
Starship Bagel has multiple locations in Dallas, with shops at 1520 Elm St. #107 and 6859 Arapaho Rd #603. Both locations are open from 7 am to 1 pm daily.