Schmear campaign! The ‘best’ bagel shop in America isn’t in New York, it’s in Texas — worse, the judges were mostly New Yorkers

Tamara Ceaikovski

Wait — what the  hole ? Brace yourselves, New York — according to the experts, the best bagels are no longer boiled and baked in the Big Apple, but in Texas. The shock schmear on Gotham’s reputation as a leading carb capital came courtesy of a panel of judges at the 2025 BagelFest, held at CitiField in Queens over the weekend — where Starship Bagels, an upstart from Fort Worth, took top honors over dozens of local greats. More humiliating still, the People’s Choice award at the edible event —