By Ava Stryker-Robbins
In 1936, Morris Kossar and Isadore Mirsky opened Mirsky’s and Kossar’s Bagels on the Lower East Side. After 88 years, multiple opening-date changes, and lots of eager anticipation, the doors to the Upper West Side branch of Kossar’s opened early Thursday morning. “We wanted to make sure the product was perfect and ready,” an owner, Marom Unger, shared with West Side Rag during a phone interview.
“The neighborhood is beyond excited for us to open. They’ve been waiting close to two years,” he said. “Now that we have a clean, beautiful space here with a lot of nostalgic old-school pictures and they see us working in here, they’re in shock that it’s really happening.”
Kossar’s sells several varieties of both bagels and bialys that are baked throughout the day in the store. According to Unger, they anticipate 80-85% of their bread sales to be bagels. “Bialys are not a commonly known thing anymore, so we have a responsibility to educate,” Unger said.
Kossar’s website describes a bialy as similar to a bagel, but “softer, chewier and lighter, with no hole in the middle.” Bialys typically have onion, garlic, or another type of filling in the center. They originated in Poland. “It was their local bread that they had around the table,” Unger said. “It’s essentially poor Jewish bread.”
As thousands of Polish Jews migrated to the Lower East Side to escape persecution during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bialys traveled with them. Unger explained that Kossar’s story began when “Morris Kossar started selling them as an homage to his home back in Białystok, Poland.”
And while the rest of the world and New York City underwent many changes, Kossar’s has not. “The bialys are exactly the same as when they were coming out of the ovens in 1936,” he said, adding that the recipe is relatively simple, as it only requires four ingredients as well as “a lot of knowledge and love.”
The onion bialy is delicious. Its light texture and sweet onion filling make for a wonderful breakfast. Even the bread itself has a different flavor than a bagel—it is rich and tastes more like pizza dough than other types of bread. I personally have and always will be team bialy, and Kossar’s bialys are my favorite of all.
Unger is aware of the impact Kossar’s can have on the neighborhood and the people in it. “Bialys are very nostalgic for people who grew up on the Lower East Side eating them,” he said. “We get a lot of people saying ‘I used to come here with my grandfather or my great grandfather.’”
Unger too has a personal connection to Kossar’s, as he grew up eating bialys. He is an immigrant who moved to the city when he was very young and is half Polish and half Romanian.
“My dad was a limousine driver and he would bring bialys to us. I grew up hearing the stories of the bialy,” he recalled. “When I told my dad [that I was buying Kossar’s], he nearly had a heart attack. It was very full circle for us. It’s really close to my heart and I hope to be doing it a service.”
Unger concluded by reiterating how seriously he takes operating Kossar’s. “We have a responsibility and duty to maintain this product and the longevity of Kossar’s for the next generation,” he said. “We are trying to put out a perfect New York bagel and a perfect bialy every day.”
The onion bialy costs $1.75.
The Dish: Onion Bialy
The Restaurant: Kossar’s (270 West 72nd Street at West End Avenue)
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Delighted to hear of Kossar’s opening. Whether or not it is “poor Jewish bread,” a good bialy is a thing of beauty, in my opinion much more toothsome than its overblown cousin, the bagel. For more — much more — on the subject, I recommend Mimi Sheraton’s book, “The Bialy Eaters,” which commemorates her search for the source of this most excellent bread in Poland.
I love that you used “toothsome,” Carmella. I’m going to work that word into my vocabulary going forward. 🙂
Which direction does the line go?
Bialys have always been underrated. Nothing like an onion bialy with a schmear of butter on top. Do not cut or toast. Will they also be selling onion boards? Another favorite that I haven’t seen in ages.
What is an onion board?!
A flat square bread topped with fried onion and poppy seeds. AKA a pletzel. Something like a Jewish foccaccia. Delish.
no 3 minimum, right? tight!
Both the bialy and bagels were excellent. The place is beautiful and the staff were wonderful. Thrilled that they are finally open.
I ordered a bialy with butter today and the total was over $4.00. I questioned the cost since the board says $1.75 but I was told rather tersely that the cost is the same as “something” I couldn’t understand. Hopefully they aren’t charging $2+ for butter and this was just a mistake?
The prices for some items are just questionable. I asked for a TOASTED corn muffin with butter: got a lukewarm muffin for $4.50. Butter is just expensive these days lol
Yes, menu states “Butter Sandwich” is $3.75 and maybe plus tax since they made it there.
Butter sandwich !! That must be a LOT of butter.
You didn’t ask them to repeat it? This has been happening to me a lot (at other places obviously) the last few weeks. A cashier at a deli put things in my bag that I hadn’t even ordered and then got mad because I wouldn’t pay for them, lol.
I looked at Kossar’s menu online and the price of a bagel with butter is $3.85 and it’s 50 cents extra for butter. Maybe the same price range for the bialy? Way overpriced in any case.
The bialys are truly great. But my loyalty to Zucker’s and Tal Bagels still stands. More elasticity and “tug” when eating. In retrospect, it really is sick that we have so many choices of foods, that we can be this nit-picky. Grateful for my life!!
Agreed we have so many choices.
I am a Zuckers fan but am likely to switch to Kossar’s. The bagels are a bit softer but the FLAVOR to me is better.
Almost two dollars for one bialy is pretty high pricing. Although this one seems to have enough onions on it, I’ve never had one with enough onions. Since you can’t make a sandwich with one, give me an onion roll, anytime. Or pletzel.
Sold out early both days. Glad they r doing well. Maybe someday I’ll actually taste one. 😏
Does Kossar’s sell flagels, also known as flat bagels?
Get fresh baked old style Onion Boards at Rockland Bakeries.
IMHO That does not look like a real bialy.
I grew up a few blocks from the factory.
They delivered them hot and fresh Saturday night for the corner grocery that opened after sundown.
The bialy at the old Grand Street store (before yuppies bought that) looked like a bialy.
This would fit in Shoprite’s bakery department.
Looking forward to trying these, but I also spent much of my childhood on the LES eating Kossar’s bialys warm from the oven on freezing winter days (when we still had freezing winter days), and somewhere down the line post-Kossar’s what I had once known as a bialy hardly had any onions left in the center, so we will see. I did buy something delicious at the UWS Orwasher’s last year that was called a bialy but it also bore no resemblance to the Kossar’s plain yet irreplaceable bialy of my early years. Like I said, we shall see. One can always hope 🙂 and yes to pletzels too!
Sorry, I have been buying kosher bialys for 40 years. eventhough I eat them every day andove them, they DO NOT look like the picture you show. They barely have onions on them, and definately nk poppy seeds. False picture!
The bagels are too expensive. At $1.90 each they are 50 cents more than Zabar’s, which has excellent bagels.