Bagels Are Sliced Like Loaves Of Bread In St. Louis And It Might Be Brilliant

Once upon a time, the internet went bonkers over bagels, as it is wont to do over all kinds of weird things. In this case, it was 2019 when Alek Krautmann tweeted a photo of how some folks in St. Louis sliced their bagels. Rather than cutting them in half horizontally, folks in the Gateway to the West (as this Missouri city is known) slice their bagels vertically — as if the bagel was just an ordinary loaf of bread. While this slicing method sparked quite a controversy, it has some real upsides.

So before you dismiss the St. Louis bagel, hear us out. This method is great for large crowds and children. Plus, you can still eat them with a schmear of seltzer water-infused New York City deli-style cream cheese and other toppings without having everything squirt out like toothpaste when you bite down. This happens far too often with traditional bagels, especially when you're trying to eat one on the go.

As with many food-related trends, it can sometimes be hard to pin down their genesis. Panera Bread, which is headquartered in St. Louis, seems to be the first place to start cutting bagels this way, but when and why it began remains murky. It may have started when a mother requested this method to make it easier for her child to eat. Indeed, these smaller slices of bagel are easier for little hands and mouths to navigate than a traditional bagel.

Today I introduced my coworkers to the St Louis secret of ordering bagels bread sliced. It was a hit! pic.twitter.com/XNGbljtpYz

— Alek Krautmann (@AlekKrautmann) March 26, 2019

Likewise, since you get more slices per bagel, the St. Louis method means you can feed more folks. If you've ever seen regular-cut bagels after an entire office descends on them, you know the kind of carnage left over when plastic knives are used to saw through bagels so that everyone can get a bite. You can also take these slices and use them as a replacement for sandwich bread, which is a hack you can use to avoid soggy sandwiches, because the bagels are denser than most slices of bread. 

Perhaps the best part about St. Louis-style bagel slices is the endless ways you can get creative with them. Slicing bagels like bread gives you more surface area to cover with various bagel toppings besides cream cheese, including everything from pesto to tinned fish. Because the slices are smaller, you could sample a variety of bagel toppings using only a single bagel — a veritable banquet spanning from savory to sweet. You could also use the bagel slices for dipping in place of crackers or chips. Think warm spinach artichoke dip or buffalo chicken dip, which can be too heavy for crackers to stand up to, but a bagel slice could easily handle it.

The only downside we can see with the St. Louis bagel might be for anyone who especially loves a bagel's crisp, shiny crust since, with this method, you're only getting a fraction of the exterior per slice. But hey, the St. Louis-style bagel isn't for everyone, as the internet has made abundantly clear. So, while the world has moved on to the next divisive issue, St. Louis quietly continues to cut its bagels vertically, and so can you. Don't let the nay-sayers stop you from exploring the myriad possibilities that a different way of cutting a bagel can conjure.