How The Bagel Became An American Breakfast Staple

Bagels are a morning staple at the drive-thru, at five-star restaurants, and in toasters at home. They are served with cream cheese, jam and fruit, melted provolone, or avocado, just to name a few toppings. Bagels are so well-known these days that the only surprises they have in store are the ways people style them, but it wasn't always that way. Today, You can find bagels themselves in a variety of flavors from sweet to savory, and you can top them with almost anything — case in point: here are 15 bagel toppings beyond cream cheese to try ASAP. They're cut in a few different ways as well; in half for toasting, or you can halve them and then quarter them for an appetizer-style presentation.

In St. Louis, bagels are sliced like loaves of bread. They're eaten alone or turned into breakfast sandwiches and garnished in all sorts of unique ways. For example, bagels are an easy way to bring breakfast into your burger experience. In Chicago, they turn bagels into mini deep-dish pizzas. Bagels in Los Angeles are made with sourdough and served open-faced with toppings sourced from local farmers' markets. In New York, where bagels were introduced to America, you can find them in all shapes and sizes, and with every topping imaginable. But how did bagels become popular in New York and how did the word get out to the rest of the country about these incredible breakfast breads? Here's a look at bagels became synonymous with breakfast. 

Bagels arrived on American soil in New York with Jewish immigrants from Poland in the late 1800s and by the early 1900s a baker's trade union had formed around bagels in New York. The International Beigel Baker's Union created a monopoly on bagels in the city, catering to immigrants who longed for a taste of food from their home countries. Such was the status of bagels in America for quite some time, very popular but only in certain ethnic communities. The rest of America didn't know what it was missing until after World War II when an appetizer recipe in Family Circle Magazine spilled the beans on bagels. The recipe paired bagels with sweet butter and smoked salmon, or alternatively, cream cheese, anchovies, or red caviar. Housewives in the 1950's ate it up — both literally and figuratively.

Bagels continued to gain popularity in American culture over the following decades, moving from just an appetizer to a sturdy breakfast food for a population constantly on the move. By the 1970s bagels had gained enough traction for the company Lender's Bagels to put a frozen version on the market. Since then, bagels have captivated American culture and become a mainstay in delis and bakeries nationwide.

Immigrants brought bagels to New York, but it was a magazine that broke the news about bagels to the rest of America. And since that recipe appeared in a 1950s edition of Family Circle Magazine bagels have continued to appear in pop culture. Bagels were featured in iconic movies like the 1989 comedy flick "When Harry Met Sally." Bagels were highlighted by Robert De Niro in the 1988 film "Midnight Run" and were present when Al Pacino introduced the phrase "fuggedaboutit" in the movie "Donnie Brasco." New York brunch bagels are a mainstay in the hit series "Sex and the City" and have been featured in "Seinfeld," "Friends," "The Office," and other TV shows.

TV and film aren't the only places bagels appear in American pop culture. They've made appearances in nearly every form of art, including still art itself. Artists in America and around the world have paid homage to the bagel in their work, like painter and digital artist Sara Flicht who has an entire series dedicated to and inspired by New York bagels.