New York City bagel makers claim to make the best bagels, and don’t think any other city can compare. Los Angeles bagel chefs consider New York’s bagels overrated, and say theirs are tastier. And then there are Montreal bagels, which many view as first-rate.
But in overlooked Philadelphia, Philip Korshak who runs Korshak Bagels, is undeterred and considers his bagels unmatched.
The bottom-line may that most bagels are regionally produced, and none of them is necessarily better than the other—just different.
Even the New York Times praised Korshak’s product, writing that “Korshak Bagels will make you crave a Philly bagel, which in this case is a pillowy-soft, sourdough bagel with a schmear of cream cheese made with mozzarella rind and goat’s milk.”
Though Korshak was born in Houston, Texas, he lived in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn from 1993-2003. He craved the bagels at Bergen Bagel, located at Bergen Street and Flatbush Avenue. But his job was running a honkytonk bar, Rodeo Bar, not far from Gramercy Park.
He moved to Austin where he learned to make bagels at home, “trained by no one,” he says, and then gravitated to Philadelphia. He invested $100,000 of his own capital and raised another $200,000 from friends and investors to open Korshak Bagels in Philadelphia on May 13, 2021.
Opening during the beginning of a pandemic was a test. “The biggest challenge was making sure the shop was safe across the board, for employees and customers,” he notes.
Since the shop is about 1,000 square feet in totality and 80% of it is preparation area, the space with customers is tight. That inevitably leads to conversations among customers, standing toe-to-toe.
Korshak Bagels is located in South Philly and offers no seating and take-out only. Despite having no table service, it also doesn’t offer any third-party delivery through Grubhub, Seamless or DoorDash.
“I doubt we ever will,” he says. “I really like it being a neighborhood shop, and seeing people, and their babies, also the dogs,” he explains.
He describes the process of making Korshak Bagels as relying on a small batch of about 100 to a dough, at most. In his words, the bagels are “hand-cut, rolled, boiled and baked. The bagel has a sourdough heart.” He calls “the 48-hour rise using sour dough” as key.
He’s not trying to discredit any of his competitors or get involved in any bagel fisticuffs. But he does say that New York City bagels are “industrially manufactured for quality and dense, given the gluten development in the dough.” And Montreal bagels are produced from a “wood-fire oven, not an electric pizza oven.”
One of his best sellers is the schmears, including Lady Bunny, which includes raisins soaked in goat milk with cinnamon sugar, carrots and walnuts, and the Lox Star Sandwich, consisting of the bagel, schmear, dill red onion, and Nova Belly Lox.
This fall his “clem” bagel consisting of roasted clementine’s, salt and peppercorns has been a big seller. “It’s really delicious and the taste is unexpected,” he says.
Despite only offering take-out, he describes his bagel shop as a neighborhood meeting place. He says that most guests wait on line with other guests, for 10 minutes or more, and begin to chat, and friendships emerge. Most live in South Philly, and since they’re not too far from Center City, it also attracts tourists.
Would he entertain opening a second Korshak Bagel shop? “It would take the right spot, raising another crew, and raising a bucket of money,” he says candidly. “The need is there. There’s a void of good, local bagel shops.”
Korshak, a former English major and master’s degree student, also writes poems on a brown paper bag and posts them on the front door of the bagel shop on Monday when it’s closed. “I wanted to communicate with the neighborhood when I wasn’t there and the Instagram people who follow me,” he explains.
Asked the three keys to its success, Korshak responds rather obliquely, saying, “Compassion, patience and jettisoning the ego.” He calls consistency, the usual response by most restaurateurs, as a “myth. It’s not attainable and not useful.”
A year from today, he expects to be in the same spot at Korshak Bagels making dough. “I like being in the neighborhood, but maybe at that point, I’ll start looking at other buildings,” he admits.