Bagels Near Me? How to Find a Real New York Bagel

If you’re searching “bagels near me” in Chicago or southern Wisconsin, there are six Gotham Bagels shops: four in Chicago (Gold Coast, Lakeview, South Loop and the Magnificent Mile), one on the water in Lake Geneva and the original on Mifflin Street in Madison. Every one of them hand-rolls, kettle-boils and deck-oven bakes New York-style bagels, and you can walk in for carryout or order online for pickup or delivery.

That’s the short answer. The longer one is about what “near me” should actually get you: a real bagel, not a round roll with a hole in it.

Which Gotham Bagels is closest to me?

Here’s the lineup, with the hours each shop keeps. Holiday closures are listed on each location page.

Shop	Address	Hours
Gold Coast	1212 N Dearborn St., Chicago	Daily 7am–2pm
Lakeview	2801 N Lincoln Ave., Unit B, Chicago	Daily 7am–2pm
South Loop	521 S Dearborn St., Chicago	Daily 7am–1pm
Magnificent Mile	162 E Superior St., Unit B, Chicago	Daily 6:30am–2pm
Lake Geneva	300 Wrigley Dr., Unit B, Lake Geneva, WI	Daily 7am–2pm
Madison	112 E Mifflin St., Madison, WI	Tue–Sat 8am–2pm; Sun 8am until sold out (usually noon); closed Monday

A few neighborhood notes. Lakeview sits where Lincoln, Diversey and Racine meet and has a patio for when the weather cooperates. The Gold Coast shop shares a space with Eduardo’s Enoteca, with about 30 seats inside, a five-seat coffee bar and a loading zone out front for quick pickups. The Magnificent Mile opens earliest, at 6:30, if your commute starts before the sun does. Lake Geneva is at Harbor Shores, right on the lake. And Madison is where it all started, in 2006.

What makes a bagel a “real” New York bagel?

Two steps separate a New York bagel from bread shaped like one: it’s rolled by hand, and it’s boiled before it’s baked.

The boil is the big one. A short bath in hot water pre-gelatinizes the starch in the dough, which sets the crust and gives you that dense, chewy bite. A lot of modern bakeries skip it and bake in a steam-injected oven instead. According to the same NPR reporting, steam only gelatinizes the surface, so you get a shinier, puffier bagel with a thinner crust and none of the chew. It’s faster and easier to automate. It’s also not a New York bagel.

Hand-rolling matters too. A baker rolling each rope of dough and sealing it into a ring gets a tighter, more even crumb than a machine stamping out rings. We wrote a whole post on machine-rolled vs. hand-rolled bagels if you want the full argument.

What about the water? It’s the most famous bagel myth there is. The bakers and food scientists NPR talked to call the water’s effect “pretty minor.” Technique does the heavy lifting. (We dug into that one in Is New York water the secret to great bagels?)

So when you’re scanning search results, here’s the quick test: ask whether they boil. If the answer is no, keep scrolling.

Where did the New York bagel come from, anyway?

Bagels arrived in the United States with Eastern European immigrants in the late 19th century, and New York is where they became an institution. It’s also where, as one history puts it, “bagel met and married lox”. Later, refrigerated, packaged bagels spread them across the country, which is how a lot of the Midwest got to know the bagel through the freezer aisle.

Gotham’s founder is a New Yorker who moved to Madison in 1999 and couldn’t find a real bagel. So in 2006 he opened a shop that made them the old way. That’s still the whole idea. Read more on our story page.

Can I get bagels delivered instead of picking them up?

Yes. Every Gotham shop takes online orders for pickup or delivery. Choose delivery at checkout and enter your address to see whether you’re in that shop’s delivery zone. In Madison, catering delivery is $9 within the City of Madison and $15 to Middleton or Sun Prairie.

For carryout, ordering ahead is the move, especially on weekend mornings. Your order goes straight to the bakers and is ready when you walk in. In Chicago and Lake Geneva, online ordering opens when the shop opens and you can schedule up to 60 days out; Madison takes orders up to 90 days ahead. Walk-ups are always welcome too; ordering ahead just means you skip the line.

What should I order on my first visit?

Start with a dozen. Ours is a NY Dozen®, which is 13 bagels, a baker’s dozen, so there’s one for the walk home. Mix in an everything, a plain, a sesame and whatever else is calling your name, plus a tub of house cream cheese.

If you’re eating there and then, the Bacon, Egg & Cheddar is the sandwich people come back for: thick-cut bacon, a fried egg and aged cheddar on a hand-rolled bagel. Lox lovers should look at the Brighton Beach. The full lineup is on the Chicago & Lake Geneva menu and the Madison menu.

What if I’m feeding the whole office?

That’s where we really shine. Every bagel and deli platter comes with a NY Dozen and serves 13. In Chicago and Lake Geneva there’s also a Sandwich Platter and a Bagel and Cream Cheese Platter, each serving 9.

The rule of thumb: one bagel or one sandwich per person, three 8 oz containers of cream cheese per dozen and at least half a pound of lox per half dozen bagels. Our how much should I order guide does the math for you. No call or email needed; order online and schedule it for the day you need. If you have specific requirements, our catering specialists are happy to help. Everything else is on the catering page.

The bottom line

The best bagel near you is one that was rolled by hand, kettle-boiled and baked fresh daily. If you’re in Chicago, Lake Geneva or Madison, that’s us. Find your closest Gotham, order ahead for pickup or delivery, and get the first one while it’s still warm.