Around the world, many cities have their culinary claim to fame. 

Philadelphia is known for the cheesesteak, Naples has incredible pizza, Tokyo has ramen, London has fish and chips and in Canada, Montréal has poutine.

But did you know that Montréal also has an incredible bagel scene?

It's true! And what makes these tasty treats special is how they're hand-formed, rolled, usually bathed in honey water and then baked in a wood fire oven. 

Just one visit to any of these Montréal-style bagel cafés and you'll quickly understand why Montréalers claim to have the best bagels. 

While on the topic of culinary claims to fame, here in Kelowna, we like to celebrate ours by going on wine tours. Which inspired your friends at KelownaNow to team up with YLW Kelowna International Airport to create the Montréal-style bagel ‘carb crawl’.

St-Viateur Bagel

History tells us, Montréal bagels were brought to North America by Jewish Immigrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries, which is why we decided to begin with one of the most popular places in Montréal, St-Viateur Bagel.

This historic bagel shop began to bake when the founder, Myer Lewkowicz came to Montréal in 1953. He and his wife began learning the bagel trade and soon opened their own shop with Seligman on St-Viateur street, which is now the landmark, St-Viateur Bagel shop.

“Defining the art of bagel-making since 1957.”

60 years have passed, but the bagels remain impeccable. We encourage you to try these fresh, crispy and flavourful the bagels that are a historic staple of the Montréal food experience.

Enjoyed by celebrities and featured on TV by the late Anthony Bourdain, on No Reservations and on The Today Show with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, we hope you run into someone special too, but if not, at least you got to make St-Viateur part of your ‘carb crawl'.

Fairmount

At Fairmount, you might not want to tell them that you went to St-Viateur first. Turns out, it’s a pretty polarizing topic on who bakes the better bagel. 

To anyone unfamiliar with this Montréal rivalry, they may not know that Fairmount vs. St-Viateur is like Coke vs. Pepsi.

Fairmount has been hand-made since 1919 and their supporters claim that they are sweeter, fluffier and made as doughy and crispy as can be. 

When you claim to make the best bagels in the world, they better be good — but we’ll let you decide.

With everything from poppyseed to chocolate and all-dressed bagels, Fairmount is mandatory on your Montréal ‘carb crawl’ itinerary.

Dizz’s Bagel

Biting into one of these freshly cooked and colourful bagels will brighten your day, no matter what time it is.

This funky little shop of amazing bagels is known for its rainbow bagels and experimentation with food colouring.

Blending creativity and colour into Montréal-style bagels will make you feel like you’re having dessert — which has created a whole new food trend. 

As tasty as they are pretty, plan your ‘carb crawl’ to include the dizzying array of colour combinations at Dizz’s Bagel.

Bagel Beaubien

Located in Little Italy, this aromatic blissful bagel factory is making some pretty incredible bagel sandwiches, like the Saumon Fume et Fromage A La Crème — a popular bagel topped with cream cheese spread and smoked salmon.

Made light and fluffy, your ‘carb crawl’ wouldn’t be complete without one of Bagel Beaubien's blueberry, onion, oatmeal raisin or sesame seed, these flavours and more are made on-site daily.

Tommy Bagel

Yet another fantastic ‘carb crawl’ destination, just look at their cool Instagram.

With a bit of a hipster vibe, Tommy Bagel is known to blend a fantastic Matcha green tea, make avocado toasted bagels and of course an assortment of bagels.

Above are only some of the stops to make along your ‘carb crawl’ and if you’ve experienced others, let us know by commenting on the Facebook post. 

We love to hear stories from our readers.

Now, grab your bagel buddy and plan your vacation to Montréal from YLW Kelowna International Airport to experience some of these delicious bagels firsthand! 

As the 10th busiest airport in Canada, YLW’s total economic impact is 4,545 jobs and $789 million in total economic output to the province of British Columbia. Serving over 2 million passengers in 2019, YLW offers more than 70 daily non-stop commercial flights with nine airline partners. For more information, visit ylw.kelowna.ca.

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