There’s a better-bagel battle waging out there—and it’s not confined to New York City classicists versus booming West Coast contenders, with Montreal-style loyalists jumping into the fray.
Even in New York, traditionalists are up against bakers trying out new doughs, wild mix-ins, and different shapes (gasp!). A recent New York Times article dubbed the trend “controversial” and called some of the results “Franken-bagels.”
Kingston chef Elana Carlson is well aware of the variations in recipes and techniques cropping up in crafting this breakfast favorite. “Everyone tries to put bagels in a category,” she says. “And there are so many different directions you can go. People like different levels of chews and crunch. It’s a very personal thing.”
Her own trial-and-error journey led to the creation of the particular sourdough bagel that is now the star of her recently opened cafe, Fantzye, located at 392 Hasbrouck Avenue in Kingston. “Ours are unique,” Carlson says.
The sourdough imparts a chewy tanginess to the inside, while boiling the bagels and finishing them in a deck oven maintains the traditional crunchy crust.
Fantzye (derived from the Yiddish word fanatzye) serves a bagel and schmear for $6. Baskets of freshly baked plain, everything, poppy, or sesame seed varieties await guests on shelves behind the cash register. Schmears come plain or you can choose a rotating cast of vegetable schmears. The barista brews up espresso drinks with Parlor Coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate.
The menu debuted with hot and cold bagel sandwiches. The Classic ($10) is composed of a fried egg, cheddar, seasonal greens dressed with lemon vinaigrette, and house-crafted aioli. The Remix ($10) features scrambled eggs, Jake’s gouda, aioli, and a secret green sauce that contains herbs, garlic, and kale.
Vegans might opt for the Other ($12), serving up Sugarshack Mushroom’s lion’s mane mushrooms with greens and a ramp-schmear, while minimalists might prefer “Gouda and Fantzye” ($9) with Jake’s aged gouda and fresh-churned Ronnybrook butter.
The Big Lox ($20) comes with nova salmon, lemon caper schmear, herb salad, and shallots, served open-faced. Bacon ($4.50) or homemade hot sauce ($.50) are available add-ons.
In addition, Fantzye serves a green salad with mixed chicories, crunchy vegetables, herbs and sunflower seeds drizzled with a fennel seed vinaigrette ($13). Gluten-free hash browns ($5), crisped to perfection, come with a side of “RGW” (red, green, white) sauce, a zesty concoction that blends the shop’s aioli, fermented chili and secret green sauce together. The menu focuses on seasonal ingredients. In other words, if tomatoes aren’t growing on area farms, don’t expect to see them on the list.
For Carlson, the bagel is “a concise vessel to express creativity.” She likes experimenting with cream cheese flavors and sandwich recipes—while staying within certain parameters. “It’s fun to use different techniques and be creative within a specific canvas,” she explains.
Carlson fell in love with cooking at a young age, growing up outside of Boston. When she headed to Ohio to major in psychology at Kenyon College, she added entertaining friends around a dinner table to her repertoire.
Moving to New York City in 2011, Carlson entered the corporate world, initially working in marketing, before switching gears and writing about cooking for the website Food52. Before long, she embarked on a culinary journey, one that brought her from coast to coast.
Carlson’s resume soon expanded to include shucking oysters at Mission Chinese in Manhattan, assisting chef and farmer Chris Fischer at the Beach Plum Inn in Martha’s Vineyard, running Behind the Book Store in Massachusetts with farm-to-table maven Molly Levine, and assistant GM at James Beard-nominated Mediterranean restaurant Kismet, and operations manager at Coastal Italian Élephante, both in Los Angeles.
Fantzye started in Martha’s Vineyard as a bagel kit pick-up, complete with half-dozen freshly baked bagels, schmear, smoked fish, and capers. Carlson found a commissary kitchen, bought a mixer, started cranking out more bagels, and the pop-ups got increasingly popular. Eventually, she added a food trailer to the mix that quickly became a farmers’ market favorite.
When the commissary kitchen closed, Carlson was forced to halt production. She decided to find a more sustainable home for her business and landed in the Hudson Valley. “I had some friends moving here,” she says. “I saw a lot of small food businesses opening up, creative people doing things in the area.”
While working at Cafe Mutton in Hudson, Carlson searched for spaces and eventually discovered the funky, triangular brick building, vacant for years at the intersection of Hasbrouck and Foxhall. She signed a lease last December and served as general contractor during the build-out, which included infrastructure upgrades, like new gas and water lines, as well as installing a hood.
Then, the focus shifted to aesthetics. Carlson worked with Brooklyn-based architectural firm commoncraft and Danielle Epstein Works in the Catskills. “The design was inspired by Scandinavian and European cafes,” Carlson says. “We wanted it to be durable and simple. We wanted it to be bright and fun and timeless.”
Warm-wooden hues come from the millwork by James Harmon’s Abstract Quality, a fabrication shop in Kingston. Cheerful textile works frame lights and bathroom sinks, courtesy of artist/chef Katya Ekimian. Photos by Carlson’s father Eric Carlson hang on the walls, and the stainless-steel work is by Co-Op Concept and Fabrication in Kingston.
Fantzye celebrated its official grand opening on November 29. Stepping back from the whirlwind last year of construction and first weeks of business Carlson says, “We’re getting in a groove, and it feels good.”
Recently, she added catering to the cafe’s services. In the future, she can imagine hosting dinner pop-ups in the cozy dining area. For now, she’s making sauerkraut, preparing to add a pastrami sandwich to the menu as well as cinnamon raisin bagels and other varieties down the line.
Julia Hayes, owner of Little Moon tattoo studio in Kingston’s Rondout, has become a Fantzye regular. She stops by the bagel shop for breakfast after dropping her daughter off at school. “You can tell they have a lot of years of experience with baking and making sourdough and all the other delicious things,” Hayes says. “They really care about what they’re doing.” Her most recent purchase was a plain bagel topped with the lemon caper schmear. “It was such a solid, delicious breakfast,” Hayes says. “And it’s such a nice place to sit. It’s so well-thought out and cozy.”
Fantzye is open 7:30am to 2:30pm daily except Mondays. While the bagel shop will be closed December 24 and 25, it will remain open December 31 and January 1, for those looking to start the New Year on the right foot—with a bagel and schmear for the most important meal of the day.
This article appears in December 2024.
