Siegel Celebrates 35 Years of Crafting Montreal-Style Bagels in Vancouver

When Joel Siegel relocated from Montreal to Vancouver in 1974, he soon discovered a significant absence: the lack of Montreal-style bagels.

"All they had were doughnuts with holes that originated from Safeway," he remembers.

A few years down the line, he found himself "in between" careers and opted to launch his own Montreal-style bagel store in Kitsilano. However, Siegel’s Bagels didn’t gain popularity right away.

"I began by standing on the sidewalk with a small box containing bagels and cream cheese, offering them to passersby," he explained.

Gradually, Siegel’s Bagels evolved into a community cornerstone, akin to how Schwarz’s Deli represents Vancouver and St-Viateur Bagel does for Montreal.

In addition to providing nine distinct varieties of bagels, this place is also renowned for serving Montreal smoked meat, rugelach pastries, and lox with cream cheese.

On May 16, the store celebrates 35 years of operation, coinciding with Siegel’s 89th birthday. Although his daughter Parise currently manages the business, Siegel plans to travel from his residence on Salt Spring Island to join the festivities at the original site located at 1833 Cornwall Avenue.

If you've visited Siegel's before, you might remember Siegel as the tall, slender man with striking white hair and an unusual mustache.

He recently cut it off — "I grew tired of constantly having hair in my mouth" — but he has changed his mind and is letting it grow again.

Siegal was raised in Dolbeau, Que., a small community close to Lac-St-Jean, "located far up north, where the road comes to an end, and where the train used to turn back."

At 13, his family moved to Montreal. St-Viateur Bagel was nearby, and he started working there as a teenager. But he had other careers before he came back to bagels: He drove semi-trucks for seven years, then was in the clothing business.

Oh, and he was a race car driver.

“I raced with the SCCA, Sports Car Club of America,” he said. “I raced all over the U.S. and did some racing in Europe. I won six championships racing a Viper.”

However, it also came with some downsides.

One crash I experienced at the Dallas Motor Speedway involved hitting the wall," he stated. "I fractured my neck. It was incredibly fortunate for me to escape from the vehicle still alive. The next year, however, I competed again and managed to win two championships.

Creating bagels may not be perilous, yet it presented some hurdles when he first began. He revisited St-Viateur Bagel in Montreal to refine his bagel-making techniques; however, the owner of St-Viateur politely refused to collaborate on opening a branch in Vancouver.

"He instructed me to take a few bakers from another bagel shop, which I proceeded to do," he stated.

In his shop in Vancouver, he took traditional steps to create genuine Montreal-style bagels. He set up a wood-fired brick oven, used a long wooden dowel called a shiv Aviv for flipping the bagels, and shaped the dough just as they do in Montreal.

The recipe is key, followed by the preparation, shaping them by hand," he explained. "Making sure you remove all the air so they become compact. Achieving that perfect sheen from the wood-fired oven makes a significant difference.

Bagels in Montreal stand out compared to those found in other urban centers like New York.

The preparation method differs," he clarifies. "They employ what we refer to as a sourdough technique, something we do not use. Consequently, New York-style bagels become tougher more rapidly, and personally, I am not particularly fond of sourdough. Perhaps it’s just a matter of developing a preference for it.

Baking with wood is somewhat of an art form, as you need to rely on instinct—often described as "winging it from the seat of your pants."

In a regular oven, he explains, you turn it on, put the bagels in, “and when the buzzer goes off, you take them out.”

Cooking with wood, “you have to pay attention to what you’re doing, because you have to turn them, get them off the long boards, then put them on the fire brick. And you have to have a method of rotating them in the oven.”

Smoked meat is also a Montreal specialty, different from the corned beef or pastrami you get in Jewish delis in other cities.

“It’s the same brisket, but it goes into a different preparation, where the smoked pieces goes into brine, into barrels,” said Siegel, who imports his smoked meat from Montreal. “It takes a week or two weeks for it to cure.”

He worked hard to make the store a success, chopping the wood himself for the oven.

“When we started, I did everything, I did the baking, I did the counter,” he said.

But I mentioned that if I could persuade at least half of the individuals residing in Vancouver who originally hail from Montreal to try our bagels, I would succeed. Over time, we managed to attract the Montrealers to visit my store, and the business expanded from there.

jmackie@postmedia.com

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Grace Shea
Hi, I’m Grace Shea, a passionate food lover and full-time blogger dedicated to sharing delicious, easy-to-follow recipe tips with my readers.

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