Founded by a native New Yorker from New York City, Netherlands Bagels is here to bring proper bagels to Holland. The founder, Karen, has been tinkering with her recipe for a few years trying to nail the perfect taste of a New York bagel. If youʼve been missing real bagels in the Netherlands, youʼre in the right place. No more “inspired” bagels that are closer to toast with a hole in them.
The owner, Karen, is a proud New Yorker with New York roots on both sides. Her great grandfather was a member of the Bakers and Confectionery Union in New York around the turn of the century. He made traditional Galician bread and although weʼve skipped a few generations, weʼre proud to continue this legacy of bread-making. (A full interview in Dutch with Karen can be found here.)
Although many swear that it’s the water in New York, we’ve worked to create the best possible product that we can create with the lovely water in Zuid Holland. To us, a good bagel has been properly proofed overnight, hand-rolled, boiled, and baked. Hopefully, you will taste the love that goes into each and every one of our bagels, which we aim to be true New York-style in terms of their fluffiness and chewiness.
We started in an industrial kitchen in Rotterdam in the midst of 2020 baking fresh-baked bagels for delivery across the Netherlands. We learned some hard lessons with scaling up our production while trying to create a delicious and consistent bagel. Luckily, those days are far behind us. In the summer of 2021, Karen had the chance to take over a beautiful cafe in the center of the Hague, which enabled NLBagels to open up a new chapter.
In order to do so, she did a crowdfunding campaign, which was ultimately successful. At this point, NLBagels moved from Rotterdam to the Hague for good. Today, the cafe operates in the Hague (with the restrictions put in place by the Dutch government). All of our bagels are boiled and baked 100% on our own premises. The cafe’s focus is primarily sandwiches, drinks, and desserts. Still, clients can order bagels for delivery at home. It’s not been a smooth or easy path operating in the middle of a pandemic, but we’re here in spite of it.
Our team comes from all over (Poland to Hong Kong), but shares a love for bagels!