LENDER'S BAGELS

est.1927

"Did you eat bagels all the time as a kid?" is the number one question asked," says Sondra Lender, grandaughter of Harry Lender. "The answer is yes. Of course we ate a lot of bagels! It is so embarrassing to say, but bagels are one of my favorite foods. I think I am a carbohydrate addict due to my upbringing."

In 1927, her grandfather Harry Lender fled Poland’s rising anti-Semitic climate, leaving his wife Rose and three children behind as he sailed toward the English-speaking land of milk, honey and bagels. He landed a job at a bagel bakery in Passaic, NJ and headed to New Haven, CT six months later, where he bought a hole-in-the-wall bakery for sale on Oak Street, the center of the city’s immigrant population. He turned the 800-square-foot garage into his new “factory” and Harry and his sons rolled the dough by hand into chewy "roundies", boiled and baked them and delivered the "freshies" to local Jewish delis and markets, threaded 6 or 12 on a string to be hung in storefront windows. They were the only bagel game in town and quickly gained notoriety with their two tastes, plain and poppy, and their New York-style bread — crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.