Bagel Aficionados of Western Connecticut: 2025 is Our Year

Hello bagel aficionados of Western Connecticut, if you haven't noticed yet our favorite breakfast treat is having a moment in 2025.

I love bagels, buttered or cream cheese? I don't care. For most of the 1980 & 1990's I was right alongside you buying frozen Lender's bagels from the freezer section of the grocery store, not anymore. Have you noticed what's happened around the Western half of Connecticut in the past month? Two brand new bagel-centric restaurants have opened up for business.

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For the past 10-15 years my bagel funds have primarily been split between three Masters of bagel making: Ami's in Waterbury, Bagelman in New Milford and Danbury, and Bruegger's Bagels in Wallingford and Avon. Chubba's in Watertown and Thomaston is a great bagel too, but a new competitor has just soft-opened in Watertown today.

Watertown's Itty-Bitty Cookie Company has a new sister shop opening up two doors down from them on Main Street called Toast'd Bagels today (April 22, 2025). It's a soft-open, from 6AM to 2PM, but you could be among the first to try the newest, freshest bagels this side of Rt.8, if you hurry.

The other Bagel Master to recently put down roots in our part of the world is Nick's Handmade Bagels in Litchfield. Nick's opened up for business in the past couple of months, and those steamy windows lured us in quite a few times. I don't want to say that the buzz has subsided, but I have seen quite a few more open parking spots in front of the place recently, which is good news.

Bagels are having a moment in 2025, get your lox, bring the spreadable butter, and dive in.