Montréal’s wood-fired French cousin to New York’s bagel has landed in Sydney.
Smoking Gun, a new Montréal-style bagelry by San Francisco-trained bakers Mark Treviranus and Dave Young, has opened in the inner-Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo. They were sold on the wood-fired method of cooking bagels after trying the wares of Montréal’s famed Jewish grocer St-Viateur and the Fairmount Bagel shop.
The pair flew out expert stonemasons from Canada to construct their wood-fired oven and had training from St-Viateur’s head baker to master the mix of a chewy centre and crisp exterior in the boiled-then-baked bagels.
Bagels at Smoking Gun is toasted and sliced with fixings off the seven-piece sandwich menu created by Jo Barrett, sous chef at Victoria’s Oakridge Winery, along with the option of a whole bagel served with a cup of hot broth (which could do with a touch more salt). The menu is peppered with local specialties including cream cheese by dairy king Pepe Saya, their own Sensory Lab blend of coffee, and PS soft drinks.
The menu includes original creations with catchy names such as Yid-Life Crisis (charred chicken with avocado and kaffir lime) and Hands Off Snakey (bacon and egg gribiche) rounded out with the more familiar likes of cream cheese and smoked trout (in place of lox) and pastrami standing in for the famed smoked meat of Montréal’s landmark Schwartz’s Deli.
Smoking Gun Bagels, 129 Cathedral St, Woolloomooloo, NSW; open Mon-Fri 7am-3pm, Sat 8am-3pm, Sun 8am-noon.
