One of the highlights of every trip we take to New York is getting good, fresh bagels early in the morning at some neighborhood bakery, piled high with what seems like a pound of schmear and served up by often surly but efficient servers who aren’t playing around. Best part? It's almost always for less than $5. In North Texas, we don’t really have many such bagel options, and they certainly are not as ubiquitous as they are in the Five Boroughs.

Oren Salomon, owner of Starship Bagel, aims to change that one bagel at a time. His first location opened in 2021 in Lewisville, offering bagels made in small batches using a 24-hour fermentation process that helps the development of complex gluten, a key to getting that good bagel chew. The bagels are then boiled prior to baking and served up from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. or until they run out. And they do run out.
Salomon has expanded, thankfully, to downtown Dallas, opening his latest location January 20 on Elm Street right under the gaze of Tony Tasset’s Giant Eyeball sculpture in a small space that originally was a newsstand. Dispatches from social media promised great bagels that run out quickly and long lines, so we journeyed out on a crisp winter’s morning to see for ourselves.
When we arrived around 10 a.m., the line didn’t look too long. We settled in and people- (and dog-) watched while we waited. We were hoping to get an egg bagel, which are sold only on the weekends. In the end, it took us about an hour to get to the order window, at which point we were greeted by Salomon himself.

We were excited to place our order and just as our mouths began to open Salomon raised his hand and politely stopped us to explain the situation. Evidently, demand and crowds had greatly exceeded his expectations, and the staff has become a bit overwhelmed trying to fill all the orders. As each new customer approached the window he had them wait about three minutes before ordering to help the staff catch up.
We took that opportunity to chat a bit with Salomon, who explained that he’s always wanted to expand from Lewisville to Dallas but could never find an affordable space until this spot became available. He was hoping it would be successful but just hadn’t fully anticipated how great the demand would be. (Sales were four times greater on the first day than a regular day at the Lewisville location.) The bakery is in Lewisville, so it’s a challenge to be able to restock on demand, but all this is a learning process that will be solved. We were willing to wait. After receiving the news that indeed the egg bagels had been sold out, we ordered three bagels with schmear, at $4 each. All schmears are made fresh each morning and can also be purchased in 8-ounce tubs to go. For those who prefer their bagel schmearless, these can be purchased for $2.50 each or $21 for a dozen.
The toasted onion bagel had a terrific, slightly crisp outside and chewy center, and the lox schmear had chunks of Acme Nova lox incorporated into the rich cream cheese. For the plain bagel, we decided to go untoasted with honey almond spread, which had chopped roasted almonds, Texas-sourced honey and just the right amount of sweetness.

Finally, we went with fermented jalapeño schmear on an untoasted sesame bagel. The fermentation evidently tones down the kick of the jalapeño, concentrating the flavor in a unique way that we found extremely satisfying.

Oh, yeah, they serve coffee, too.

The verdict: well worth the wait, the trip to downtown Dallas and the requisite parking meter fee. These are really good bagels that approach NYC-level quality, priced nicely in an attractive hip urban setting to boot.

1520 Elm St. Monday - Sunday, 7 a.m. – 1 p.m.