Bagels News

Dallas' Starship Bagel releases Rocky-esque video for national competition

Eye of the Bagel.

Lila Levy

Dallas' top bagel shop Starship Bagel is participating in the 2023 edition of New York BagelFest, taking place in New York October 21-22, competing against more than two dozen bagel bakers from around the world.

BagelFest is a celebration dedicated to all things bagel, with bagels, bagel sandwiches, speakers, games, photo ops, and demonstrations — all climaxed by "The Best Bagel" contest with more than two dozen contestants from around the world. Starship — rated the best bagel in Dallas — is the only bagel shop from Texas to compete.

In preparation for the event, Starship founder Oren Salomon is currently in residence at Bagel Market, a small chain in New York who've lent their kitchen to become Starship's temporary headquarters.

Salomon brought a team of five to help produce the bagels he'll serve over the course of the two-day event. "We're tasked with making 800 samples per day," Salomon says.

They'll be serving menu highlights including a bagel and schmear; the Millennial Falcon with choice of schmear, plus smashed avocado, tomato, pickled red onion, sprouts, and red pepper; and Supernova Lox, topped with Acme Nova Lox, tomato, cucumber, red onion, and capers.

"We’re also doing a collaboration at the event with New School American cheese, where we'll be serving a bagel grilled cheese on our Italian bagel," Salomon says.

Part of the competition entailed the making of a video: It's called "Eye of the Bagel" - a parody of "Eye of the Tiger," the song by Survivor.

For the video portion, Salomon used portions of a documentary about Starship shot as part of a WFAA series. For the soundtrack, he enlisted a top musical team headed by award-winning recording, mixing, and mastering engineer and producer Michael Briggs of Civil Audio in Denton.

Briggs is a regular at the original location of Starship in Lewisville. "I'm picky about bagels, and Starship has the best in Texas," Briggs says. "Whenever I go in, I stand by the oven so I can get one fresh."

Briggs recruited Mills Chaiken on guitar and Dean Adams on drums - "my usual studio session musicians," he says.

The greatest challenge was finding the right singer to recreate the distinctive vocal style of original Survivor singer David Bickler, and it was a flash of genius: Leah Lane, the epic singer-guitarist of Dallas alt-rock band Rosegarden Funeral Party. A girl!

"It's a great cover, and Leah killed it on vocals," Briggs says.

They all collaborated, including Salomon, on the lyrics:

Wrap it up, ready to eat

Wakin' up, feelin' hangry

The ovens boiling, You can feel the oven’s heat

Just a mensch 3 AM

Bagel time

It’s the eye of the bagel, It’s the tooth of the bite

It’s the chew that you find on the inside

The last bagel standing Will take home the prize

And she’s judging us all through

The eye of the bagel

"It felt Rocky-esque, like you’re training for this Olympic level challenge," Salomon says.

chefs video

put it on santa's amex

Well-to-do Dallas suburb lands on top-10 list of holiday big spenders

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Flower Mound residents have the No. 7 biggest holiday budgets in the U.S. for 2024.

It looks like Santa Claus is going to be competing with residents in Flower Mound to see who brings the most lavish holiday gifts this year.

Festive Flo-Mo ranked No. 7 in WalletHub's annual report on U.S. cities with the biggest holiday budgets in 2024.

Residents in this well-to-do Dallas suburb are expected to spend $3,541 on their Christmas gifts this year. But tsk-tsk: That's down $56 from the $3,485 they were ready to drop in the 2023 ranking — bumping them down two spots from their previous ranking at No. 5.

The U.S. Census Bureau says that Flower Mound's estimated population of 79,445 had a median household income of $154,471 in 2023. No wonder they have the extra cash to spare.

Flower Mound consistently makes the list of the top 10 U.S. cities with the biggest holiday spenders, outshining its nearby neighbor Frisco, which took a precarious drop this year from their previous high ranking of No. 3 in 2023.

They've now fallen off the top-10 list altogether. The average holiday budget in Frisco is still an exorbitant amount – $3,412 – but that only garnered the city No. 11 in the overall ranking out of 558 U.S. cities. You gotta spend to stay on top.

The No. 1 city in the U.S. for biggest holiday spenders in 2024 is Newton, Massachusetts, a wealthy suburb right outside of Boston, where the median income measured in 2022 was $176,373. Slots 2 through 5 were all cities in California's Silicon Valley: Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Milpitas.

Seven additional North Texas cities landed in this year's top 100 biggest holiday budgets, including:

No. 18 – Allen ($3,070)
No. 32 – Plano ($2,658)
No. 45 – North Richland Hills ($2,484)
No. 52 – McKinney ($2,386)
No. 76 – Richardson ($1,980)
No. 81 – Carrollton ($1,932)
No. 92 – Lewisville ($1,848)

Meanwhile, Dallas landed at No. 213 this year with an average holiday budget of $1,406, and Fort Worth ranked No. 359 with a budget of $1,082.

Each year, WalletHub calculates the maximum holiday budget for over 550 U.S. cities "to help consumers avoid post-holiday regret," the website says. The study factors in income, age of the population, and other financial indicators such as debt-to-income ratio, monthly-income-to monthly-expenses ratio, and savings-to-monthly-expenses ratio.

Whether a Dallasite's holiday budget is under $200 or more than $1,000, it's better to prioritize remaining within that budget instead of racking up the credit card bill, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

"There are plenty of ways to enjoy the holidays and show you care without spending much money, like hosting potlucks or giving handmade gifts," said Lupo.

Other Texas cities that made it into the top 100 are:

No. 13 – The Woodlands ($3,395)
No. 15 – Sugar Land ($3,214)
No. 23 – Cedar Park ($2,930)
No. 25 – League City ($2,897)
No. 39 – Round Rock ($2,538)
No. 60 – Pearland ($2,223)
No. 87 – Austin ($1,905)

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