Bagels News
Dallas' Starship Bagel releases Rocky-esque video for national competition
Eye of the Bagel.
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:
"It felt Rocky-esque, like you’re training for this Olympic level challenge," Salomon says.
