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.