A Dallas bagel shop that rocked the bagel world in 2023 by winning an award in New York is back for Round 2: Starship Bagel — the local bagel phenom who won "The Best Bagel" award at the New York BagelFest in 2023 — will return to compete in the 2024 event, taking place in New York on Saturday, September 28.

Now in its fifth year, BagelFest is a celebration of 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 Bagel has enoyed a meteoric rise since founder Oren Salomon, a young entrepreneur with a passion for making great bagels, opened his first location in Lewisville at 1108 W. Main St. in 2021. He gained momentum after opening a second location in downtown Dallas in 2023, and a third location in North Dallas in 2024.

Starship took first place in CultureMap's ranking of the Best Bagels in Dallas, and earned national acclaim when they made Bon Appetit's list of "The Very Best Bagels in the U.S." — the only bagel shop in Texas to do so.

Nonetheless, winning in the bagel capital of the world was a surprise. During his announcement of the 2023 winner, even BagelFest founder Sam Silverman remarked on the shocking reality that the winner was from Dallas.

Some might quit while they're ahead, but not Oren Salomon.

"Obviously, it's a huge honor to be invited back as the defending champions," Salomon says. "I think there's a little bit more pressure on us this year because last year we came as relative unknowns so nobody knew what to expect."

Their different status can be seen in their positioning on the event flyer: Last year, Starship was buried in the small-print contestants. This year, they're top of the bill.

Other contestants include familiar names like Utopia Bagels, St Viateur, O’Bagel, and Olmo, but there’s also a number of undiscovered up-and-comers this year.

Judges include digital creator Dara Pollak, writer Tara Cox, and food scientist and chef Brad Kent, who also judged in 2023.

"We judged using criteria such as visual, texture, aroma, taste, and aftertaste," Kent says. "Should it be hand-rolled? We decided we did prefer hand-rolled. And color: It should be golden on the outside, and a little golden on the inside."

"We wanted to be sure that we were vouching for the best bagel in America, if someone were making a trip to try it," Kent says.

Salomon is highly competitive, but winning was not the only benefit to participating.

"We enjoyed being able to network and mingle with other top bagel makers from across the country and especially in New York," he says. That included the hospitality of a fellow competitor: Bagel Market NYC, who opened their kitchen to the Starship team, giving them a kitchen in New York and paving the way for them to score a win.

This year, Salomon hopes to win both best bagel as well as fan favorite, which is decided by votes from attendees at the festival (which is open to the public). Pssst — Dallas fans are welcome to apply.

"The more support we get from home, the better the chances for us to win," Salomon says. "New York is the host but Dallas has an important role in the bagel world and we would love for Dallas to show up with us, not just our team."