Bagel News

Dallas' Starship Bagel wins Best Bagel in 2025 New York Bagelfest

Starship Bagel

Dallas' award-winning Starship Bagel has racked up the biggest bagel award around: The bagel shop won top prize in the 2025 New York BagelFest, an annual bagel competition drawing two dozen bagel purveyors from around the globe.

Starship won "Best Bagel" — the top award that the festival bestows.

The event, which took place on Sunday November 16 at Citi Field in New York, brought together thousands of bagel lovers, bakers, and brands in a celebration of all things bagel, with bagels, bagel sandwiches, speakers, games, photo ops, and demonstrations.

It featured tastings, demos, and the festival’s signature competitions: Best of the Fest, Best Bagel, and Best of the Boroughs. There were also contests for Best Schmear and People's Choice.

Starship brought Everything bagels and sesame bagels, along with one stroke-of-genius submission: They did a very creative bagel version of Dunk-a-Roos called Lox-A-Roo — a collaboration with Acme Smoked Fish featuring toasted bagel chips served with a lox-infused schmear.

Best Bagel was not the only award Starship Bagel won. They also won:

Best New York-style bagel: first place
Best Showmanship: first place
Best Schmear: Second place for their Garam Masala Schmear
Most Creative: second place

In other words, Starship Bagel swept the awards.

This marked the third year Starship competed, following 2023 and 2024 — both of which saw them win awards including their stunning win for Best Bagel in 2023, followed by a win for Best Schmear in 2024. They've won an award every time they've competed.

Starship Bagel has enoyed a meteoric rise since Salomon opened the first location in Lewisville in 2021. A second location opened in downtown Dallas in 2023, and a third opened in North Dallas in 2024.

Starship Bagels Oren Salomon Starship Bagels founder Oren Salomon with the Best Bagel Award from 2025 NY Bagelfest. Courtesy

They've since racked up national awards such as a James Beard nomination in 2025 and an appearance on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in June 2025.

At the 2025 BagelFest, Starship competed against venerable names such as Utopia Bagels, St. Viateur Bagel, Ess-a-Bagel Bagel, and more.

Going into the competition, Salomon said he felt confident they would be competitive in almost every category. "But the more important thing to me is to present our best," he said.

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Omakase News

Downtown Dallas restaurant Sauvage expands with new dining twist

Sauvage

A downtown Dallas restaurant famous for its multi-course tasting experience is letting its hair down: Sauvage, the high-end mom-and-pop restaurant near the Statler Dallas hotel, has a new dining option that gives a smaller, more casual taste.

The restaurant opened in September with a set menu featuring 16 to 18 courses — wild game, seafood, vegetables, and dessert — all cooked via grill and smoker.

While 16 courses might sound like a lot, the courses are mostly small bites. However, owners Casey and Amy LaRue received feedback from diners wanting a smaller option.

"We were getting a ton of messages from guests who want to stop by just to try one dish, a bite, or a specific pairing without committing to the full tasting — so we built something for exactly that," Casey says.

They've introduced a new three-course "Cocktails & Bites hour" featuring three dishes, each paired with its own cocktail, served from 5–6 pm on weekdays.

Last week’s menu consisted of:

dry-aged red snapper crudo with La Chinola Way, a cocktail featuring passionfruit, mezcal, lime, and ginger
foie gras & truffle on house-baked croissant with Pendennis Club, a gin sour with apricot liqueur bitters
jerk-spiced shrimp with Clarified Paper Plane, a bourbon cocktail with Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon juice

The new offering continues their pattern of pairing courses with cocktails rather than wine — an approach they've embraced since opening. "Limiting pairings to wine can get boring — it so often ends up being one expensive red after another," Casey says.

You can make a reservation on Tock, or just walk in and grab a seat.

Caviar
They've also added a new version of their classic menu: no caviar.

"Some love having caviar integrated into the menu, but others prefer to skip it, whether for taste or dietary reasons, but still want the full value of the experience," Casey says. "With such a small counter, this put us in a strange position: do we give everyone caviar whether they want it or not, or do we remove it entirely and lose a core part of our menu?"

Thus, a new menu without caviar, priced at $195, with an optional caviar course available for those who want it for $245.

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