Doug Goldenberg will cut your bagel into quarters. He'll slice it in half, toast it and slather it with butter, if that's your preference. He'll even let you put jalapeño schmear and bacon on a cinnamon raisin bagel, if your heart so desires. However, there's one place where he and his brother-in-law and business partner, Scott "Lefty" Lefton, draw the line: They will never bread slice a bagel.
Goldenberg and Lefton have nothing against the easy-to-handle slice of bagel-shaped steamed dough popularized by a certain St. Louis-based brand, per se. It's that you simply don't bread slice a bagel — which isn't a problem, considering that what the company in question sells is not an actual bagel. "Round-shaped bread with a hole in it" is what Goldenberg calls such objects, and the fact that for so long these imposters were allowed to pass as actual bagels by any number of bakeries, shops and grocers throughout St. Louis is precisely the reason that Lefton felt compelled to make bagels in the first place.
An IT professional, Lefton searched his hometown of St. Louis for the sort of bagels he'd enjoyed while living in Chicago and Los Angeles. Though he found a few places that offered acceptable versions, he felt confident he could offer something a little different and closer to what he craved. He began tinkering in his kitchen in his free time, becoming obsessive about perfecting his craft through online research, books and a lot of trial and error before coming up with a recipe and technique that hit the right spot. He received confirmation as family and friends began requesting his bagels, which accelerated once he began posting about his wares on social media.
That response stirred in Lefton both the desire to increase production and the feeling that he could one day open a bagel shop. Once he got serious and began looking for commercial kitchen space, Goldenberg came on board, offering to help out with the business side of the operation. The two settled on the then-incubator space Baker's Hub (now Trolley Stop Bakery), which served as a shared commercial kitchen and retail space for small, up-and-coming baked goods concepts. It offered Goldenberg and Lefton low startup costs, a space to scale their recipes and, most importantly, a testing ground to see if there was as much demand as they thought for Lefton's bagels.
The answer to that question was a resounding yes. When Goldenberg and Lefton were preparing to open, their goal was to sell 144 bagels (a dozen by a dozen) every day. At their grand opening, they had a line at the door well before they opened and sold out in 45 minutes. This continued the next day, then the next. No matter how much they increased production, the story was the same: They sold every last bagel in less than an hour.
After six months of success at the Baker's Hub, Goldenberg and Lefton could see that they were quickly outgrowing the space. They also realized the business was becoming so big that, if they wanted to continue, they would have to quit their IT jobs and dedicate themselves completely. The pair agreed to take the leap, found a storefront just a few blocks east of the Baker's Hub and welcomed their first guests to the standalone Lefty's (13359 Olive Boulevard, Chesterfield; 314-275-0959) this April.
Goldenberg and Lefton are serious about creating extraordinary bagels, but equally important to them is creating a community gathering place centered around the concept of a neighborhood deli — something lacking in the area, especially after the closure of the mainstay Pumpernickles in Creve Coeur in July 2022. In that spirit, Lefty's feels less like a bagel shop or bakery and more like a quintessential neighborhood delicatessen, with exposed brick, black-and-white historic photographs of St. Louis landmarks set against a mural of the city's skyline in silhouette, a handful of bistro tables and, most importantly, a shop full of regulars whose easy rapport shows that they likely run into each other at the deli on a near-daily basis.
When you taste Lefty's bagels, you understand why it's garnered this sort of repeat business. These are bagel-lovers' bagels, ticking off every marker of the form: a significantly firm-but-thin crust; a chewy, not-at-all-airy interior; and a rich, malty flavor that serves as a beautiful canvas for the various styles offered. On any given day, Lefty's will be serving nine varieties, all classic, which include sesame, salt, everything, garlic, onion, plain and poppyseed. The tzitzel, a cornmeal-dusted bagel, is a particular standout thanks to its delectable yeasty flavor that somehow captures what a bakery smells like. The bialy, too, is wonderful; not technically a bagel, this Polish Ashkenazi specialty is round, but instead of a hole has a depressed center that Lefton fills with a wonderful blend of caramelized onions and poppyseeds. Each brings out the inherent sweetness in the other, offering a subtly sugary, earthy treat that needs no other accoutrements — though you will be forgiven for wanting to slather it with one of the restaurant's delicious schmears, such as the herbaceous and black peppery veggie or the snappy scallion.
Lefty's bagels are an outstanding canvas for its deli fare. On the breakfast side, offerings such as a simple bacon, egg and cheese hit the spot with thick-sliced, perfectly cooked local bacon, a beautifully folded scrambled egg and gooey cheddar cheese. It's the embodiment of the sort of grab-and-go sandwich you'd pick up with a to-go cup of coffee on the way to work in Manhattan. The I Want It All is definitely more of a "sit down at a table" dish, but the taste is well worth the potential mess its towering stack of ingredients poses. Here, a bagel is sliced in half and filled with tender corned beef, eggs, sauteed onions and a perfectly crisp, well-seasoned potato latke that is so good, it should be offered by the dozen. It's a complete breakfast in sandwich form.
Lunch offerings are equally delicious. Lefty's uses meat from the esteemed Michigan-based Sy Ginsberg's Meat & Deli; that includes an outstanding corned beef and a beautifully peppery pastrami that is the basis of the Cousin Rubin, a bagel-based riff on the Jewish deli sandwich classic. The roast beef, cooked to a succulent medium rare, is also outstanding, especially when served on a cheese bagel with sliced horseradish cheese and mustard. However, the restaurant's sleeper meat is the turkey pastrami, which is so tender, juicy and flawlessly seasoned you wonder why you'd eat turkey in any other form.
However, it's Lefty's smoked fish that truly shines. After painstaking research and innumerable taste tests, Goldenberg and Lefton settled on New York-based Samaki Smoked Fish for Nova lox that tastes like butter and is the texture of velvet. Kippered (or hot-smoked) salmon is just as delicious, especially when served as a very lightly mayonnaise-tossed salad that is positively earth-shattering when spread on a salt bagel. It's the smoked trout, though, that is the real jewel. Delicate in texture, it has a gentle smoke that accents the fish without covering it up, wrapping your entire palate in subtly sweet, earthy flavor.
That they offer such a perfect bagel for enjoying it makes their wonderful restaurant more than a great delicatessen. It makes Lefty's an essential part of the metro area's dining fabric.
Open Tues.-Sun. 7 a.m.-2 p.m. (Closed Mon.)
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