Smoking Gun Bagels to Bring Montreal-Style Bagelry to Sydney

If you thought NYC was the only city proudly dominating the global bagel scene, you've overlooked Montreal. Canada's creative, culinary-minded city has a fierce bagel industry, with longtime bagel houses like St-Viateur and Fairmount waging war over 'best bagel' naming rights. Now, Sydney's going to get a piece of the action, with seasoned coffee roasters and San Fransisco-trained bakers Mark Treviranus and Dave Young gearing up to open a Montreal-style bagelry in Woolloomooloo.

Set to open on Cathedral Street this May, Smoking Gun Bagels will be Sydney's first bagelry to serve authentic Montreal-style bagels. The bagels will be made onsite in what's apparently going to be Australia's largest purpose-built bagel woodfired oven — sitting at 14 tonnes, constructed by stone masons and flown in from Canada, so it's legit. Melbourne's already got a Montreal-style bagelry in Mile End, but this will be Sydney's first.

So what makes Montreal-style bagels any different? "Montreal style bagels are smaller and sweeter than other bagels," says Treviranus. "We individually hand roll, boil them in water sweetened with honey, before placing them into the woodfire oven. That gives them a crispy outside and chewy inside, quite different to any other style produced in Sydney."

Smoking Gun's bagels will even be Montreal-advised; Treviranus and Young developed the recipe with the St-Viateur team — one of the aforementioned top bagel houses in Montreal (the head baker is even in Australia right now helping the pair learn the tricks of the trade). They've also worked with Jo Barrett, head of pastry at Yarra Valley's Oakridge Winery to craft the menu. All bagels will be presented 'open style' and will feature local artisan products including our favourite cultured butter producers Pepe Saya.

You'll be able to see your bagel rolled, boiled and woodfired at Smoking Gun, with the oven positioned to let you watch the whole process.

Smoking Gun Bagels opens May 11 at 129 Cathedral Street, Woolloomooloo. Open Monday to Friday 7am – 3pm and Saturday 8am – 3pm and Sunday 8am - noon.