The Woodlands Edition | June 2025

Dining

BY JOVANNA AGUILAR

A variety of breakfast sandwiches ($7.95 and up) are available.

Classic NY Bagels bakes 500600 bagels ($1.95 and up) daily with special ingredients imported from New Jersey.

Classic NY Bagels oers pastries, bagels and kolaches.

PHOTOS COURTESY CLASSIC NY BAGELS

Classic NY Bagels brings family recipe to FM 1488

Mila Narani, daughter of Al Lala, the owner of Classic NY Bagels, said their family comes from a long line of New York bagel shop owners who have shared the same family recipe and values since the late 1970s. “My grandfather was a baker, and so we were inspired by my grandfather,” Narani said. “Grow- ing up, we always had bagels. My uncles owned bagel shops and pizzerias. So dough has always been our specialty.” After owning several bagel and pizza businesses in New York, Arizona and Texas, the family opened Classic NY Bagels on FM 1488 in May 2024 to share their specialty. A family aair Originally from Albania, Lala moved to the U.S. at the age of 17 where he lived above the pizzeria he worked at. Forty-six years later, Lala opened several bagel shops and pizzerias, including Brothers Pizzeria in Houston, and passed along his perfected dough recipe and businesses to his family. The family has several members with bagel shops across the country. “We all have the same recipe. So all my cousins have bagel shops. So it’s kind of like everybody went to school, they got a degree, they did what they did, and then they ended up right back to owning bagel shops,” Narani said. Since opening, Narani said families in Magnolia

and The Woodlands area have come to know the location as their local bagel shop where they can grab a quick bite before school or work. On the menu Classic NY Bagels prides itself on its freshly baked bagels daily made from scratch with no preservatives. The bagel shop bakes 500-600 bagels daily with special ingredients imported from New Jersey. Any leftovers are donated to local nonprots such as Keep Us Fed Montgomery County, which collects food from area restaurants, grocery stores and other locations. “We take each bagel from the dough in the tray and just plop it in to boil for a few seconds, then we throw them on our bagel boards to bake and that’s what makes them so crisp on the top, but soft in the middle, which a true New York bagel always has,” Narani said. Lala said a plain bagel only contains 150 calories, making their bagels a healthier choice compared to a bagel with preservatives. With 12 types of bagels to choose from, Classic NY Bagels is known for its everything bagel and gluten-free bagels. To support its community, the local bagel shop sponsors The Woodlands High School golf team, and it oers rst responder, student and teacher discounts as well as holding community events throughout the year.

A dozen dierent varieties are available for purchase.

Bagels available regularly include jalapeno bagels.

1488

Magnolia

2978

6503 FM 1488, Ste. 407, Magnolia www.classicnybagels.com

THE WOODLANDS EDITION