“If you come here for the rainbow bagels, we don’t have them,” says the guy behind the counter to some disappointed visitors. We were at The Bagel Store on Bedford Avenue in New York at 8.00 AM on February 4 ready to pick up our order.

The night before a school friend, has placed an online order for rainbow bagels through The Bagel Store.  She told me: “It’s an in thing right now on instagram, a video clip about rainbow bagels uploaded by INSIDER Food on February 2  has become viral and reached 54 million viewers in just a day.

The history of bagels dates back to the 15th century. As noted in the Oxford Companion to Food: "The bagel is a Jewish bread, apparently originating in South Germany, migrating to Poland and thence to North America where it has become the most famous and archetypal Jewish food. Its name derives from the Yiddish word beygal from the German dialect word beugel, meaning ring or bracelet.

The Bagel Store has two outlets in Brooklyn, one in Bedford Avenue and the other at Metropolitan Avenue. Scot Rossillo, the founder and head baker, grew up behind a bagel shop and went to the French Culinary Institute's International Bread Baking Arts program.

As the World’s Premier Bagel Artist, he has been creating bagels for two decades. His expertise is clearly shown on the menu of 30 varieties of bagels ranging from the classics to the premium bagels and cragels (croissant and bagel) to fresh nova lox.

The most sought after bagels these last few weeks is of course Scott’s work of art, the world’s most beautiful bagels: The Rainbow Bagels.

We were so happy that the store honored our order amidst the long line of people hoping for rainbow bagels. Each bagel can be cut in two with two choices of fillings. We ordered three bagels and chose the sweet (oreo, confetti, nutella, and blueberry) and and savory (artichoke, and herb & onion) fillings. These multi colored bagels from The Bagel Store and their fillings are soft, silky and luscious.

On the wall there is a simple hand writing poster with a list of cream cheese available. Savory (sundried tomato-scallion-bacon, olive pimento, garlic & herb, spinach & artichoke, sundried tomato, scallion, vegetable, lox spread); sweet (walnut raisin, maple bacon, strawberry, blueberry, canoli, nutella, red velvet cake, cake better); spicy (jalapeno, chipotle, buffalo bacon cheddar); and tofu (plain, vegetable, scallion, sundried tomato, spinach artichole, jalapeno).

I think we had our luck in ordering the rainbow bagels in the nick of time. The afternoon after picked up our bagels, the store posted an announcement in its social media: “We’re not taking any more orders for today, so we can focus on the 1000+ orders that came in thanks to our awesome community.”

On February 16 the Bedford store announced that it will be closed indefinitely. Apparently it was closed for renovation to accommodate high demands and was back in business on February 24. Its website now has an announcement: “We are no longer taking reservations, everything will be on a first come, first served basis, We cannot guarantee to have any product in stock at any time after our viral videos. Thanks for your patience and understanding.”

As the rainbow bagels video has become viral all over the world (it has now reached almost 65 milion viewers) and knowing that we were fortunate to have tasted the rainbow bagels, our friends in different countries asked many questions: is it safe ? is the coloring natural ? is it any good?

The answers are right there on The Bagel Store’s website: "….done the old fashioned way but with creativity made in small batches using only the finest natural added ingredients….nothing out of a box and no chemicals or preservatives added."

The next question was: do you have a recipe for rainbow bagels? It was a difficult question because we have seen how they are made in the video clip, but have no idea about the ingredients.

Scot Rossillo, however, gave some hints to reporters, the rainbow bagels have blueberry fruity flavors, taste like cereal and are egg and dairy free. They are a true labor of love using only the best ingredients. Scott and his team who are never tired of creating bagels can only craft 100 rainbow bagels every five hours, the same time used to make 5,000 ordinary bagels.

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Text and Images: Maira Niode