Opinion: Just don’t call it a bagel. It’s fluffy, domed and dimpled

Bagels are under siege, and if you need proof, I offer a single word: Airy. I’m staring at a fluffy specimen at a neighborhood bagel spot so popular that I drove by multiple times in search of a window when there weren’t 20 people in line. This isn’t that; the bakers behind the new bagel are a diverse bunch, some with Eastern European roots, like the bagel itself, and others, not. They talk about the “Los Angeles bagel,” a proud mix of then and now, testimony to the city’s cuisine without borders. The troubling cloud on the bagel horizon is cast by none other than Philadelphia Cream Cheese, the longtime other half of “bagel and schmear,” which has rolled out Philly Bagel Wholes in partnership with bagel bakers nationwide and in Canada — an equally dimpled if more puck-like item whose slogan is, “Now there’s more room for Philly.” More surface area requires more cream cheese; the inspiration, here, is the bottom line.