The EVArything Bagel Chronicle: Lefty’s Righteous Bagels

Another warm welcome to The EVArything Bagel Chronicle, where I continue my quest for Chicago’s best bagel. After last week’s unfortunate upset at Gotham Bagels, I decided to take my pocketful of Jersey-girl dreams to a land far, far away, unfamiliar to the common city dweller — Lefty’s Righteous Bagels in Evanston, Ill.

Similar to previously reviewed Tilly Bagel, Lefty’s Righteous Bagels bakes up creative varieties, from rosemary pink salt to rotating seasonal flavors — October’s feature has an autumnal flare, a spiced apple pie bagel with a salted caramel schmear. 

What makes Lefty’s Righteous Bagels specifically stand out are their Montreal-style features and baking techniques. These are thinner, smaller bagels with a large center hole, baked in a wood-fired oven rather than the standard conventional one.

A wood-fired Montreal bagel in Evanston? Sounds elitist, but my Jersey standards don’t care about a zip code or a wood flame if the baseline isn’t hitting. And after the White Sox elimination on Saturday night left me wallowing in frustration, Sunday morning me needed a top-notch bagel to bury my sorrows in. 

Let’s see how Lefty’s matches against my 5-point scale.

The Crust

Lefty’s everything bagel featured a crisp exterior that sang a beautiful, loud crunch with each bite I took — a visual and musical masterpiece to my bagel-loving soul. Starting strong, Lefty’s rightfully earns itself 1 out of 1 point for crust.

The Seasoning

The everything seasoning mix was decent overall, but it fell short on the essential heavyweights, specifically garlic and onion. Instead, the profile was dominated by an unusually heavy dose of a surprise guest: fennel. Now, if you’ve been following this column since the start, you remember what I said when Tilly Bagel made this same move — while an unexpectedly pleasant, flower-like twist, the fennel takes away from that classic everything bagel flavor. I’m dropping back down on the scale and awarding Lefty’s only .5 out of 1 point for seasoning.

The Cream Cheese

Gee, where to even begin with Lefty’s cream cheese. 

Reaching into the brown paper bag to retrieve my bagel order, starving and licking my lips at the thought of food, I expected to pull out a fully assembled, beautifully slathered bagel. Imagine my utter shock when I pulled out an everything bagel and a tiny plastic tub of cream cheese, forced to assemble my own breakfast like a DIY craft project. If I wanted to spread my own cream cheese, I would’ve stayed home and toasted a store-bought bagel.

To make matters worse, the bagel had already been toasted without me even requesting it. Attempting to scrape stiff, cold schmear onto a hot bagel — with the weakest, skinniest, most-snappable plastic knife in existence — immediately turned the spread into a melty, sliding mess, leaving me with uneven ratios and a mudslide of warm cream cheese. I was thoroughly disappointed, but since the flavor of the cream cheese itself wasn’t too bad, I guess I’ll be fair and give Lefty’s .25 out of 1 point for cream cheese.

The Size and Shape

On the aesthetic front, Lefty’s nails the physical proportions, boasting a flawlessly defined central hole and a refreshingly modest, traditional size, fitting perfectly into the palm of my hand. A testament to the fact that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to bagel geometry, Lefty’s wins itself 1 out of 1 point for size and shape.

The Texture

This bagel was — quite literally — just bread masquerading in a ring shape. It lacked any dense, toothsome pull or chew, offering zero structural resistance from crust to core. I genuinely had to sit back mid-chew to double-check what I was putting into my mouth was truthfully a bagel and not a thick slice of artisanal bread. If you’re looking for that classic, boil-and-bake interior, you won’t find it at Lefty’s — it’s completely airy and pillowy to a fault. Lefty’s leaves the texture category racking up zero out of 1 point.

The Verdict

Finalizing the scores, Lefty’s Righteous Bagels walks away with a meager 2.75 out of 5 points. While their wood-fired crust and picture-perfect form give them points for style, the DIY cream cheese nightmare, fennel-heavy spice blend and soft, bread-like interior hold them back from greatness. It’s certainly a unique attempt, but if you’re looking for an authentic, chewy East Coast baseline to nurse a sports fan’s heartbreak, this isn’t the spot.

If you want to try their wood-fired creations for yourself — or just fancy assembling your own breakfast with plastic cutlery — you can visit Lefty’s Righteous Bagels at 115 Central Park Ave. in Evanston, open Tuesday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., or until sold out.