Paul Brown of Paulie’s Bagels, in partnership with Alex Macaraig, is opening a brick-and-mortar diner-style cafe in downtown Napa this September. The space, at at 1517 Third Street, is the former home of ABC Bakery, which closed last year when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
Winston’s Cafe and Paulie’s Bagels will be a “community-focused” cafe, whose menu will feature Paulie’s handcrafted bagels, as well as classic diner fare, including sandwiches, salads, and fried chicken and biscuits.
The cafe is a big win for Napa, whose bagel scene has been pretty bleak for a while now. And unlike many of California’s failed NYC bagel copycats, Brown’s approach to bagels is uniquely his.
“It was a full two years of once or twice a month revising a recipe, making tons of mistakes and finally arriving at a point where I had a bagel that had the chew and the flavor intensity and the seasoning — something that seemed special instead of just, ‘Here’s a bagel that’s like H&H,’” Brown said in conversation with the San Francisco Chronicle.
His soft pretzel-like bagels are a result of boiling the dough in caustic water, which he makes using baking soda, that gives a dark shine to the crusts.
If you can’t hold out until September, you can order Paulie’s bagels online now. And hopefully, one day, you’ll even be able to find them in your supermarket.
