There's a giant pizza bagel on the menu at this Lakewood shop

Sarah Griesemer, Asbury Park Press
·2 min read

The smell of freshly baked bagels and coffee fill the air at Hot Bagels in Lakewood.

Customers order breakfast sandwiches, donuts and muffins, or savory shakshuka with a side of housemade sourdough.

But the menu at Shea Baron's bagel shop offers something much, much bigger: a giant pizza bagel. Measuring about 2 feet wide, the bagel was added to the menu after Baron spotted one online.

"I thought it was a good idea," he said.

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Shea Baron, owner of Hot Bagels, explains how they create their giant pizza bagel at Hot Bagels in Lakewood, NJ Monday, January 29, 2024.
Shea Baron, owner of Hot Bagels, explains how they create their giant pizza bagel at Hot Bagels in Lakewood, NJ Monday, January 29, 2024.

The version offered at his three Hot Bagels stores in Lakewood begins with an everything bagel that is sliced in half, hollowed out (the inner bread is used to make garlic knots), filled with housemade tomato sauce, topped with shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese and spices, and baked.

If you want one, plan ahead: The stores need 24 hours notice to make the giant bagel, each half of which serves about 15 people ($40 for half, $75 for the whole bagel). Individual-sized pizza bagels are available daily ($6.75).

The dough for the bagels, which ferments for a full day before being shaped, kettle-cooked and baked, is a recipe from Baron's father, who still runs the Brooklyn bagel shop he took over after immigrating to the United States from Israel more than 50 years ago.

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Andres Hernandez and Angel Mendez, employees of Hot Bagels, boil a giant bagel before placing it in the oven and creating a giant pizza bagel at Hot Bagels in Lakewood, NJ Monday, January 29, 2024.
Andres Hernandez and Angel Mendez, employees of Hot Bagels, boil a giant bagel before placing it in the oven and creating a giant pizza bagel at Hot Bagels in Lakewood, NJ Monday, January 29, 2024.

Unlike Baron's bagel shops, which offer an extensive breakfast, lunch and to-go menu — plus gourmet pastries from artisan bakery Patis — the New York Hot Bagels (there are now two) serve only bagels and coffee.

"That's it, and there is a line every single day," Baron said. "It's a good, New York, crispy, old-fashioned bagel."

That crispiness works well when the dough is turned into a pizza bagel.

"When you have that bagel taste and the everything spice on it and that crisp that you get from a bagel combined with pizza ingredients ... the pizza bagel (speaks) for itself," Baron said.

Go: Hot Bagels, 232 Second St., 732-772-3444; 681 River Ave., 732-772-3444; 75 E. Kennedy Blvd., 732-772-3444, Lakewood; hotbagelslakewood.com.

Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com, follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to our Jersey Shore Eats newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Hot Bagels in Lakewood bakes giant pizza bagel