Apparently, everything isn’t enough. These days, bagel makers are crafting rounds with surprising ingredients–from sweet to savory to eye-catching. Here are six that will drive purists crazy.
Chocolate Chip
Goldberg’s New York Bagels
location_onSilver Spring and Rockville
languageWebsite
These NYC–inspired kosher bagel shops in Montgomery County add a deluge of dark-chocolate chips to their rings, making you feel like you’re eating a cookie for breakfast.
Cheesy Garlic Bread
Call Your Mother
location_onMultiple area locations
languageWebsite
These garlicky circles, bubbly with cheese, were created as a foundation for the meat-ball bagelwich at this Miami Vice–hued bagel chain. The seasonal bagels became so popular that they’re now a long-term menu item.
Rainbow
Bethesda Bagels
location_onBethesda, Cabin John, Rockville, Navy Yard, and Rosslyn
languageWebsite
Prismatic bagels, swirly with food coloring, are Instagram thirst traps. These are available only Friday through Sunday in limited numbers.
French Toast
Brooklyn Bagel Bakery
location_onArlington
languageWebsite
Arlington’s longtime bagel pros evoke the sweet breakfast favorite by adding eggs to their dough, rolling the unbaked rounds in cinnamon and sugar, then finishing them off with powdered sugar.
Old Bay–Sesame
Buffalo & Bergen
location_onCapitol Hill, Cleveland Park, Union Market
languageWebsite
Pairing bold Chesapeake vibes with a subtler nutty undertone makes these disks popular for tuna-salad sandwiches and BEC breakfast sandos at Gina Chersevani’s homage to New York’s corner delis.
Cinnamon Sugar
Chewish Deli
location_onAlexandria
languageWebsite
The blue-and-white-accented corner bagelry in Old Town rolls its bagels in an aromatic spice blend that recalls just-baked snickerdoodles.
This article appears in the April 2026 issue of Washingtonian.
Nevin Martell is a food, travel, and foraging writer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, Men’s Journal, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, The Daily Beast, BBC, and many other publications. He is author of eight books, including Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery, Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, and The Founding Farmers Cookbook: 100 Recipes From the Restaurant Owned by American Family Farmers. When he isn’t working, he loves spending time with his son, foraging for wild foods, and traveling.
