What started as a personal challenge to recreate a classic New York bagel has slowly turned into a small weekly pop-up called Landmark Bagels that folks plan their Sundays around.
Bronxville resident Jason Litwak, a New City native, started making bagels last February, almost on a whim. This, despite no formal baking lessons — he’s a lawyer by training and works full time in banking.
“The first batch was a failure,” he said. “So I made another. And then another. I wasn’t trying to reinvent anything. I just wanted to get one right.”
That initial attempt turned into months of steady refinement — flour selection, fermentation timing, shaping technique, and boil length. With each — they’re all hand-made and hand-shaped with just seven ingredients — he prioritizes structure and flavor over speed or scale.
“For me, what really defines the bagels is the process behind them,” he said. “They always needed tight crumb, strong chew, and a proper crust.”
After nearly seven months and thousands of test bagels made after work and on weekends, he finally hit his mark. That’s when he launched his website and Instagram and started offering them publicly. He chose “Landmark” as its name because he wanted something that felt memorable and worth seeking out. “The idea was to make a bagel with a clear identity, something classic, recognizable, and consistent,” he said.
Orders — they’re sold by the half dozen and dozen — are announced on his social media each Wednesday at 11 a.m. and through a weekly email reminder that goes out to his mailing list. Pickup is between 8:30 and 10 a.m. Sundays at his Bronxville home where he’s a registered home processor with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Bagels sell for $28 for a half dozen; $50 for a dozen in varieties that include plain, sesame, poppy, everything, salt, onion, a black-and-white sesame “tuxedo” and the occasional seasonal option.
The goal was never to start a business — his full-time job keeps him busy enough — but now Landmark Bagels, through social media and good old fashioned word of mouth, has Litwak constantly in the kitchen. Batches are intentionally small and often sell out shortly after orders open.
Litwak preps the dough and shape on Saturdays for a full overnight cold fermentation, then boils and bakes Sunday morning.
“For now, the goal is to keep building Landmark carefully while preserving the quality, consistency, and hands-on process that define it,” he said. “What gives me satisfaction is the craft of it, taking something simple and doing it with real care and consistency.
“I’m proud that every bagel is shaped by hand and made with good ingredients. When a dozen come out of the oven and I can see the result of all that time and effort, there’s a real sense of pride in that, and I’m excited for people to eat them.”
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Jeanne Muchnick covers food and dining. Click here for her most recent articles and follow her latest dining adventures on Instagram @jeannemuchnick or via the lohudfood newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester resident, a Rockland native, goes from banking to bagels
Reporting by Jeanne Muchnick, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
