Though I’ve been a midwest dweller for about a year now, it still feels like I only just recently got here. I’m east coast born and bred. I blame my upbringing on my previously held opinions on bagels. I used to live my life as if the question of bagels had right and wrong answers. I thought bagel sandwiches were a joke and shouldn’t be eaten by anyone who was serious about bagels. I thought the only real bagels were from New York and (if you were lucky) you might get a close 2nd place bagel in a surrounding city, but truly you had to go into ‘the city’ if you wanted the real deal. I felt that bagels needed to be lightly toasted prior to consumption–no exceptions. You could have a bagel with cream cheese, lox, and maybe some capers, if you really wanted. (In this scenario, a little thinly sliced red onion and dill certainly wouldn’t be a criminal addition.) However, the ‘correct’ bagel order would be an everything, toasted, with some kind of allium cream cheese: probably scallion. Anything else was wrong. Except maybe a plain bagel, toasted, with butter–acceptable only on rare occasions.
I remember telling my mom before I moved that I would probably just have to adjust to never eating bagels or pizza. I held firm in my belief that I couldn’t get a decent bagel or slice anywhere west of Pittsburgh; even that far west in Pennsylvania, in my mind, was me being generous. My first six months in the midwest, I refused to even try any pizzeria style pizza. If I had a craving, it was deep dish or bust. (Then, thank god, I met a former New Yorker who pointed me toward the heavenly gates of the best pizza place in my city. It’s a literal slice of paradise…but that’s a story for another time.) My opinion loosely remains that you can’t get a New York bagel in the midwest–mostly because New York isn’t in the midwest. But, the midwest has something that we didn’t have back home: Shop Two Sixty.
Shop Two Sixty is a local Fort Wayne purveyor of many varied foodstuffs, but their specialty is slinging hand rolled and boiled sourdough bagels. That extra sort of tang and depth of flavor that the sourdough brings is excellent, but it doesn’t cause these little darlings to be too ‘bready’ to feel like legit bagels. When I’m assessing a good New York bagel, I’m looking for that sort of quintessential ‘chew’ that everybody always cites. The outer crust is a little harder, but the interior has a fine crumb structure and is soft, but still substantial in texture. I want the kind of texture that sends thousands of people to the emergency room every year. (Did you know that bagel slicing is statistically the 5th most dangerous household kitchen activity?!) Shop Two Sixty ticks all the boxes, while managing to still be its own unique sort of thing. Shop Two Sixty has crafted a perfect, sourdough bagel that they continuously tweak with new and innovative flavor concepts. Their creativity is boundless, which means the varieties of bagels they offer are practically limitless, but never once have I felt that they sacrificed quality in the pursuit of creativity. This is likely why I’ve so easily been able to welcome these bagels into my heart: that and they are freaking delicious.
Since falling in love with these sourdough bagels, I’ve made an effort to adopt a more ‘live and let live’ attitude when it comes to my personal bagel philosophy. I’ll still happily devour an everything with scallion schmear, but I’ve also ventured out and accepted more bagel flavors as being legit. One of my most favorite pairings is an aged cheddar bagel, toasted, with victory garden schmear–which is kind of just a fancy way of saying the most kick-ass veggie cream cheese ever. They once created an ‘umami bagel’ with a savory schmear made with smoked brisket and kimchi. That was really something special. I drove that bagel and schmear 600 miles so that my best friend could try it. One time, I fell hard in love with their dill and havarti bagel special and literally felt my heart cracking in my chest when they finally took it off the menu to welcome their next flavor-of-the-month. I’m still not over it. While I’m still in early days with my personal struggle to accept sweet bagels, they made a fruity breakfast cereal bagel with a cereal schmear and, let me tell you, it made me forget for a minute that I ever thought sweet bagels were a crime against humanity. If the breakfast cereal bagel special ever comes back, you can bet I’ll be first in line to snag a half dozen. I’d say I’ve come a pretty long way in my journey to accept sweet bagels into my heart, because Shop Two Sixty recently ensnared me with their siren song when they posted a photo on Instagram of a spooky Halloween bagel special: a Cookies n Cream bagel with Pumpkin Pie schmear. Be still my beating heart. I can’t even think of this combo without swooning.
When I first arrived in the midwest, my options for procuring Shop Two Sixty bagels were either to slog myself to the farmers’ market (which I’ve done many times, but gave me great anxiety in my early days because I would consistently get lost going to the farmers’ market and leaving) or I could place an online order with them and have it delivered to my doorstep. Sadly, they haven’t been doing delivery orders, but for good reason: they now have a physical location. Brew Two Sixty now exists as the munchie part of 2Toms Brewing. So now, if I don’t grab bagels at the farmers market, I can place an online order to pick my bagels up on Saturdays at their new brewpub. At this new location, they offer little bites, like chips and dips, nachos, and of course their breads, bialys, and bagels. They even do sandwiches–and yes, some of them are on bagels and, yes, I love them. The Ham & Cheese is obviously a classic. Their Sonoma Chicken Salad is bonkers good. My favorite is probably the Cran Jack Turkey. If you visit the brewpub and 2Toms still has their cereal killer beers on offer, the CT Crunch Stout paired with this turkey sandwich is all the low-key fall vibes you could ever possibly need.
I could literally go on all day gushing over how much I enjoy Shop Two Sixty bagels (and their other breads, treats, and salads are nothing to turn your nose up at, either) but, more than just liking them, I think they have given me two great gifts. First and foremost, they’ve made me reconsider some of my opinions. They’ve made me stare myself down and question why I think what I think. The answer, “because I’ve always thought that,” isn’t acceptable. Realizing that is maybe the first step towards growing into a more open and accepting person. Daily, I am trying harder to never yuck someone’s yum. Taste is such a personal experience. I know what I like. I know what I don’t like. But I also know that it’s important for me to keep trying the things that I don’t like, because my opinions and personal taste may change over time. If I told little-kid-me that I would grow up to one day love broccoli, brussels sprouts, and bagels from the Midwest, little-me would probably assume that older-me had been body snatched by a vegetable loving yeehaw. Yet, here I am today, eating my vegetables with enjoyment and eager for my next chance to snag a Shop Two Sixty sourdough bagel.
The second gift that Shop Two Sixty has given me is the ability to feel more at home in a place that does not yet feel like home. I still get lost navigating the streets of this little city. It’s probably mostly in my head, but I still think people look at me like an outsider here. Like, they can size me up, see the way I dress, or how I talk, and immediately know that I am not one of them. (A woman in the grocery store once told me that I have a Pennsylvania ‘twang.’ That might have made sense if I hailed from Western Pennsylvania, but I very much don’t. Sometimes I lie awake at night trying to figure out what she meant by ‘twang.’ I’ve had complaints before that my vowels are sometimes flat; like you hear in parts of New Jersey. But never before, and never again, has someone told me that I have a ‘twang.’ What did she mean by that?!) I am a stranger in a strange land. Sometimes I get turned around in my new city and need to rely on my phone to help me navigate back to my house. But, no matter how lost I get, I know where I can always get a good bagel. Although it is not identical to the bagels of my past, it is a delectable bagel that I never thought I would find so far from where I once called home. So, while the people, and the places, and the streets whose names I keep forgetting still don’t feel like home to me yet, the bagels do. I think there’s a chance that when I inevitably go back to visit Pennsylvania, I’ll find myself missing these strange, sensational, sourdough, Shop Two Sixty bagels that I now call home. And when I do, eventually, visit Pennsylvania again, I won’t be the same person I was when I left. I’ve changed. I’ve grown. I’ve become more welcoming of things that are new to me. And it’s Shop Two Sixty bagels that I have to thank for this new version of me.
Plonk & Pleasure 
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