The question hung for years like a dense fog. "Do you serve bagels?" they would ask while standing in a line that sometimes stretched out of the bakery's door and wrapped around its graffiti-splashed façade. For years, Zak Stern's answer was no. Then one day in late 2019, Stern was there in a sunny corner of the bakery flipping circles of dough into hulking pots of boiling water spiked with honey. He spent months figuring out how to get onion flakes to stick and how to ensure each bagel had the burnished red-brown hue indicating a perfect bake. Eventually he got it, and despite the pandemic you can still cop a half dozen for nine bucks, or one split and slicked with cream cheese and a few slices of smoked salmon for $12.50. It was a long time coming, but baby, it was worth the wait.