Plenty of men in black hats have dropped by the new Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels, just a Willie Mays-strength toss away from Pacific Bell Park.
But they haven’t been men with names like Bonds, Santiago or Galarraga. They’ve been rabbis.
The new eatery can be all things to all people — harried commuters hoping to grab a bagel for their ride to the South Bay on Caltrain and Giants fans unable to stomach the notion of a $7.25 ballpark sandwich rub shoulders with observant Jews heading to Izzy’s for the only kosher pizza this side of Palo Alto.
“On my lunch break, I come in here to grab coffee. There aren’t too many good coffee places around here,” said Steve Benjamin, a member of the ESPN camera crew, before the June 2 Giants-Rockies game.
Did the store’s kosher certification by the Vaad HaKashrus make a difference in his choice of bagel restaurants? In a word, no.
“I did not know that it is kosher. I come here for the coffee.”
It makes a big difference, however, to Rabbi Ben-Tzion Welton. In addition to being an overseer for the Vaad, he’s also an Izzy’s customer. Driving from his Berkeley home to a San Francisco Chabad school with two of his kids, he stops off at the 4-1/2-month-old shop almost every day for bagels, pizza, borekas or knishes.
And, no, Chabadniks don’t enjoy paying through the nose for ballpark food either.
“Chabadniks do go to the ballgame, plenty of Chabadniks go there,” he said with chuckle. “There are a pair of doctors I know who make almost a weekly visit.”
The shop is beginning to experiment with expanding its hours to accommodate the crowds heading to night games.
Welton is highly optimistic that Izzy’s ballpark location — at 151 Townsend between Second and Third streets — will soon be rolling in dough in more ways than one.
When the first Izzy’s opened on Palo Alto’s California Avenue in 1996, Welton points out, a Noah’s Bagels was just down the street. Noah’s was, at the time, a popular and well-known national chain, but the California Avenue Noah’s has since closed its doors while Izzy’s has expanded.
The Izzy of Izzy’s bagels — owner Israel Rind — said he owes his success to an uncompromising approach to the art of bagel-making. Izzy’s, he exclaims, makes “an unassimilated bagel.”
“What I mean by that is much of the bagel-making procedure has been adulterated or changed in a way to accommodate the methods available here,” said the Israeli-born Rind.
For example, Rind eschews “proof pots” and produces his bagels slowly, in order to “cultivate the flavor, like wine.”
For Rind, bagel creation is a three-hour process — and that’s for starters. Then he rolls rack-upon-rack of bagels on 8-foot-high, multitiered carts into a walk-in freezer for a thorough chilling. Then, the bagels are wheeled into a gargantuan refrigerator for an overnight thawing. And then they are boiled and baked
“Ideally, you let them thaw slowly. I want to develop flavor. But time is money, so most people don’t bother,” he said.
“You could make a bagel in half an hour, if you want. You skip the freezing stage. But then it is a pretend bagel, an assimilated bagel. It is just a roll with a hole.”
Rind can think of a better use for assimilated bagels than eating — Giants outfielder Marquis Grissom could stick them on the handles of his bats to keep his hands from slipping, for one.
Sadly, neither Grissom nor his teammates have poked their noses into Izzy’s yet, but there was a close call recently.
He was wearing a black, button-up uniform, with No. 25 emblazoned across the back. He was carrying a huge stick. And across the shoulders, it read “BONDS.”
But it wasn’t Barry. It was Sam Ramos. And the stick wasn’t a red-and-black Maple Rideau Crusher bat but the neon green flag Ramos uses to wave drivers into the parking garage he works for on game days.
But does he like kosher food?
“Kosher? I eat whatever,” said a laughing Ramos. “I eat all kinds of food.”