Fairmount Bagel

This guide to Fairmount Bagel in Montreal's Mile End opens with NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff floating a bag of the shop's sesame bagels through the International Space Station in 2008, then traces the family bakery back to Isadore Shlafman, a Russian Jewish immigrant who began baking in 1919 and moved into this storefront in 1949. You'll hear how the hand-rolled, honey-boiled, wood-fired method he set down has barely changed. Listen for the wood smoke drifting off Fairmount Avenue as you learn whose hands still tend that oven.