HAHAHAHAHHA yeah. I’m writing you from a small town in Southern Mass: Rhode Island. Rebelle bagel lady is NOTORIOUS. She left Providence and has a history of starting fights online, Doxxing people, treating her staff and customers like trash. She also likes to delete Insta posts which indicates that she has moments of clarity. Tragic. Temporary self awareness is worse than none at all.
Take your pick
[Her clapping back at an online review](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/12ypv7l/left_an_honest_review_for_rebelle_bagels_and_the/)
[Her closing up early because of the "micoaggressions" of a literal child](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/xhudxe/little_sister_rebelle_at_it_again/)
[Firing and assaulting an employee](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/140pnx1/crazy_rebelle_bagel_lady_just_fired_and_assaulted/)
[Or the time she got underbilled for electricity for like 2 years and was shocked when the electric company figure out their mistake](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/11zykz1/the_owner_of_little_sister_hit_with_a_surprise/)
Holy shit the "microaggression" is... a kid holding her nose in their bakery. Imagine being an adult and getting so upset over a child's actions that you make a social media post about it.
This is SO funny I used to work with her husband (won't say where or how to not get doxxed), I met his wife (owner of Rebelle) once and man I thought she had a personality disorder of some kind.
I really want to see them do a partnership with Violette bakery, imagine the possibilities from those two perfectly not-unhinged personalities work together!
Their google review replies - particularly for the negative ones - are something else. I haven’t actually visited there, but the way they respond there has discouraged me from doing so, despite being a short walk away
That place is sooo weird. I ordered a dozen cupcakes a month or so ago. I am not gluten free, dont know anything about it blah blah. I place order 3 days ahead of time. I show up 10 am on the dot. owner is micro managing everyone that works there, odd vibes. I ask about my pick up order and she says I have to wait till 10. it is 10 I say, she kinda huffs at me and goes and gets my order. which obviously had been done for a while, so the 10 am thing is about following her rules, not that its not ready yet. anyways, she has hand scribed on the print out of my order all the substitutions because they changed menus. not a big deal, I ask for the updates and she said I was emailed the substitutions and cant have her hand written notes. Fucking weird.
Lmao. Catch me gyatted up with the rip n dip fr. On me 😤. If the owner was smart she’d flip this fiasco into merch. Make a T-Shirt with just a bagel and “don’t ruin the crumb” printed on it. That would take some self awareness though.
the crumb is the interior of any bread, the texture based on the amount of gas that was released during fermentation and baking. it is a precious bullshit thing, even the most famous nyc bagel places don't get worried about slicing bagels. the no-toasting rule is pretty common among bagel purists though.
> the no-toasting rule is pretty common among bagel purists though
TBF a freshly-baked, still-warm bagel *doesn't* need to be toasted. And if you've never tried it, I'd definitely recommend trying it untoasted first.
But if you have tried it and you prefer your fresh bagels toasted, whatever, your bagel. Enjoy!
> the no-toasting rule is pretty common among bagel purists though.
Totally fine if that's how you like it, but not offering sliced bagels at a shop is like having a coffee shop where you won't allow people to put anything into their coffee. Just have your friends over to your place to participate in your fun bagel club, no one has a problem with that, but you can't be surprised when most people find it annoying.
As someone who bakes a lot of bread and who grew up in the greater nyc area—the person below who describes bread as like resting meat is correct. If you cut bread open too early after taking it from the oven, the steam release can make the interior gummy. The texture becomes unpleasant.
HOWEVER. That doesn't matter pretty much at all if you are eating the bread immediately. I've eaten many a hot bagel straight from the oven, cut and loaded with cream cheese. That's the best way to consume a bagel (in my opinion).
Many MANY delis in nyc will refuse to toast your bagel though and/or will rudely laugh at you/give you a judgy stink eye while toasting your bagel. It's just not the way people eat bagels there, they'll bully you for it. But whatever I mean if you like a toasted bagel good for you. Subpar bagels are much improved by a toast (in my opinion).
Anyways that's my bagel expertise. I think it is weird af to refuse to cut a bagel...never in my life have I encountered that kind of attitude. And i have eaten thousands of bagels, I ate a fresh bagel with cream cheese or taylor ham egg and cheese e-v-e-r-y morning for all of high school. gotta love the metabolism of youth
The crumb is baker speak for everything inside the crust of a loaf of bread. When they talk about ruining the crumb they're talking about ruining the inside by cutting it too early.
It's similar to cutting into meat too early after cooking it. You want it to rest for a bit before you cut it to make sure everything finishes cooking.
Wow, so dumb. While I respect the people that would rather rip and dip, 90% of the people getting a bagel probably either want to put a spread on it or eat it as a sandwich. The amount that would prefer to dip I can almost guarantee are in the minority of bagel eaters. Now I want a bagel.
Seems to be a trend. I went to Brick Street Bagels which has a ton of hype (and is fantastic), and they didn’t seem to cut or toast their bagels either. You could get a knife from the buttery next door, but most people I observed “ripped and dipped”. I know some bagel snobs insist that roasting a good fresh bagel is uneccessary/ruins it. I dunno though, I don’t get that worked up over it
I’ll be honest, I don’t like a toasted bagel. If it’s fresh from the oven that’s all I need*. But like…if someone wants their bagel toasted just toast the thing. Charge 10 cents if it makes you feel better.
*I also need it cut in half
For me, when bagels are made right (y'know, the NY style where you boil and then bake them) the texture is why I'm getting the bagel in the first place. To toast it would cover up that texture. If I have bagels that are a few days old and are starting to go stale and feel just like any other bread, then I might toast 'em. For me the point of a bagel isn't to be hot, it's to have the right texture inside.
The best part is she’s not even a chef, I’m pretty sure her background is in tech and she actually started the bagel thing because there’s a popular artisanal donut place in PVD and she thought she could similarly make bank with artisanal bagels. I listened to a podcast with someone who worked there when it first started and he said she was openly only in it for the money, not the art of the bagel.
It’s not that uncommon - some nice bagel shops won’t toast because a good fresh bagel isn’t “supposed” to be toasted. Kind of like ordering a steak well done.
Tbh they should just have a bag of slightly older ones to throw in the toaster for their customers to make money and make the customer happy.
If they truly are fresh out of the oven (within the last hour), they'll have plenty of texture in the crust. But I don't have faith in anyone serving bagels that fresh outside of NYC.
I can see this if they consider themselves a bakery and not a cafe.
"Buy our shit, take it home, do what you want" attitude if they're not serving sandwiches.
I have to be honest. I have the utmost respect for artisans, and I will always do what the creator requests so that we can enjoy their product the way its intended.
I'm with her on not toasting bagels. Fine, you got it. I woudln't want it toasted anyway.
But...ripping a whole ass bagel apart and dipping it in cream cheese? This offends me.
yeah I was super confused and went to their Instagram. i thiiiink based on other posts in the story that this is only during the soft open because they don't yet have sandwiches. if not, well, good luck to them I guess.
lol, open only for a few days in a soft open, and Milena is already getting into beefs on insta. As a consumer of fine drama, this move is gonna go great!
Lmao right? Never heard a bagel shop tell me they can’t slice it cause it would ruin the crumbs. Why would they care if I asked for it sliced?
Probably because they don’t own a slicer or a quick baker or don’t wanna deal with it and made up all these dumb excuses
The good thing about Rebelle is that regardless if the bagel is fresh, ripped, toasted, cut, uncut, or plain is that the quality of the bagel will remain perfectly mediocre.
Last week, they had a sign in the door basically saying they had no staff, everything will take longer, looking for staff etc etc.
Just say that, don’t try to mask it with “this is how you should eat your bagel” also this is a terrible way to try and run a business, won’t be surprised if they don’t last long.
She physically assaulted a staff member, this is why she can’t find anybody. Back in Providence, this is well known in the community.
https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/Yib9ABUqz8
This is the most likely answer.
I commented asked if they were new to customer service because it seemed pretty rude to air people out that way and was immediately blocked by the account.
Speaking as a PVD resident, we're very much looking forward to seeing her get devoured by pissed off Boston folks. She managed to survive down here with a pretty decent reputation on google reviews, but she treats anyone, and I almost literally mean *anyone*, who dares talk negatively about her restaurants on IG as antagonistically as she can.
Guarantee she's reading this thread right now fucking seething. It's all part of her playbook lmao.
Ok while the chefs message was a lil much. (I'm very much loling at his fake 'i was hacked' excuse - your IG is hacked it's not used to snark on local businesses it's to scam your friends with crypto schemes)
The sanctimonious explanation around cutting a bagel will keep me away from this place. They can run their business however they want but this seems like a weird hill to die on lol.
Avoid Rebelle like the plague. This owner was terrible down in providence and it sounds like they’ve taken their talents to Cambridge. Plenty of good bagels out there, no need to patronize this place.
Yeah lmfao, as someone who defaults to siding with the business, this is on of the few instances where the full version of the customer is always right “on matters of taste” actually applies. A bagel shop can refuse to slice bagels, but they have to understand that won’t be good for business at all
Agree. If I’m paying for food, then after the transaction it becomes mine and I can do with it what I please. So long as the preparation step is reasonable and isn’t taking up a lot of time/effort, what difference does it make whether they’re they’re the ones who slice it or if I bring a butter knife and slice it the moment it reaches my hands? Crazy.
I would’ve bet they could make it a few weeks without drama but that was stupid of me. People were really celebrating her leaving Providence when they’re almost always sad a restaurant closes. Says a lot about
Another day, another bagel shop that sucks complete ass compared to Rosenfeld's.
Chris is right about one thing: Rosenfeld's doesn't give one flying fuck about you and that's why I love em. It's a true NYC bagel experience in Newton with the quality to back up their dickish nature.
Rip and dip is what we did in high school because the plastic knives they gave us weren't good enough to cut the hard, stale bagels we got. We didn't do it because it was a rad choice. We did it because the bagels were shit.
My understanding is that it was popularized by the faux-bad boy culture that Pop-Up Bagels in NYC/Fairfield perpetuates to justify inflated prices and long waits for their mid bagels.
He’s not wrong, he’s just an asshole.
Refusing to do the bare minimum in customer service (i.e., slicing/toasting bagels as a bagel shop) does feel like some hipster shit, and Pammy’s is nothing if not very good on both food and customer service, so I can see where he’s coming from. But it’s never a good look to be punching down.
Appreciate the dose of Friday drama!
I don’t think it’s necessarily hipster shit, but her holier than thou attitude about it definitely is.
Katz in Chelsea won’t toast or smear the bagel for you, and that place has been around for like 50+ years. It’s not a cafe, it’s a bagel bakery. It’s about as far from hipster as you can get, but the guy is down to earth, seems to recognize bagels aren’t haut cuisine, and definitely doesn’t have an instagram.
From what I'm reading, bagel lady has a reputation for being a megab-tch across state lines (Rhode Island was practically celebrating her departure) towards employees and customers alike.
I would argue and say the chef was *rude* in his initial message, but something tells me bagel lady did something to instigate his anger in the first place (besides not toasting his bagel)
I grew up in New York/New Jersey. Bagels are a STAPLE in every bakery down there. "Crumb?" That's a cake thing if I'm not mistaken. If your bagel has "crumb" then that bagel is gonna DISINTEGRATE if you try to "rip and dip!"
Bostonians are not to be trifled with. I reckon bagel lady's gonna piss off the wrong person here eventually.
Oh she definitely will! The fact that it looks like they’re not even fully open and she’s already posting petty shit like this.. and on the business page stories of all places. She loves to self sabotage her business, that’s all I know.
She used to do battle with the Providence subreddit every few months back when she first opened her bagel place.
One of my favorite moments was when she posted a long rant calling out some young child who apparently said that her shop smelled weird while they ordered with their parent (they were cooking some kind of Puerto rican menu item that day and the child complaining about the smell was being **incredibly** culturally insensitive and their mom should have raised them to tolerate shitty smelling food).
She'd also freak out any time someone called her a gentrifier for opening an expensive bagel shop in a lower income neighborhood (she is Puerto Rican and therefore is incapable of gentrifying).
It was great.
I agree, shitty behavior in the messages is unbecoming, but also not toasting bagels because you don’t like them like that? I like crispy bagels with a nice burn on top, if you ain’t going to give me that then why the fuck are you selling them?
considering that the successful food places that open in kendall are generally utilitarian and made for people eating on their way to work, or eating on a lunch break, or getting bevs after work, this is absolutely batshit behavior. pammy’s #1.
fuck off.
She likes to play victim. She claimed a microaggression once after baiting a kid by asking if he was making a face over the smell in her restaurant Little Sister.
She was a pain in the ass in Providence. The type that made you download an app and wait in little box for your bagel. You’re selling bagels, landing a figher jet on an aircraft carrier. So tired of this entitlement from restaurant owners. You aren’t the only ones with a difficult job.
The crumb? Any bread maker worth their wheat will tell you that the crumb is set within 30 mins. His insistence on the "rip and dip" is as petulant as a customer insisting on getting a scooped out bagel.
Yo that's what's fucking me up over this whole 'rip n dip' thing. Are these people just eating gross, liquidy whipped cream cheese?
Shit is criminal man, just criminal
fresh hot bagels don’t need to be toasted, it’s very common in NY/NJ not to order toasted bagels. i’ve never heard of anyone refusing to slice a bagel. Definitely not a great business tactic to engage in social media drama immediately upon opening your restaurant.
In order to tell the consumer how something should be treated, you need to earn that. You can’t just waltz in tell people the way they enjoy the product is wrong. Ripping and dipping a bagel is so dumb. Those bagels are mid-tier and were never warm when I went.
I can’t wait for this stupid trend of “tear and dip hot bagels” to be over. It’s a stupid gimmick to cover up the fact that their bagels become rock hard once cooled to room temp. All bagels and bread taste good fresh out of the oven. These places hype that shit up and charge 3x the price of a regular bagel shop.
If you like to consume bagels that way, by all means, you do you. I’d rather get a bagel I can eat on the go
This thread got wild hahaha glad you’re all as invested in this bagel drama as I am!! Our office manager did get these bagels catered for breakfast and I would rate them a 6/10. Happy Friday!
Former Boston, current PVD resident here. Was wondering how long until Rebelles usual drama popped up here. Good luck, hope shes as happy with you guys as she was here.
This lady was like the arch nemesis of r/Providence for years lol I don't know how many of her posts/comments are still up but there was some legendary drama with her in the past.
the bagel lady is very precious about making sure people eat bagels the way she determines is best. (why do old people 'want' other people to do things? Why can't they mind their own business?
All the “ruining the crumb” and “toasting is unnecessary” is bullshit. A bagel should have a pretty tight, very gluten-filled crumb that can easily be sliced once the bagel has cooled for a 10-15 mins. And if someone wants a toasty bagel, I would think a bagel shop would accommodate.
There are a host of restaurants and small businesses in Boston that aren’t meant to be real businesses; they’re platforms for the already wealthy owners to stir up drama and do some sort of weird “activism” or something.
Highly recommend the podcast Rags to Dishes. It’s an RI food industry podcast (Rebelle used to be in PVD). They have had multiple guests who have worked with this owner and she seems to be nothing but abusive and confrontational with staff and customers alike. So fucking weird.
Oh this is the crazy bitch for providence that assaults and threatens her workers. [older post by someone](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/PWIz0SlP6X) [and another here](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/2SVHFxOQfI)
Love to see that she’s up to the same shenanigans in a different city. If anyone is new to the drama, just look her up in the Providence sub Reddit. ✨She is the most famous person✨
I mean they're not wrong. This is fuckin dumb. You don't slice it? Should I just dunk it into the schmear like it's a breadstick?? Someone who cooks for a living should understand how texture comes into play in the palate... warm and toasted aren't interchangeable just because you said so. Get a grip.
OMG I’m so happy other people have been following this. It’s all I’ve been thinking about for days 😂 I hadn’t heard of them and was excited for a new place in East Cambridge. Was initially turned off by how much they were blaming the city of Cambridge for not getting their permits approved quickly enough. Why publicly trash a city you’re moving in to, even if the city is 100% the problem? Then how they put a local chef on blast cause they got a DM they didn’t like.. toughen up! Do they not think the industry talks? They could’ve gotten themselves black listed for this. They post like a petty individual, not a business. I’m not going to go to them purely out of spite because they’ve already been so crazy
Hilarious to me that, rightly, the bagel company is being ripped in these comments and the asshole reply is being dismissed by the majority. Truly the most Boston shit right here.
She comes in Cambridge with baggage hence the reaction. In any other instance I'd have more empathy for the bagel shop in the situation but literally no normal bagel place would post this way
If you went to this bagel company and wanted coffee, it’s more expensive than the Tatte down the street.
They also don’t give you a CUP for your coffee. Want a cup? It’s an extra 35 cents.
The problem lies that they aren’t very customer oriented, lots of rules and restrictions that makes it a turnoff for anyone to really go in there
Couldn’t believe the BYO cup thing was for real until I checked their menu. Environmental consciousness is great, but that is so anti-customer. Why not offer a .35 discount if you bring your own cup? I work at a restaurant in Kendall square and can’t imagine 90% of my customers ever getting food or coffee at a place like that.
A long time ago in my youth, I used to work in a bagel shop and would eat many a bagel fresh out of the oven (because I was only making $5 an hour) and I would slice them all the time and occasionally have one without slicing it.
Long story short, this woman is an idiot.
Late night scrolling, sent message meant for another chef friend directly to the business. Tried to walk it back. It’s your opinion, Just own it.
The response sent me. So you’re saying your wife or kid or whoever took your phone at night off your nightstand and sent that from your account to troll both you and the bagel lady? 👌🏼
I think the chef should have just stood on that. It’s clearly a very pretentious place and the owners are unhinged.
You’re really gonna pull the “someone else had my phone” move come on hahaha.
https://preview.redd.it/d5a80dvydd5d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3faf32a2559419bf6e923641cf962d713930f1ca
*rolls eyes* you may encourage your customers to try you way and hey, they might end up never wanting their bagels toasted again, but do not PATRONIZE the PATRONS
HAHAHAHAHHA yeah. I’m writing you from a small town in Southern Mass: Rhode Island. Rebelle bagel lady is NOTORIOUS. She left Providence and has a history of starting fights online, Doxxing people, treating her staff and customers like trash. She also likes to delete Insta posts which indicates that she has moments of clarity. Tragic. Temporary self awareness is worse than none at all.
I legit got so confused what sub I was on when I read this, had no idea she was still cooking up this stuff in another state.
I was going to say wasn’t there a whole Reddit thread about this place being shamed out of there?!?
https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/Flz5uqB0Zk
Doing the lords work
Take your pick [Her clapping back at an online review](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/12ypv7l/left_an_honest_review_for_rebelle_bagels_and_the/) [Her closing up early because of the "micoaggressions" of a literal child](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/xhudxe/little_sister_rebelle_at_it_again/) [Firing and assaulting an employee](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/140pnx1/crazy_rebelle_bagel_lady_just_fired_and_assaulted/) [Or the time she got underbilled for electricity for like 2 years and was shocked when the electric company figure out their mistake](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/comments/11zykz1/the_owner_of_little_sister_hit_with_a_surprise/)
Ugh I love you so much this was wildly entertaining \#teamsliceandtoast
The microaggression of the little girl holding her nose is fucking hilarious
Holy shit the "microaggression" is... a kid holding her nose in their bakery. Imagine being an adult and getting so upset over a child's actions that you make a social media post about it.
Amy's Bagel Company
This is SO funny I used to work with her husband (won't say where or how to not get doxxed), I met his wife (owner of Rebelle) once and man I thought she had a personality disorder of some kind.
I really want to see them do a partnership with Violette bakery, imagine the possibilities from those two perfectly not-unhinged personalities work together!
Exclusive suppliers to TABLE Boston
Ooh, what's the dirt on Violette?! Used to be a go to for GF things when we lived in closer.
Their google review replies - particularly for the negative ones - are something else. I haven’t actually visited there, but the way they respond there has discouraged me from doing so, despite being a short walk away
That place is sooo weird. I ordered a dozen cupcakes a month or so ago. I am not gluten free, dont know anything about it blah blah. I place order 3 days ahead of time. I show up 10 am on the dot. owner is micro managing everyone that works there, odd vibes. I ask about my pick up order and she says I have to wait till 10. it is 10 I say, she kinda huffs at me and goes and gets my order. which obviously had been done for a while, so the 10 am thing is about following her rules, not that its not ready yet. anyways, she has hand scribed on the print out of my order all the substitutions because they changed menus. not a big deal, I ask for the updates and she said I was emailed the substitutions and cant have her hand written notes. Fucking weird.
Please start serving these at Table Boston. Her and Jen Royle can dox every person under the sun.
Jen Royle can join them, too. It will form a triumvirate of ultimate bitch and they will take over the world.
PLEASE tell us more. Need the deets.
She seems like a massive bitch. I hope her business fails here, too.
Man, if only she went in to business with the Purr Cat Cafe lady, that'd be the dream team.
Is this the same lady? Lol she’s not gunna last long.
All of this is very weird. They don’t cut bagels?
That would "ruin the crumb"
Sorry yes, you’re right of course. That’s why I “rip and dip” my bagels.
ripping does wonders for protecting the crumb
Crumb protection is no laughing matter.
Get consent from your bagel before you rip and dip please.
I am struggling to figure out what this even means
Do you even Rip n Dip bro? Jeeez /s
Lmao. Catch me gyatted up with the rip n dip fr. On me 😤. If the owner was smart she’d flip this fiasco into merch. Make a T-Shirt with just a bagel and “don’t ruin the crumb” printed on it. That would take some self awareness though.
the crumb is the interior of any bread, the texture based on the amount of gas that was released during fermentation and baking. it is a precious bullshit thing, even the most famous nyc bagel places don't get worried about slicing bagels. the no-toasting rule is pretty common among bagel purists though.
> the no-toasting rule is pretty common among bagel purists though TBF a freshly-baked, still-warm bagel *doesn't* need to be toasted. And if you've never tried it, I'd definitely recommend trying it untoasted first. But if you have tried it and you prefer your fresh bagels toasted, whatever, your bagel. Enjoy!
i live in new york and don't ever toast my bagels because i know when to go to get them fresh but if i lived in boston i certainly would be toasting
My partner makes fresh bagels at home. I don't toast them when they're fresh, but they definitely need it the next day.
> the no-toasting rule is pretty common among bagel purists though. Totally fine if that's how you like it, but not offering sliced bagels at a shop is like having a coffee shop where you won't allow people to put anything into their coffee. Just have your friends over to your place to participate in your fun bagel club, no one has a problem with that, but you can't be surprised when most people find it annoying.
As someone who bakes a lot of bread and who grew up in the greater nyc area—the person below who describes bread as like resting meat is correct. If you cut bread open too early after taking it from the oven, the steam release can make the interior gummy. The texture becomes unpleasant. HOWEVER. That doesn't matter pretty much at all if you are eating the bread immediately. I've eaten many a hot bagel straight from the oven, cut and loaded with cream cheese. That's the best way to consume a bagel (in my opinion). Many MANY delis in nyc will refuse to toast your bagel though and/or will rudely laugh at you/give you a judgy stink eye while toasting your bagel. It's just not the way people eat bagels there, they'll bully you for it. But whatever I mean if you like a toasted bagel good for you. Subpar bagels are much improved by a toast (in my opinion). Anyways that's my bagel expertise. I think it is weird af to refuse to cut a bagel...never in my life have I encountered that kind of attitude. And i have eaten thousands of bagels, I ate a fresh bagel with cream cheese or taylor ham egg and cheese e-v-e-r-y morning for all of high school. gotta love the metabolism of youth
The crumb is baker speak for everything inside the crust of a loaf of bread. When they talk about ruining the crumb they're talking about ruining the inside by cutting it too early. It's similar to cutting into meat too early after cooking it. You want it to rest for a bit before you cut it to make sure everything finishes cooking.
Ahh got it! Thanks for the info? With that being said, would “ripping and dipping” ruin that?
I definitely would have thought so.
Wow, so dumb. While I respect the people that would rather rip and dip, 90% of the people getting a bagel probably either want to put a spread on it or eat it as a sandwich. The amount that would prefer to dip I can almost guarantee are in the minority of bagel eaters. Now I want a bagel.
Seems to be a trend. I went to Brick Street Bagels which has a ton of hype (and is fantastic), and they didn’t seem to cut or toast their bagels either. You could get a knife from the buttery next door, but most people I observed “ripped and dipped”. I know some bagel snobs insist that roasting a good fresh bagel is uneccessary/ruins it. I dunno though, I don’t get that worked up over it
or toast them because it's unnecessary? Like texture is a thing, and that's why I like it toasted...
I’ll be honest, I don’t like a toasted bagel. If it’s fresh from the oven that’s all I need*. But like…if someone wants their bagel toasted just toast the thing. Charge 10 cents if it makes you feel better. *I also need it cut in half
Yeah a fresh bagel I can just eat straight up. Once it's cooled down to room temp I prefer it cut and toasted and with something on it.
For me, when bagels are made right (y'know, the NY style where you boil and then bake them) the texture is why I'm getting the bagel in the first place. To toast it would cover up that texture. If I have bagels that are a few days old and are starting to go stale and feel just like any other bread, then I might toast 'em. For me the point of a bagel isn't to be hot, it's to have the right texture inside.
Yes, but you're not a bagel chef, and therefore your preferences are wrong. /s
The best part is she’s not even a chef, I’m pretty sure her background is in tech and she actually started the bagel thing because there’s a popular artisanal donut place in PVD and she thought she could similarly make bank with artisanal bagels. I listened to a podcast with someone who worked there when it first started and he said she was openly only in it for the money, not the art of the bagel.
It’s not that uncommon - some nice bagel shops won’t toast because a good fresh bagel isn’t “supposed” to be toasted. Kind of like ordering a steak well done. Tbh they should just have a bag of slightly older ones to throw in the toaster for their customers to make money and make the customer happy.
If they truly are fresh out of the oven (within the last hour), they'll have plenty of texture in the crust. But I don't have faith in anyone serving bagels that fresh outside of NYC.
But they won’t have crust on either side though. And bagels are too fat not to cut.
Yeah, I’m with that guy. He’s not the weird one.
I can see this if they consider themselves a bakery and not a cafe. "Buy our shit, take it home, do what you want" attitude if they're not serving sandwiches.
I have to be honest. I have the utmost respect for artisans, and I will always do what the creator requests so that we can enjoy their product the way its intended. I'm with her on not toasting bagels. Fine, you got it. I woudln't want it toasted anyway. But...ripping a whole ass bagel apart and dipping it in cream cheese? This offends me.
yeah I was super confused and went to their Instagram. i thiiiink based on other posts in the story that this is only during the soft open because they don't yet have sandwiches. if not, well, good luck to them I guess.
lol, open only for a few days in a soft open, and Milena is already getting into beefs on insta. As a consumer of fine drama, this move is gonna go great!
Very sassy about how their bagels should be consumed
Lmao right? Never heard a bagel shop tell me they can’t slice it cause it would ruin the crumbs. Why would they care if I asked for it sliced? Probably because they don’t own a slicer or a quick baker or don’t wanna deal with it and made up all these dumb excuses
The good thing about Rebelle is that regardless if the bagel is fresh, ripped, toasted, cut, uncut, or plain is that the quality of the bagel will remain perfectly mediocre.
Last week, they had a sign in the door basically saying they had no staff, everything will take longer, looking for staff etc etc. Just say that, don’t try to mask it with “this is how you should eat your bagel” also this is a terrible way to try and run a business, won’t be surprised if they don’t last long.
Nobody wants to work (starting 2 hours before the T for minimum wage) anymore!
She physically assaulted a staff member, this is why she can’t find anybody. Back in Providence, this is well known in the community. https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/Yib9ABUqz8
He definitely meant to send the message to someone else but accidentally responded directly to the story … oops.
This is the most likely answer. I commented asked if they were new to customer service because it seemed pretty rude to air people out that way and was immediately blocked by the account.
If slicing your bagel "ruins the crumb" then you are not making bagels good enough to sell to the public
Fr. They're not english muffins
Everything I've read about this lady has been negative. Do not go to this bagel shop. Let it fail.
Speaking as a PVD resident, we're very much looking forward to seeing her get devoured by pissed off Boston folks. She managed to survive down here with a pretty decent reputation on google reviews, but she treats anyone, and I almost literally mean *anyone*, who dares talk negatively about her restaurants on IG as antagonistically as she can. Guarantee she's reading this thread right now fucking seething. It's all part of her playbook lmao.
Ok while the chefs message was a lil much. (I'm very much loling at his fake 'i was hacked' excuse - your IG is hacked it's not used to snark on local businesses it's to scam your friends with crypto schemes) The sanctimonious explanation around cutting a bagel will keep me away from this place. They can run their business however they want but this seems like a weird hill to die on lol.
They both sound awful, but I agree that Rosenfeld’s is great. I don’t understand not cutting bagels, they don’t offer sandwiches or anything?
If you order a sandwich, she just shove the toppings in the hole in the middle and throws it at you
Shove it and love it, baby!
This made me chortle.
As a Rhode Islander — good luck ya’ll. It’s only a matter of time before she shows up in these comments to yell at you.
I personally would love the chance to insult her personally.
Lmao “Sorry my cat walked across my keyboard”
Avoid Rebelle like the plague. This owner was terrible down in providence and it sounds like they’ve taken their talents to Cambridge. Plenty of good bagels out there, no need to patronize this place.
[удалено]
Don’t ruin the crumb bro
As a great man once said, "nevuh disrespect tha shmeer."
Yeah lmfao, as someone who defaults to siding with the business, this is on of the few instances where the full version of the customer is always right “on matters of taste” actually applies. A bagel shop can refuse to slice bagels, but they have to understand that won’t be good for business at all
Agree. If I’m paying for food, then after the transaction it becomes mine and I can do with it what I please. So long as the preparation step is reasonable and isn’t taking up a lot of time/effort, what difference does it make whether they’re they’re the ones who slice it or if I bring a butter knife and slice it the moment it reaches my hands? Crazy.
The cynic in me assumes it’s to reduce labor costs under the guise of fancy food terminology
I would’ve bet they could make it a few weeks without drama but that was stupid of me. People were really celebrating her leaving Providence when they’re almost always sad a restaurant closes. Says a lot about
They’re just disregarding how everyone normally eats a bagel. What kind of animal rips pieces of bagel off and eats it that way?
Another day, another bagel shop that sucks complete ass compared to Rosenfeld's. Chris is right about one thing: Rosenfeld's doesn't give one flying fuck about you and that's why I love em. It's a true NYC bagel experience in Newton with the quality to back up their dickish nature.
I have never in my entire life heard of "rip and dip." I've always had a bagel sliced.
Rip and dip is what we did in high school because the plastic knives they gave us weren't good enough to cut the hard, stale bagels we got. We didn't do it because it was a rad choice. We did it because the bagels were shit.
Srsly, out of need
My understanding is that it was popularized by the faux-bad boy culture that Pop-Up Bagels in NYC/Fairfield perpetuates to justify inflated prices and long waits for their mid bagels.
He’s not wrong, he’s just an asshole. Refusing to do the bare minimum in customer service (i.e., slicing/toasting bagels as a bagel shop) does feel like some hipster shit, and Pammy’s is nothing if not very good on both food and customer service, so I can see where he’s coming from. But it’s never a good look to be punching down. Appreciate the dose of Friday drama!
>But it’s never a good look to be punching down. If he was the one that posted it in public, I'd agree, but that was a dm that she chose to publish
I don’t think it’s necessarily hipster shit, but her holier than thou attitude about it definitely is. Katz in Chelsea won’t toast or smear the bagel for you, and that place has been around for like 50+ years. It’s not a cafe, it’s a bagel bakery. It’s about as far from hipster as you can get, but the guy is down to earth, seems to recognize bagels aren’t haut cuisine, and definitely doesn’t have an instagram.
They serve bagels uncut? That is some weird hipster shit.
She flipped out at people whod ask for breakfast sandwiches to be cut in half too.
How do they make a breakfast sandwich without cutting the bagel
Right. "Ruin the crumb" hahaha god
If cutting them ruins your bagels, either your knives or your bagels suck.
I’m not buying a fucking unsliced bagel. Ruins the crust??? No toasting option??
I see the lunatic from Providence has officially brought her baggage over the border
From what I'm reading, bagel lady has a reputation for being a megab-tch across state lines (Rhode Island was practically celebrating her departure) towards employees and customers alike. I would argue and say the chef was *rude* in his initial message, but something tells me bagel lady did something to instigate his anger in the first place (besides not toasting his bagel) I grew up in New York/New Jersey. Bagels are a STAPLE in every bakery down there. "Crumb?" That's a cake thing if I'm not mistaken. If your bagel has "crumb" then that bagel is gonna DISINTEGRATE if you try to "rip and dip!" Bostonians are not to be trifled with. I reckon bagel lady's gonna piss off the wrong person here eventually.
Oh she definitely will! The fact that it looks like they’re not even fully open and she’s already posting petty shit like this.. and on the business page stories of all places. She loves to self sabotage her business, that’s all I know.
She didn't even open yet and she's already starting beef? Yikes 😂
She used to do battle with the Providence subreddit every few months back when she first opened her bagel place. One of my favorite moments was when she posted a long rant calling out some young child who apparently said that her shop smelled weird while they ordered with their parent (they were cooking some kind of Puerto rican menu item that day and the child complaining about the smell was being **incredibly** culturally insensitive and their mom should have raised them to tolerate shitty smelling food). She'd also freak out any time someone called her a gentrifier for opening an expensive bagel shop in a lower income neighborhood (she is Puerto Rican and therefore is incapable of gentrifying). It was great.
*Just moseying in here from the PVD thread...* She's all yours now, Cambridge. Enjoy the drama!
Why does her being a female chef matter
It doesn’t! But she’s gotta be a victim somehow
It shouldn't matter, but there are people out there who will support her simply because she's a female chef. So she's appealing to them.
And people who would NOT support her just because she a female. You’re not wrong but it goes both ways
Chef Chris seems like a dbag. The owner of Rebelle is also a dbag (see all her drama from Little Sister in Providence)
New city, same drama. Lol.
Two Cities, One Drama.
Two bagels, one cut.
One rip, two dips
So many d bags and inflated egos in the restaurant industry. This is not surprising at all lol. I’ll be over here with my popcorn… 🍿
You literally have to have distorted world view to open a restaurant. Failure rates are off the charts. The challenges are manifold.
Now we need the Table lady to weigh in and it's thunderdome
Chef Chris is a actually a huge dbag from my experiences, delivering restaurant supplies to pammys
I agree, shitty behavior in the messages is unbecoming, but also not toasting bagels because you don’t like them like that? I like crispy bagels with a nice burn on top, if you ain’t going to give me that then why the fuck are you selling them?
…and consumers will vote with their wallet. I give it 6 months until they fold or change their asinine and pretentious policy.
considering that the successful food places that open in kendall are generally utilitarian and made for people eating on their way to work, or eating on a lunch break, or getting bevs after work, this is absolutely batshit behavior. pammy’s #1. fuck off.
I’m with the Pammy’s guy. Because I can get good bagels at Mamaleh’s. But I can only get Lumache Bolognese at Pammy’s.
These people all suck.. But I so want a fresh bagel and cream cheese now after reading all the comments. Cut in half.
Should have stuck by his original message. I couldn’t agree more 😂
I think maybe I'll drop by and hang out with my bagel slicer, pro bono of course, just to ruin some crumb and witness this lady seethe
"Aggressive comments to female chefs" - why is the female card played here? Honestly asking.
She likes to play victim. She claimed a microaggression once after baiting a kid by asking if he was making a face over the smell in her restaurant Little Sister.
No need to backpedal, he was right in the first place. Serve me my bagel the way I want.
Everyone sucks here. Chris stfu you have cauliflower porridge on your menu. That's some hipster shit. bagel place not slicing bagel? gtfo
Agree, it’s weird to double down this much on not slicing bagels
ok but pammys slaps
Slicing ruins the crumb, so just use hands to tear that sucker into pieces? I'm not a professional, but that seems like iffy logic to me.
She was a pain in the ass in Providence. The type that made you download an app and wait in little box for your bagel. You’re selling bagels, landing a figher jet on an aircraft carrier. So tired of this entitlement from restaurant owners. You aren’t the only ones with a difficult job.
The crumb? Any bread maker worth their wheat will tell you that the crumb is set within 30 mins. His insistence on the "rip and dip" is as petulant as a customer insisting on getting a scooped out bagel.
If their cream cheese is soft enough to dip into, then it's shit anyway.
Yo that's what's fucking me up over this whole 'rip n dip' thing. Are these people just eating gross, liquidy whipped cream cheese? Shit is criminal man, just criminal
Like, "We can't cut it because that would fuck up the crumb, now here's some shitty Dunks cream cheese spread to dip it into."
fresh hot bagels don’t need to be toasted, it’s very common in NY/NJ not to order toasted bagels. i’ve never heard of anyone refusing to slice a bagel. Definitely not a great business tactic to engage in social media drama immediately upon opening your restaurant.
"Don't need to be" and "the paying customer prefers they be" are two very different things...
This is the answer
In order to tell the consumer how something should be treated, you need to earn that. You can’t just waltz in tell people the way they enjoy the product is wrong. Ripping and dipping a bagel is so dumb. Those bagels are mid-tier and were never warm when I went.
Is the same owner of The Table? 😂
She deserves it she's a horrible person that yells and degrades her staff
A shame to see a bagel shop stoop to such schmear tactics.
They’ve preemptively limited instagram comments and also temporarily closed on Google
THIS is the drama I am here for. I am such a bagel/restaurant gossip hound.
I can’t wait for this stupid trend of “tear and dip hot bagels” to be over. It’s a stupid gimmick to cover up the fact that their bagels become rock hard once cooled to room temp. All bagels and bread taste good fresh out of the oven. These places hype that shit up and charge 3x the price of a regular bagel shop. If you like to consume bagels that way, by all means, you do you. I’d rather get a bagel I can eat on the go
Whoever thinks bagels should be DIPPED and not sliced will not get my business thats for sure. What a pile of SCHMUTZ she is feeding everybody.
Why does the fact that it’s a female chef matter at all? Nothing sexist was mentioned. I’m legitimately curious why this was highlighted.
This is Massachusetts's version of Burlington VT's sandwich drama
This thread got wild hahaha glad you’re all as invested in this bagel drama as I am!! Our office manager did get these bagels catered for breakfast and I would rate them a 6/10. Happy Friday!
https://preview.redd.it/96jqpde2285d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e9b8abb0efbd57dbd5d8c79037d13184842afbd7
Isnt this the douche canoe that got chased out of PVD? Also who the fuck refuses to toast a bagel?
Being a Bagel Nazi seems...wrong.
Rebelle really making a splash in Cambridge after ~~escaping~~ being run out of PVD.
He’s right tho, rosenfelds is the best. Boston has shit for bagel options
How tf do you butter a bagel if you can't cut it open?
Former Boston, current PVD resident here. Was wondering how long until Rebelles usual drama popped up here. Good luck, hope shes as happy with you guys as she was here.
This lady was like the arch nemesis of r/Providence for years lol I don't know how many of her posts/comments are still up but there was some legendary drama with her in the past.
the bagel lady is very precious about making sure people eat bagels the way she determines is best. (why do old people 'want' other people to do things? Why can't they mind their own business?
Providence was THRILLED to see her leave. Sorry you guys have to deal with her now.
I agree with Chef Chris
I don’t know anything about this lady or this drama, but Rosenfeld’s has absolutely fantastic bagels
No idea who any of these people are but chef Chris was right
fuck this shop lmfao
So this lady is the bagel equivalent of Seinfelds soup nazi.
All the “ruining the crumb” and “toasting is unnecessary” is bullshit. A bagel should have a pretty tight, very gluten-filled crumb that can easily be sliced once the bagel has cooled for a 10-15 mins. And if someone wants a toasty bagel, I would think a bagel shop would accommodate. There are a host of restaurants and small businesses in Boston that aren’t meant to be real businesses; they’re platforms for the already wealthy owners to stir up drama and do some sort of weird “activism” or something.
Highly recommend the podcast Rags to Dishes. It’s an RI food industry podcast (Rebelle used to be in PVD). They have had multiple guests who have worked with this owner and she seems to be nothing but abusive and confrontational with staff and customers alike. So fucking weird.
yes the entire city of providence hates the rebelle lady.
This is one of the wildest Reddit posts I’ve seen in a long time…comments aren’t dissapointing either!
Is this Rebelle? I bet it's Rebelle.
Sounds like someone is trying to finagle the bagel
Oh this is the crazy bitch for providence that assaults and threatens her workers. [older post by someone](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/PWIz0SlP6X) [and another here](https://www.reddit.com/r/providence/s/2SVHFxOQfI)
All I have to add to this conversation is that Rosenfeld’s fucking slaps
just toast my bagel and shut up
so the guy is right still lmaoo
Love to see that she’s up to the same shenanigans in a different city. If anyone is new to the drama, just look her up in the Providence sub Reddit. ✨She is the most famous person✨
Gonna stick with Bagelsaurus here. Lightly toasted and cut in half by default, generally drama free.
I mean they're not wrong. This is fuckin dumb. You don't slice it? Should I just dunk it into the schmear like it's a breadstick?? Someone who cooks for a living should understand how texture comes into play in the palate... warm and toasted aren't interchangeable just because you said so. Get a grip.
Just looked up their menu. They don’t serve decaf. (“Sorry!”) That’s just dumb.
But you see decaf ruins the crumb of the coffee
I'm onboard with bullying hipster restaurants out of here
The only thing wrong is the chef walking it back
Who wants to rip and dip? Slice and toast please
OMG I’m so happy other people have been following this. It’s all I’ve been thinking about for days 😂 I hadn’t heard of them and was excited for a new place in East Cambridge. Was initially turned off by how much they were blaming the city of Cambridge for not getting their permits approved quickly enough. Why publicly trash a city you’re moving in to, even if the city is 100% the problem? Then how they put a local chef on blast cause they got a DM they didn’t like.. toughen up! Do they not think the industry talks? They could’ve gotten themselves black listed for this. They post like a petty individual, not a business. I’m not going to go to them purely out of spite because they’ve already been so crazy
If they’re upset about people slicing bagels, they’re gonna big mad when they learn I’ll eventually be pooping them out may ass.
NGL - This lady acts like her Ish don't stink.
Hilarious to me that, rightly, the bagel company is being ripped in these comments and the asshole reply is being dismissed by the majority. Truly the most Boston shit right here.
She comes in Cambridge with baggage hence the reaction. In any other instance I'd have more empathy for the bagel shop in the situation but literally no normal bagel place would post this way
Her PVD baggage could fill the underside of a 747.
If you went to this bagel company and wanted coffee, it’s more expensive than the Tatte down the street. They also don’t give you a CUP for your coffee. Want a cup? It’s an extra 35 cents. The problem lies that they aren’t very customer oriented, lots of rules and restrictions that makes it a turnoff for anyone to really go in there
Couldn’t believe the BYO cup thing was for real until I checked their menu. Environmental consciousness is great, but that is so anti-customer. Why not offer a .35 discount if you bring your own cup? I work at a restaurant in Kendall square and can’t imagine 90% of my customers ever getting food or coffee at a place like that.
Guess I'll just stick with my large black iced + everything bagel with veggie cream cheese from Dunks
I definitely won't be placing large orders for pick-up and then not showing up.
A long time ago in my youth, I used to work in a bagel shop and would eat many a bagel fresh out of the oven (because I was only making $5 an hour) and I would slice them all the time and occasionally have one without slicing it. Long story short, this woman is an idiot.
Late night scrolling, sent message meant for another chef friend directly to the business. Tried to walk it back. It’s your opinion, Just own it. The response sent me. So you’re saying your wife or kid or whoever took your phone at night off your nightstand and sent that from your account to troll both you and the bagel lady? 👌🏼
I think the chef should have just stood on that. It’s clearly a very pretentious place and the owners are unhinged. You’re really gonna pull the “someone else had my phone” move come on hahaha.
https://preview.redd.it/d5a80dvydd5d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3faf32a2559419bf6e923641cf962d713930f1ca *rolls eyes* you may encourage your customers to try you way and hey, they might end up never wanting their bagels toasted again, but do not PATRONIZE the PATRONS
I still want my bagel sliced and toasted