Promising airy yet crisp bagels with a signature bouncy chew — the hallmarks of a great bagel — chef-owner John Park has just opened Rise Bagels, his first dedicated bagel joint, in Irvine.
“Our goal with Rise is to re-imagine what a bagel can be — airy and crisp with a good chew, topped or sandwiched with flavors that celebrate both seasonality and what we love to eat here in SoCal with the diverse produce and cuisine available to us,” said Park in a written statement.
Park is no stranger to the local culinary scene, having honed his skills as a pastry chef at notable spots like Providence, Water Grill, the Ritz-Carlton and Toast Kitchen Bakery and Bar, to name a few. He brings his meticulous background to Rise, where all bagels are hand-rolled and boiled in adherence to the classic format.
But Park truly ups the game by creating an inventive menu of bagel sandwiches that spotlight local, seasonal ingredients. He sources from Southern California farms, including Girl and Dug Farm, Munak Ranch, Sunny Cal Farms, Valdivia Farms, Murray Family Farms and Garcia Organic Farm.
“The bagel is such a perfect canvas to show off California’s amazing bounty of seasonal produce, there’s not much you need to do except use the best fruits and vegetables that you can find, so we’re grateful to be able to have access to some wonderful ingredients from our local farms,” he added.
Highlights include open-faced bagels like the One Fish with yuzu kosho-pickled onion, citrus-cured salmon, lemon schmear and cornichons; Eat Your Veggies featuring tomato, cucumber, red onion, capers, olive oil and Tokyo negi-schmear; the Pokemon with tuna, sesame shoyu, negi cream cheese; Tokyo 7/11 (an ode to the convenience store’s tamago sando) featuring egg salad, jammy egg and Tokyo negi cream cheese and the Farmer John with pluot, persimmon, rau ram (a Vietnamese coriander) and orange-blossom cream cheese.
Bagel sandwiches include the Get Jjigae With It packed with bulgogi and kimchi jjigae, scrambled egg and umami-rich ssamjang schmear; For the Nguyen with caramelized pork, pickled daikon and carrot and cucumber; and the Where’s Waldorf with Waldorf chicken salad, apple, Asian pear, grilled grapes and green goddess schmear.
Fret not, purists: Rise Bagels offers such bagel staples as salted (i.e., plain), everything, furikake, cheddar and sesame seed. And the selection of schmears include plain whipped cream cheese, lemon cream cheese, Tokyo negi cream cheese and more.
Rise Bagels is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Find it: 2010 Main St., ste180, Irvine