Bagel Wars: We asked Montrealers whether they like St-Viateur or Fairmount better (VIDEO)

For over six decades two institutions have dominated the Montreal bagel game.

Both St-Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel, which are only a short walk away from one another in the Mile End area, have loyal customers and passionate fans across the island and abroad.

We recently decided to put Montrealers’ palates to the test in order to find out which bagel reigns supreme. Our taste test came with a catch, though, ⁠— people didn’t know which was which.

All they had to do was tell us whether they preferred the bagels on the red plate (Fairmount) or the blue plate (St-Viateur). In order to properly conduct our experiment, we purchased an equal amount of fresh sesame seed bagels from both legendary institutions.

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And so, after cutting them, plating them, and finding a few willing participants, we were off on our quest for the whole truth.

@dailyhive The ultimate Battle of the Bagels in #Montreal ♬ original sound – Daily Hive

A few of our participants were surprised when their selection seemed to contradict a long-time bias. One even preferred the taste of St-Viateur while still holding a bag of freshly purchased Fairmount bagels.

Others, though, showed great confidence in identifying which one was which. Some didn’t even feel the need to taste and guessed correctly off of appearance alone. While St-Viateur came out on top with a final tally of 13.5–10.5, it definitely could have gone either way.

And in the end, one important lesson was learned: Montrealers are very serious about their bagels.