By Noah Perkins in San Diego
Special to Times of San Diego
Is it possible for a sandwich to be “sinus and soul clearing”? The meal in question, a gefilte fish bagel sandwich from Pacific Beach’s Mission Bagel, earned that high praise at BagelFest West as one of the standouts at the Los Angeles competition to crown the best bagel makers “west of the Rockies.”
The sandwich — the Gefilte Fish Hillel — stacks gefilte fish with sweet charoset and beet horseradish over schmear on an everything bagel. It earned runner-up Sunday in the Best Sandwich category at BagelFest West, held at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles.
“We felt we had to take a risk,” Mission Bagel owner Gabe Rubin said. “Everyone’s got good bagels. I was thinking, what’s the equivalent of a Thanksgiving sandwich in Jewish food?
“What about a Passover bagel? It started as kind of a joke, but then I tried it and realized it was actually really well-balanced. At some point, you just say, ‘let’s do something different.’ There were a lot of great competitors there, so we wanted something with a story — something surprising. People were skeptical, but a lot of them ended up saying it was the best thing they ate.”
Pacific Beach has ‘rising star’ in Mission Bagel – an award-winning sandwich too
The inaugural Los Angeles edition of BagelFest brought the New York-based competition to the West Coast for the first time since its 2019 launch, drawing roughly 1,000 attendees. The event featured competing bagel shops from across Southern California and beyond, including San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle and Colorado.
“We recognized the best bagel makers,” BagelFest founder Sam Silverman said. “They were selected from scores of applicants, with only 16% making the cut. They were chosen not just for their food, but for their creativity, character, and contributions to their communities. It’s about dispelling the myth that it’s the water that makes bagels great — it’s the people, the talent, and their dedication.”
Rubin said the application process included an interview and shipping bagels to New York for blind judging.
“They were evaluated not just on taste, but on overall story and how each shop fit into the broader competition,” he said.
In the Best Sandwich category, Mission Bagel finished second to Belle’s Bagels, Delicatessen and Bar of Highland Park, which won with its Cherrywood Beet sandwich — cherrywood-smoked golden beets with onion, dill, capers, and plain cream cheese.
Mission Bagel also tied for first place in the Rising Star category — shops operating for two years or less — with Daniel’s Bagels of Culver City.
BagelFest West marked Rubin’s second competition appearance, following Mission Bagel’s debut at an event last year hosted by San Diego Magazine.
“The driving force for me is being part of a bagel renaissance on the West Coast,” Rubin said. “People are realizing how good bagels can be. On the Jewish side, it’s meaningful to have a Jewish food front and center. The bagel is uniquely ours, and it’s important to be representing as a kosher business and to be a proud Jewish business.”
Rubin said his bagels were judged by a panel of five with diverse backgrounds across the food industry. He woke up around 2 a.m. Sunday to prepare, then drove to Los Angeles at about 6:30 a.m., with the competition running from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“We hand-roll every bagel we make,” Rubin said. “We do it the traditional way — boiled in sweetened water and baked on cedar boards in a deck oven. It makes a soft, fluffy bagel. It’s also the kind of bagel I remember and love. Everybody has their own idea of a great bagel, and ours are a little pillowy with just enough crisp when toasted.”
Rubin, a Cincinnati native and former construction software engineer who began making bagels as a hobby during the COVID-19 pandemic, opened Mission Bagel with his sister Hannah. What began as a food truck in May 2025 launched into a brick-and-mortar location at 1344 Garnet Ave.
“It’s just cool,” Rubin said. “San Diego is getting put on the map for our bagel scene. It’s a good time to be a bagel shop in San Diego. It was a fun competition — we had a lot of people try the bagels and the feedback was amazing. Just a really good crowd.”
The Gefilte Fish Hillel sandwich has not yet premiered on Mission Bagel’s menu, but Rubin said it will be offered for a limited time.
Mission Bagel, 1344 Garnet Ave., Pacific Beach; hours, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.
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Preceding appeared initially in the Beach & Bay Press, which is part of the Times of San Diego news family. Separately, San Diego Jewish World has an arrangement with Times of San Diego to trade articles of interest.