Eccentric Bagel Brings New York's Iconic Bagel to Shelter Island

One year ago, Shelter Island food history was rocked by an “Aha!” moment.

Darryn Weinstein told his wife, Amy: “I’m going to open a bagel shop.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Thus, the Eccentric Bagel was born.

Much like when Eben Norton Horsford perfected his formula for baking powder — while at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island in 1856 — the full magnitude of the moment didn’t manifest right away.

Darryn, a travel professional for 32 years, first had to learn how to make bagels. He did that in short order at a New Jersey test kitchen.

Then, he and Amy searched for the right location on Shelter Island. They settled on the Eagle Deli, keeping its kitchen staffers — Estella, Maria and Suzie — on after moving into the location. The couple ran the deli for a couple of months while awaiting permitting to reopen as a bagel shop.

On April 9, the Eccentric Bagel was to have its “soft opening.” But before the Weinsteins could open the doors to their little neighborhood shop at 25 West Neck Road, people were lined up outside, ready to pounce on thousands of freshly baked bagels.

“You know how it is on Shelter Island — no secrets. When one person knows something, everybody knows it,” laughed Amy.

And the daily pattern was set.

The store is open every day but Monday, and locals, dayworkers and weekenders line up outside before the doors open at 7 a.m.

“Around 11:30 a.m., it hits me,” says Darryn. He posts his special bagel of the day on Instagram. “All the bagels are sold out around noon,” he says.

But that doesn’t leave a crowd of would-be diners disappointed — many come for Bennett Karnis’s famous egg sandwich. This master of the grill’s egg sandwich, with shredded home fries, is “locally famous,” says Amy, from his tenure at Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy.

“He has his own following,” notes Darryn.

“Lots of people say, ‘You have Bennett?’” Amy adds.

They also have bagel sandwiches named for local landmarks, including The Ferry (cream cheese, bacon, maple syrup), Dering Harbor, Silver Beach, Hay Beach, Rams Island, Shell Beach, and Crescent Beach.

Amy and three local girls — sisters Bella and Maddie, and Jackie — work the counter. Paola Romero is their manager.

The bagel shop closes at 3 p.m., and the cycle repeats.

Originating in the Jewish communities of Poland, a bagel is basically a small, yeasted bread traditionally shaped by hand into a ring. It’s first boiled for a short time in water and then baked, giving it chew and bounce and shine.

What makes the Weinsteins’ bagels special is their extra-long rise time. You can taste the flavorful effects in the wheat dough. The toppings are also remarkably flavorful and unabashed, and the schmears are generously dispensed. The bagels are on the salty side. Average chew.

Customers favorites include the classic “everything” bagel, and Darryn’s za’atar and jalapeno cheddar bagels.

You can slather some Almond Chocolate Joy cream cheese spread on any bagel — it’s not too sweet and has a great texture. The vegetable cream cheese offers a welcome allium bite, while the artichoke cheddar spread — their most popular — is intensely garlicky.

New York has its style of bagel: soft, slightly chewy pillows. Montreal’s are smaller, more chewy, dense, with a crisp exterior. And now Shelter Island has its own, “eccentric” style.

These bagels draw a lot of followers from off-island. “We’re really thankful to have you!” shouts a guy walking to his car with a wrapped bagel in hand and a gray Eccentric Bagel logo T-shirt under his arm. “I’m doing a show at the Talkhouse — I’ll wear this shirt to represent!”

The gluten-intolerant can enjoy an Udi’s brand bagel prepared in a separated area of the kitchen. Plus, there are plant-based egg, mayo, sausage, cheese and cream cheese on offer.

Bagels are Darryn’s “ultimate comfort food,” though he “grew up eating bialys on the Lower East Side, five, six, seven days a week,” he says. Named for the Polish city of Bialystok, where these traditional Ashkenazi Jewish bread rolls originated, a bialy, the bagel’s cousin, is simply baked without being boiled first. Toppings are placed in a depression in its center.

Darryn remembers “sitting on the old lady cashier’s lap” in the bialy shop. This sort of homey familiarity makes it seem perfectly normal that, within a week of opening his bagel shop, he had regulars who stop in two or three times a day.

Locally made goods are available in the shop, including prepared salads from The Lettuce Lady; Hamptons Grocer granolas; and the North Fork-based Treatery supplies cookies, “cakesickles,” cookie dough cones, and whoopie pies. This summer, the Weinsteins plan to source local ingredients, including heirloom tomatoes and beach plums.

What do the Weinsteins do on Mondays, their only day off?

“We come to the shop,” says Darryn. “I prep more dough.”

“I check the inventory and restock,” says Amy.

This has been the division of labor from day one. Darryn, who had never cooked professionally before, runs the kitchen, and Amy, who is the founder and CEO of Smash Entertainment, oversees the front of house, marketing and design.

It was Amy who spotted North Fork artist “Ricky Teevee” Saetta on Instagram and invited him to transform the Eagle Deli into something wholly different — sort of 1980s-disco-meets-The-Jetsons, complete with mirror ball and velvet rope.

“Everyone who comes in here is happy,” says Amy. Looking into her husband’s eyes, she says, “You just exude happiness, you really do.”

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Amy’s help — putting it together,” says Darryn. “My staff facilitate everything. These bagels are all my children — I raise them, give them dough.”

The Weinsteins have weekended on Shelter Island for seven years. They’ll celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary here on June 10.

How they came to stay is not unlike how they came to open a bagel shop: They arrived at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday, watching a breathtaking sunset unfold from the ferry. Darryn announced, “We should buy a house here.”

Amy says with a smile, “He’s an odd man, eccentric.”

COVID-19 downtime gave the couple time to think about what they’d like to do. “We love this beautiful island, but it really needed a bagel shop,” says Darryn.

“The Shelter Island Historical Society was here — they wanna put us in the archive, because ours is the first bagel store on the island,” says Amy. “I think that’s so cool.”

The Weinsteins have already had offers to expand, and to franchise. But they’re happy to work in their little shop all summer. Of course, they’re adding an outdoor “doughlato” cart — fresh doughnuts cut in half, topped with gelato and ganache.

Now that Shelter Island has its first — and very popular — bagel shop, is “The Rock” missing anything else, in Darryn’s opinion?

“Just a good Chinese restaurant.”

Stacy is co-author, with Hillary Davis, of the best-selling cookbook The Hamptons Kitchen (W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.).

The Eccentric Bagel, 25 West Neck Road, Shelter Island. 631-749-5363 eccentricbagel.com

Makes 1 pound of cream cheese spread

16 ounces blended cream cheese

4 ounces melted milk chocolate

3.2 ounces shredded, unsweetened coconut

0.32 ounces of sliced toasted almonds

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, reserving a few toasted almonds.

Garnish with the reserved toasted almonds.

Enjoy on your favorite bagel!

— from Co-Owner/Chief Bagel Officer Darryn Weinstein