Larry King is on a schmear campaign—to bring New York-style bagels to Los Angeles.
The Brooklyn-born talk show legend claims his new Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. franchise in Beverly Hills has made deliciously chewy bagels a reality on the West Coast, where local versions of the breakfast delicacy are typically bland bread balls disparagingly referred to as “a roll with a hole.”
King attributes his L.A. bagel supremacy to a sophisticated water treatment system he calls “Brooklynization.”
“It's all about the water," King, 77, told The Daily at his sprawling bagel shop, just a few blocks from Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. "Nothing beats a Brooklyn bagel, nothing," he added.
The longtime CNN host now spends his days overseeing massive metallic filters and processing tanks that run Los Angeles city tap water through a 14-step purification process to replicate water from his beloved Brooklyn.
The resulting H2O is meant to mirror the exceptionally clean water that Brooklynites take for granted every time they draw a cold glass from the tap, and the kind used to make the borough’s world-famous bagels.
“I left Brooklyn but Brooklyn never left me,” King said. “Still, Beverly Hills is nicer.”
Except for the bagels, that is.
It’s widely believed that L.A.’s bagels are lousy because of impurities in the city’s water. And indeed, in tests performed for The Daily by Rayne Water Systems, the city’s tap water was found to contain 315 parts per million of impurities.
Brooklyn tap, by comparison, has just 80 ppm of impurities, so clean the EPA does not require it to be filtered at all.
Tests on Larry’s Brooklynized water showed only 60 ppm of impurities, much closer to Brooklyn than what L.A. bakers use. The resulting bagel is indeed tastier and chewier than most others in Los Angeles, which explains the Beverly Hills franchise’s brisk sales.
King, who owns half of the Beverly Hills shop, said he may help the Florida-based bagel chain open other West Coast locations.
In addition to peddling bagels, King is embarking on a stand-up comedy tour, with his first show this weekend at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
He’s also in talks to host a radio show, and, in what may be a welcome antidote to scallion cream cheese, King is promoting a line of breath mints with his seventh wife, Shawn.
“You take one and your breath is good for four hours,” he said as he bit off a chunk of bagel. “See, I’m a businessman now.”
The Brooklyn-born talk show legend claims his new Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. franchise in Beverly Hills has made deliciously chewy bagels a reality on the West Coast, where local versions of the breakfast delicacy are typically bland bread balls disparagingly referred to as “a roll with a hole.”
King attributes his L.A. bagel supremacy to a sophisticated water treatment system he calls “Brooklynization.”
“It's all about the water," King, 77, told The Daily at his sprawling bagel shop, just a few blocks from Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. "Nothing beats a Brooklyn bagel, nothing," he added.
The longtime CNN host now spends his days overseeing massive metallic filters and processing tanks that run Los Angeles city tap water through a 14-step purification process to replicate water from his beloved Brooklyn.
The resulting H2O is meant to mirror the exceptionally clean water that Brooklynites take for granted every time they draw a cold glass from the tap, and the kind used to make the borough’s world-famous bagels.
“I left Brooklyn but Brooklyn never left me,” King said. “Still, Beverly Hills is nicer.”
Except for the bagels, that is.
It’s widely believed that L.A.’s bagels are lousy because of impurities in the city’s water. And indeed, in tests performed for The Daily by Rayne Water Systems, the city’s tap water was found to contain 315 parts per million of impurities.
Brooklyn tap, by comparison, has just 80 ppm of impurities, so clean the EPA does not require it to be filtered at all.
Tests on Larry’s Brooklynized water showed only 60 ppm of impurities, much closer to Brooklyn than what L.A. bakers use. The resulting bagel is indeed tastier and chewier than most others in Los Angeles, which explains the Beverly Hills franchise’s brisk sales.
King, who owns half of the Beverly Hills shop, said he may help the Florida-based bagel chain open other West Coast locations.
In addition to peddling bagels, King is embarking on a stand-up comedy tour, with his first show this weekend at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
He’s also in talks to host a radio show, and, in what may be a welcome antidote to scallion cream cheese, King is promoting a line of breath mints with his seventh wife, Shawn.
“You take one and your breath is good for four hours,” he said as he bit off a chunk of bagel. “See, I’m a businessman now.”
