California's bagel scene is better than New York's, says the New York Times FacebookTwitterEmail Boichik Bagels in Berkeley.Madeline Wells / SFGate Bagel purists will tell you that the very best bagels only exist in New York. The New York Times will tell them they’re wrong. But if not in New York, where? On Monday, the New York Times wrote that the best bagels are found in California, specifically within bagel shops throughout Los Angeles and the Bay Area. “Emily Winston’s bagels are some of the finest New York-style bagels I’ve ever tasted. They just happen to be made in Berkeley,” the article's author, Tejal Rao, wrote of Boichik Bagels.