Perusing the Reader‘s new food issue reminds me that there is news in need of reporting on the bagel front.

The Reader‘s Tal Rosenberg cites New York Bagel & Bialy as the “only place in the Chicagoland area that makes a bagel that ranks with anything that comes out of New York City.” I am on record as saying the same. New York Bagel was our 2011 Best of Chicago choice, and I wrote, “The bagels here aren’t merely authentic—they’re delicious. This is an establishment that’s accustomed to acclaim and deserves it.”

But last year our bagel world was turned on its ear with the opening of Reno in Logan Square. Our Mike Sula reported that pastry chef Katie Wyer “has created a brand-new breed of bagel—one heavily inspired by the skinny, crispy, wood-fired bagels of Montreal, the very existence of which is a dire threat to New Yorkers’ entrenched sense of superiority.” Elsewhere in his review, Sula called Wyer’s bagels “unprecedented” and “miraculous.”