President Obama Laments ‘Shocking’ Closing of H&H Bagels on Upper West Side

By NY1 News Manhattan

PUBLISHED 2:56 PM ET Aug. 31, 2015

If you are still mourning H&H Bagels, the Upper West Side staple that closed years ago, you are in good company.

In an interview with the newspaper The Forward, President Obama pointed to H&H Bagels on Broadway and West 80^th Street as the place that used to have his favorite bagel.

The topic came up when the paper's editor-in-chief, on behalf of her daughter, asked for his favorite bagel flavor.

He went on to reminisce about the poppy seed bagels at H&H and called its 2011 closing "shocking.”

“I would walk down from … Columbia just to get H&H bagels on Saturdays, around the weekends,” the president said.

Asked what he liked on a poppy seed bagel, he answered, “Lox and capers okay, but generally just your basic schmear.”