Caputo Bagels Opens in Park Slope, NYC, With Hand-Rolled Sourdough Bagels

Caputo Bagels held its grand opening on October 5 at 81 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. It comes from James Caputo, a fifth-generation Brooklyn baker, and Rafael "Rafi" Hasid, a longtime friend and restaurateur.

The Caputo name goes back to 1904, when Giovanni Caputo, a Sicilian immigrant, opened the family bakery in South Brooklyn. Caputo's Bake Shop in Carroll Gardens later became a Brooklyn institution, known for handmade breads, Italian pastries and a cult-favorite lard bread. James is clear that this shop is not an attempt to rebuild that bakery. He says Caputo's will always be part of him, because it is where he learned to bake, but that he and Rafi wanted to make something of their own, using what his father and family taught him in a different way.

The bagels are hand-rolled sourdough, made with a starter that is at least 45 years old and was used by James's father when James was a child. Alongside them the shop serves cream cheeses, smoked fish, sandwiches, pastries and coffee. The Lard Provolone Bagel is priced at $4. Photos on the shop's website show bagel halves dressed open-faced: smoked salmon with capers and dill, egg and cheddar topped with bacon, tomato with herbs, and pickles over a spread.

The room is bright, with white brick walls, paintings, plants by the window and small round white tables for eating in.

Hours are 7am to 3pm Monday through Friday and 7am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. Delivery and catering are listed as coming soon.

For readers in Japan, the draw is the pairing of sourdough with the New York bagel, and a baker carrying a century of family technique into a new kind of shop.

(Details are drawn from points that agree across reports by Brooklyn Paper, WhatNow.)