The Brains Behind an Everything-Bagel Instagram

It’s 11:23 a.m. on Friday morning and your head is throbbing. Sure last night was fun, but this hangover — not so much. All you need in this life of sin is a bacon, egg, and way-too-cheesy-for-its-own-good bagel. After all, a bagel a day keeps the hangover away.

But with so many bagel options out there, where do you turn? Simply pull up @everything_bagels on Instagram for some delectable food-spiration and your bagel senses will be tingling in no time.

The brains behind the Instagram aren’t just your basic betches, they’re your bagel betches. SU’s own Lindsey Weiner runs the scrumptious foodstagram along with three of her friends from home, Bari Blanga, Alexis Herder, and Casey Markman (pictured above). With a loyal following of over 8,000, it’s more than obvious that these gals can spot a solid bagel when they see one.

Lindsey Weiner took the time out to chitchat with us about everything bagels, and she had lox to say. (Sorry, I had to...)

Cori Rosen: How did you come up with the name @everything_bagels?

Lindsey Weiner: We chose the name because it’s a pun, but we show everything bagels.

CR: Do you eat only everything bagels?

LW: Nope, we don’t discriminate other bagels!

CR: So, how did this whole thing get started?

LW: Me and my friends just love bagels and we eat them a lot. When we started this Instagram account, it wasn’t something we were taking too seriously — we just loved bagels and would only post our own bagels originally. There are so many food accounts, but none specific for bagels. There were no other bagel Instagrams out there, so we were really the firsts. Other people copied us after, but we were the first ones!

CR: What goes into an @everything_bagels worthy Instagram?

LW: The best bagels have cheese or avocado. The most likes we get are for the cheesiest ones when the cheese is stretching or with avocado.

CR: Do you have any tips for all the foodstagrammers out there?

LW: We only Instagram upscale bagels. It can’t look too fake, has to be clear, but not too edited. Use BeFunky or Afterlight to edit, because you have to resize it to fit the whole bagel in. If we see a dessert or pizza bagel, we’ll repost it, because most of ours are bacon, egg and cheeses or lox. When we see something different, we’ll post it. We try to post three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

CR: What’s your favorite place to get a solid bagel in Syracuse?

LW: I go to Bruegger’s at Syracuse, but you have to get two bagels, because they are so small and puny. They're nothing like a real New York bagel — Syracuse doesn’t count as a legit New York bagel.

CR: Where do you go for the best bagels though?

LW: When I’m in the city, I go to Tompkins Square Bagels and get mac 'n' cheese on a bagel. My other favorite is an everything bagel with lox spread and tomato at Bagels 4 U in Livingston, NJ where I’m from.

CR: If @everything_bagels had a theme song, what would it be and why?

LW: “Best I Ever Had” by Drake, because it’s the best bagels that you’ve ever had — or wish you ever had.

CR: Best bagel for a hangover?

LW: Bacon, Egg and Cheese — you get all the oil from the bacon and it works like magic.

CR: What’s the weirdest concoction you’ve seen on a bagel?

LW: I’ve seen buffalo chicken. I saw an oreos and peanut butter one, and also a cookie bagel with frosting in between and sprinkles.

CR: Do you have any funny stories about running the account?

LW: On Yom Kippur, we had this whole plan, because it was our day to shine since it’s basically a holiday full of bagels. Bari and I were going to do picstitches, but then Casey and Alexis kept uploading a bunch of pics that we didn’t discuss before. It was like someone uploading Bruegger’s on Yom Kippur. So, Bari and I changed the password on them, because they were Instagramming too much. If someone uploads a picture and it only gets 400 likes, we yell at them in the group chat (laughing).

CR: And I have to ask, what’s your favorite type of bagel?

LW: Everything, obviously.

Want to lick your lips even more? Check out @everything_bagels on Instagram. And the next time you’re chowing down on a cheesy avocado bagel, make sure to tag them in your pic.

Art by Bari Blanga