New York Daily News

SCHMEAR CAMPAIGN

Mayor who eats pizza with a fork sparks new fury by TOASTING a fresh bagel

- BY ANNA SANDERS With Esha Ray

Mayor de Blasio’s bagel cred is toast.

Hizzoner claimed in a since-deleted tweet that his favorite bagel was whole wheat, “toasted” with extra cream cheese from a Park Slope, Brooklyn, joint — where they actually refuse to toast bagels.

“New York City has the best bagels in the world. But our BEST bagel? Bagel Hole in Park Slope. No contest,” de Blasio posted on Twitter Wednesday to celebrate National Bagel Day. “Whole wheat. Toasted. Extra cream cheese.”

Bagel Hole doesn’t toast bagels because they’re made hot, “the old-fashioned way,” an employee told the Daily News. “We do not toast,” the employee insisted.

The blunder set off a Twitter firestorm that could burn dough.

“He should stop giving opinions on stuff like this and try to ... I don’t know manage this city?” wrote Sarah Ritz.

“Did he just pick a spot he knew was popular? Not toasting is what everybody knows about Bagel Hole,” said user @kevinpost.

State Sen. Brad Brad Hoylman even posted a Twitter poll asking, “is toasting a bagel a crime?” Replies included “Yes, toasting is a crime” and “No, I like ruining bagels.”

De Blasio’s first tweet was deleted and reposted within 20 minutes, minus the “toasted” reference.

“What can I say, I must have a hole in my memory,” de Blasio said of the bungle.

The mayor noted he doesn’t go to the Seventh Ave. spot as often nowadays. “Don’t get there as much as I used to, but it was our go-to when the kids needed a bite before Little League,” de Blasio wrote.

Some New Yorkers wondered what the big deal was and agreed with de Blasio.

“Why would he delete that tweet? I don’t mind toasted bagels,” said Helen Gunther, a 48-year-old nurse who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, and likes an everything with cream cheese. “If you like toasted bagels, just say you like toasted bagels.”

Julie Doughty, a brand consultant who lives in the West Village, said she also liked toasted bagels.

“I think we should stop picking on the mayor all the time and let him eat his bagel in peace,” said Doughty, 46.

“This is a schmear campaign against the mayor’s preference­s,” de Blasio spokeswoma­n Freddi Goldstein said.

De Blasio pal and “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon earned schmear jeers while running for governor in 2018 after ordering her go-to cinnamon raisin bagel with lox, red onions, capers, tomato and plain cream cheese.

But Wednesday’s grub gaffe was just de Blasio’s latest embarrassi­ng food faux pas.

The mayor infamously ate pizza with a knife and fork in 2014 on Staten Island. “In my ancestral homeland, it is more typical to eat with a fork and knife,” he said at the time. “I’ve been to Italy a lot and I picked up the habit for certain types of pizza.”

De Blasio had a microwaved, gas-station burrito in Iowa last year after he was stranded by a blizzard. And during his failed presidenti­al campaign, de Blasio ate a barbeque meal that came in a plastic foam container, even though he recently curtailed use of the material.

One of de Blasio’s top aides complained in 2015 about his preference for sickly-sweet coffee. “I cringe ever time I have to get [it],” she wrote in an internal email about his breakfast order of a double espresso with four sugars.

And the mayor was late for a budget presentati­on that year because he was eating a burger outside while talking to aides while reporters watched from the steps of City Hall.

 ??  ?? Mayor de Blasio bit off more than he could chew with tweet about his love for toasted bagels from Brooklyn baker — which never toasts its freshly made New York staple.
Mayor de Blasio bit off more than he could chew with tweet about his love for toasted bagels from Brooklyn baker — which never toasts its freshly made New York staple.
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 ??  ?? Mayor de Blasio (top) caught a “hole” lot of flak Wednesday when for National Bagel Day he touted a toasted favorite from the Bagel Hole — owned by Philip Romanzi (above) — in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which doesn’t toast because the bagels are sold fresh.
Mayor de Blasio (top) caught a “hole” lot of flak Wednesday when for National Bagel Day he touted a toasted favorite from the Bagel Hole — owned by Philip Romanzi (above) — in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which doesn’t toast because the bagels are sold fresh.

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