THE BAY AREA HAS GOOD BAGELS NOW?

We noshed. We scored. And, yes, local bagel culture has arrived.

The Bay Area’s deep hunger for delicious bagels comes to light at the Midnite Bagel popup, which takes place on random evenings 7 to 9 p.m. at Tartine Bakery in San Francisco (check its Instagram for dates). Anticipation rises as the line in the Mission District bakery begins forming well before 7. Once the doors open, guests rush to put in their orders — limited to five bagels per person — and then sit down to smoked trout bagels topped with baby herbs, along with glasses of Russian River rosé.

After decades of complaints from New Yorkers, Bay Area bagel culture has finally arrived in its own unique and sometimes bizarre way. A number of serious bagel makers have set up shop here, tinkering at their ratios of flour to water, baking times and temperatures. The new generation, including Midnite’s, often have a touch of naturally leavened sourdough for extra flavor and chew. Others feature novel addons such as the nigella seeds that 20th Century Cafe uses to turn its petite bagels a fashionable black matte.

With the splashy opening of Daily Driver in San Francisco this month, a woodfired bagel bakery that also makes its own Jersey milk cream cheese inhouse, we decided it was time for a tasteoff. The dozen bagels we tried were all available either at the bakeries — or in some cases, restaurants — themselves or at grocery stores; they range from $1.55 to $3.75 each. Popups like Midnite Bagel and the farmers’ market stand Base Camp in Berkeley, which are only available at specific times, didn’t make the tasteoff.

New bagel makers continue to flock here, like Boichik, due to open in Berkeley this summer in a former Noah’s, promising to be as New York as they come. We look forward to its arrival, and the continued evolution of the Bay Area bagel.

Photos by Russell Yip / The Chronicle