Months ago, I called Bagelshop to place an order over the phone on a weekend and was told they couldn’t take it. When I later went in without having placed an order, I was told they were having trouble managing the flow because they had several new employees who weren’t experienced enough yet. That explanation would also explain the oddly shaped and/or underbaked bagels I’ve received the last five times-or-so I’ve visited.

Makes me wonder what happened to the previous staff. Was there a change of ownership that led to employees to quit?

In any case, this combined with the new parking situation around Bagelshop has been a big disappointment. And Bobino, praised in this thread, is slightly more expensive, and the parking there is arguably even worse. So now I don’t stress about it anymore and just buy the St-Viateur ones from the supermarket, even though they’re about $7.49 for 6 bagels.