Plenty of enterprises tell tales of humble beginnings, but Evan Fox, founder of Yeastie Boys, is looking to stay humble forever.
In 2014, he was making bagels in his L.A. apartment, arranging them into logo-adorned pink boxes and delivering them to friends and local tastemakers. He served hungry festival goers at the Coachella campgrounds the following spring and took the wheel of his first food truck later that year, too. A brick-and-mortar shop was never the goal, Fox says. Instead, he’s got a fleet of seven trucks today, each one slinging bagels and schmear, loaded bagel sandwiches and hashbrowns hot out of the fryer.
“I’m not a chef; I’m just a chubby Jewish guy who loves food, so a restaurant was never what I aspired to,” Fox tells me over Zoom one morning. “I saw the truck as this moving billboard — it was a good way to market what we do — and I fell in love with truck culture. The taco truck is the gold standard in L.A., and part of the L.A. identity. I think bagels are the Jewish taco.”
Yeastie Boys bagels are rolled, boiled and baked offsite daily. The crew starts at 10 p.m. and works all night until they’re ready to load the fresh goods onto the trucks at sunrise. Eggs can be cooked onboard via a simple griddle, but mostly it’s assembly work that’s left at this point. Take my personal favorite, “The Mishka,” an everything bagel sliced and stacked with tomato, red onion, sprouts and vegan-roasted bell pepper spread (but I sub in house-made scallion schmear, which is laid on liberally). Another fan favorite is the “Lox Deluxe,” a sliced sesame bagel stuffed with smoked salmon, tomato, capers, red onion and that same scallion schmear. A peanut butter-and-jam sandwich on a blueberry bagel and “The Reubenstein” (pastrami, Swiss, kraut and Russian dressing on an everything bagel) are among other menu items. And all of them are a reflection of Fox.
“I’m a deli guy,” he says. “If I were to pick something to eat, it would almost always be a sandwich. Stacking stuff a mile high in a bagel is how I like to eat.”
Fox draws inspiration from some of his favorite New York bagel shops, too: Ess-a-Bagel, Utopia Bagels, Absolute Bagels, The Bagel Hole, Black Seed Bagels and Bergen Bagels. When he looked around Los Angeles a decade ago, he was pretty dismayed with his options. He won’t say it himself, but Yeastie Boys paved the way for a new dawn. Other local makers he nods to now include Gjusta in Venice and Courage Bagels in Virgil Village.
“Courage kind of created their own thing with the sourdough crispy bagel, and they took it to a new level — open faced with the farm-fresh tomatoes, olive-oil drizzle and salt and pepper,” he said. “And other shops are popping up. There’s an L.A. bagel culture now.”
The olive-oil drizzle probably won’t be coming to a Yeastie Boys truck near you anytime soon, but wildly fun collaborations likely will. Taco Bell asked Fox to cater the mega brand’s 60th anniversary party last year, and singular creations were born: the everything bagel taco shell, a pastrami “Crunchwrap.” They went on to wrap three trucks in Taco Bell and Yeastie Boys branding and served their mashups on the streets of L.A for a week. And this past March, Fox teamed up with Pizza Hut for the limited-time pepperoni “Big New Yorker Pizza Bagel.”
PHOTO COURTESY YEASTIE BOYS
“I definitely want to do more. I have sort of my ‘bucket list’ of collaborations,” Fox says. “But I like it when it’s organic, too. I like to just see what happens. We have a thing, we do it well and that gives us the bandwidth to do the fun stuff. That’s what I love, and that’s the ethos of Yeastie Boys.”
So, to honor moms and dads this season, I asked the bagel king: “What would the ideal bagel brunch include?” He had no shortage of ideas. It’s a you-do-you scenario, he says. Gather your favorite bagels, schmears, toppings, sides and sweet treats.
Evan Fox’s Recipe for an Epic Bagel Brunch
Fox says the typical kiddush luncheon, in his experience, includes the following. Take or leave what suits your gathering and guests best.
What to Buy, Make and Gather
Bagels (ideally from Yeastie Boys)
Schmears (ideally from Yeastie Boys)
Egg salad
Tuna salads (one made with sweet relish, one made with celery and dill)
A lox tower (smoked salmon, capers and whitefish)
An omelet bar (if you have the means)
Cheese selection (American, Gouda, Muenster)
Chocolate rugelach (try the one at Canter’s Deli)
Black-and-white cookies (try the ones at Bea’s Bakery)
Rainbow cookies
Babka
Kugel
Rugelach
Rye bread (try the Fred’s Bakery double-baked rye from Langer’s)
Marble rye
Challah (for sandwiches or challah French toast)
For the feast:
“One plate will just be scoops of tuna and egg salads,” Fox says. “Then you have to have a second plate for your bagels and your breads and your rugelach and so on.”
Benny’s Tuna Salad
“This is the best tuna salad I’ve ever had,” Fox says. He credits Yeastie Boys’ staffer Ben for doing the research and development on the recipe. The below will serve a large group (about 18 people), so half it if your party is smaller.
Canned tuna, white, 36 ounces (about nine cans, drained)
Mayonnaise, 6 ounces
Yellow onion, diced in ⅛-inch pieces (4 ounces)
Celery, diced in ⅛-inch pieces (4 ounces)
Fresh dill, minced (2 ounces)
Salt and black pepper to taste
Combine ingredients, seasoning to your liking. Add fresh lemon juice or zest (optional). Serve in 2-ounce servings.
