New Orleans is not a bagel city, but Breanne Kostyk is fixing that one hand-rolled sourdough at a time. How? A better question is: where?
Flour Moon Bagels sits at 457 N. Dorgenois Street, just off the Lafitte Greenway in Mid-City, in a small shop with outdoor seating that draws a steady line of neighbors most mornings before the rest of the city is fully awake.
Kostyk started the whole thing as a pandemic pop-up in May 2020, selling bagels to friends and neighbors out of her home kitchen under the full flower moon. It outgrew her house fast.
The process behind the bagels is worth understanding before you bite into one. Each one is hand-rolled using flour, water, salt, sourdough, and Louisiana cane syrup, the last ingredient Kostyk’s deliberate swap for the barley malt syrup used in traditional New York-style dough. Every bagel then goes through a minimum 18-hour cold fermentation before being kettle-boiled and baked at 500 degrees. The result is a crisp, shiny exterior with a chewy but airy interior that Kostyk says is best eaten warm, untoasted, straight from the oven.
That process earned national recognition at New York’s BagelFest, where Flour Moon placed second in the “Best Bagel Beyond the Boroughs” category, becoming the first Louisiana bagel maker ever honored at the festival. Bon Appétit had already named it one of the best bagel shops outside New York in 2023, specifically calling out the tartines.
Those tartines are the other reason to visit. Kostyk spent years as a pastry chef, most recently at the Ace Hotel, and it shows in how the open-faced bagels are built. The New Moon layers scallion cream cheese with salmon roe, avocado, radish, and herbs. The Harvest Moon puts roasted carrot spread under tahini, cucumber, olives, and duqqa, a toasty nut and herb blend. They are composed the way a good dessert is composed, with balance and intention in every element.
The shop carries classic breakfast sandwiches and schmears too, and a rotating cast of seasonal specials. The menu is short on any given day, which keeps the quality consistent and the lines moving.
Flour Moon is at 457 N. Dorgenois Street. Hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and closed Wednesday. Call (504) 354-1617. Get there early. They sell out.
