Bites Nearby: VR Bagelicious

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Bites Nearby column is very aware that bagels are no longer a New York City thing. They are sold around the world. They come mass-produced in chip, pizza and low-carb forms. Hey, they even sell green ones on St. Patrick’s Day.

But in Forest Hills, there is a family-run store that makes bagels the old-fashioned way. The delicious way. In fact, the owners use the same stove and kettle steamer that the original owners used when they launched the business more than 60 years ago.

VR Bagelicious doesn’t have a menu or daily specials. It doesn’t offer designer cappuccinos with sugar-free, hazelnut-flavored soy milk and organic, free-trade cinnamon. Only cash is accepted. Put simply, the 108th Street storefront serves great bagels with a fantastic array of fish and cream cheese spreads.

Ilya Aranbeyev, wakes up at 4 a.m. every day except Saturday to roll the bagels by hand. His son, Rafael, says that the decades-old kettle is where they get their personality as it makes them crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside. Then, they head into the time-honored brick oven before going up for sale.

“It’s the way they used to do it,” Rafael says. “The way they were supposed to be made.”

Rafael is the general manager, while his mother, Nadezhda, is the customer service expert who makes an effort to know all the regular orders by heart. The other family member, daughter Veronica, worked at the previous bagel store before the family bought it about eight years ago, but she left to become a nurse.

VR (Veronica Rafael) Bagelicious offers the standard bagel varieties: plain, whole wheat, cinnamon raisin, pumpernickel, sesame, poppy, onion, garlic, salt and everything. Plus there are onion, garlic and plain bialys.

Adding to the old-world charm, and being consistent, all items that can go inside the bagels are made on premises, too.

Seafood lovers would be impressed by the filling options. Poached salmon, sable, kippered salmon, Nova Scotia lox, belly lox (extra salty), herring in cream sauce, chubs and jumbo whitefish are among the options. Tuna salad and egg salad are also popular.

Landlubbers can choose between plain, scallion, vegetable, dill-and-caper, olive and cinnamon walnut cream cheese. Plus, there are tofu spreads with vegetable and scallions and a lox spread.

And since the owners are Bukharan Jews from Uzbekistan's Samarkand who came to the U.S. in 1989, all food items are kosher as per Tablet K.

The Aranbeyevs work hard, but they hope to continue maintaining the bagel-making tradition for many more years.

“We love it so much that we don’t let anybody else do it for us,” Rafael said.

Address: 64-01 108th Street

Phone: 718-459-3596

Prices: The most expensive item is the House Special ($9), which includes sliced lox, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and onion. A bagel with cream cheese is $2.50, while one with herring is $3.50. Minis cost 75 cents. Regulars sell for 99 cents. Twists go for $1.30.

Special: VR does a lot of catering for local synagogues, especially bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs and shivas.