The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company claims it devised a revolutionary water filtration system that turns ordinary Florida tap into the secret ingredient that flavors delicious New York bagels. But now an investor is suing the company saying it's all a lie. Oy vey.
Is it possible to get a "New York-style bagel" outside New York? The founders of the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company says it can replicate the exact chemical composition of the glorious Hudson gold which flows out of the taps in Brooklyn, All they have to do is add flour and heat, and presto, a New York bagel. According to the company's website:
The purity, quality and temperature of New York City's world-renowned water completes the perfect recipe for bagels, and replicating the characteristics of the New York water to make the perfect New York bagel has become the holy grail of bagel bakers outside of New York.
But the Sun-Sentinel reports that one of the bagel franchise's investors is suing for $2 million, saying the water technology is a bunch of baloney.
"The water filtration system is not unique and does not render water equivalent to Brooklyn water," said Robert Zarco, an attorney representing Andrew Greenbaum, who bought franchise rights for the restaurant in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. "You want Brooklyn water, go to Brooklyn. You want a Brooklyn bagel, go to Brooklyn."
Those are some pretty dubious accusations, I must say. If you wanted to know whether these so-called Brooklyn bagels were the real thing, shouldn't verification be as simple as sampling the product? On the other hand, the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Company does seem to be a somewhat shady establishment. The Sun-Sentinel notes that sInce the company was founded, it has been involved in three separate lawsuits pertaining to its water filtration system—the others were settled behind closed doors. It's almost like there's a Brooklyn water mafia operating down in Florida.
It's hard to say who's in the wrong in this case, but in any event the old saying holds: Bad things happen when you leave the city. [Sun-Sentinel via Popular Science]