Eltana coming to Wallingford

Jessica spotted this tidbit on the Capitol Hill Blog, Eltana set to expand off Capitol Hill:

[Eltana] Founder Stephen Brown tells CHS that there are more Eltanas to come. “Our plans will take us beyond Seattle,” Brown said earlier this week, a wood-fired sparkle in his eye.

But first, Eltana is set to conquer Wallingford — or, to be more precise, the confluence of N 40th and Stone Way N.

Brown tells CHS that the next Eltana is slated to be part of the Stoneway Village development, a mixed-use apartment complex filling in a notorious crater left behind by a demolished Safeway. Brown says he expects the new location to be open by late summer or early fall.

But don’t come in expecting bagels like you grew up with, unless you grew up with in Montreal. Rachel H. explains on her Yelp review:

If you are craving an old-school NY boiled bagel with some lox, cream cheese, onion and capers, you are not going to find it at Eltana.  Not gonna find Noah’s enormous, bread-like bagels here either.  Nope.

The Eltana bagel hails from Montreal, where apparently bagels have been on a strict diet of honey water and heat, that skinnies them up and makes them chewy, tough and smoky.  Then they are slathered with some crazy good (but not in any way traditional, unless of course you arrived here from Montreal recently) toppings that you’ve never seen on a bagel in your life:  fig apricot compote, fava bean and mint, caramelized onion hummus, red pepper and walnut.

We’re looking forward to finding out what it’s all about. It’s also nice to hear, from the CHS post, that Brown says “that positioning his cafes at “connection points” is a critical aspect of business success. He sees his new north of the canal location as exactly the type of nexus Eltana needs.” More of them nexuses is what Wallingford needs, too.

(Photo of Eltana bagels by Shawn McClung)