A New York Bagel In Mississippi? This Pizza Shop Lives Up To Its Hype

It's always a delight to find innovative chefs working in their respective cultural and culinary domains. But sometimes, one stands out for an unexpected anomaly, a creative spin emerging from its niche. That's exactly what happens inside the cozy, artful walls of Leña restaurant in Mississippi. While owner/chef Marisol Doyle is known for her renowned wood-fired pizzas, earning a well-deserved spot on Tasting Table's list of the hands-down best pizza places in every state, it's her sidekick specialty we're revealing today: A twist on New York-style bagels.

Nestled within the Mississippi Delta, Leña Pizza + Bagels perches on a charming downtown street in the small town of Cleveland, just off the blues-famous historic Highway 61. The location is as unpretentious as its name — but this chef knows exactly who she is, what she's offering, and her capacity for fresh, original, and uncompromising food. Doyle creates a handful of rotating bagel types, baking them herself from freshly made dough starting in the wee hours of the morning. Using signature boiling/baking techniques, she produces popular flavors including jalapeño cheddar, red chili parmesan, and sweet versions like orange cranberry, blueberry, and cinnamon crunch.

Leña bagels appear for 2.5 hours per week (while supplies last), and eager customers line up well before doors open. On a recent Saturday morning, I was fortunate enough to taste every available version of those chewy, crusty, slightly smoky circles of wonder. Here are some insights from Doyle herself, and how she won the heart of a small Southern town far from Naples or New York.

Arriving at Leña Pizza + Bagels well before the crowds on a still-sultry autumn morning, I was gifted with an inside peek at the bagel-and-pizza kitchen of chef Doyle and her cohorts. It was instantly easy to marvel in the magic of this Mexican-born, Naples-trained chef who makes her mark on the Mississippi Delta culinary scene. 

The inner workings of Leña thrive in the back kitchen space, approached from a pathway lined by split, dried logs ready for fueling piping-hot brick pizza ovens. Those same ovens have a say in bagel-making as well, but only toward the end, according to Doyle. First is the defining primary approach. "Over time, we've perfected our [bagel] recipe using just five simple ingredients: water, salt, malt, yeast, and flour," she explains. "Each batch undergoes a 48-hour cold fermentation process, and on Saturday mornings, I boil and bake the bagels." Next comes the fire-flamed finale: "We then toast them in our brick oven to create beautiful blisters on the crust."

This unassuming chef's intuitive twist on bagels is informed partially by her own cultivated pizza style and studies at Italy's prestigious Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. The bagels are sometimes described as rivaling New York bagels, but I personally found them an intriguing mix of NYC and Neapolitan doughs — chewy inside with an irresistible layer of delicate, crispy char. Doyle, with no prior experience eating or making bagels, experimented endlessly, ultimately creating renowned bagel recipes unique to her life experience in Deep South America.