Bagels Going to Pot?

One of the city’s premier bagel shops seems to be thinking of a new way to spend breakfast with your “bud”. Trust me, before you read on, I’ve already checked the calendar and, despite the possible results of tonight’s U.S. election, it is not April 1st.

After posting a story from merryjane.com, a canibus culture website, entitled Cannabis is Now Kosher, Kettleman’s Bagel Co. took to Facebook to entertain the possibility of adding the drug to its popular bagels in the future.

“We are interested in your thoughts on this for bagels,” said a posting referencing the article.  “Please let us know if you'd buy bagels if this became legal.”

104 shares and 141 comments later, the reply was resounding … well, here’s a post from Michael Watson: “Yes yes yes yes yes and yes.”

The article posted by Kettleman’s discusses how Orthodox rabbis have declared cannabis kosher for Passover and tells how “the public image of marijuana has slowly become more accepting of the drug, which has not only shown to be harmless but can also have widespread medicinal value to treat many ailments”. Passover traditionally has Jews avoiding food made with wheat barley, rye, spelt or oats. This seemed to make pot fair game and, in 2013, two Israeli rabbis gave the okay for its use. In January of this year, the Orthodox Union certified medicinal marijuana as kosher.

Here in Ottawa, though Kettleman’s was quick to add that the drug is still illegal and their menu wouldn’t be shifting anytime soon, the responses at least showed that, should they, the sales would be pretty high.

“I don’t live in Ottawa anymore, however if you make marijuana-infused bagels, I will most literally fly home and visit just to eat your bagels for every meal of the day whilst I’m in town,” posted Gabriel Ostapchuk with Kettleman’s quickly giving his endorsement a thumbs up.

“I buy bagels already and I would definitely buy MORE if this was legal,” posted Sean Bufton. “The breakfast sandwich version should be called The Hangover Helper.”

According to a CBC News story last summer, Canadians may not have to wait that long with the Liberal government announcing it would be introducing new cannabis legislation next spring. A task force was launched to advise on how to plan to legalize the drug with a panel offering recommendations on the best route to take.

Of course, this could all go up in smoke next year and, to put it bluntly, Ottawans shouldn’t be drooling over a weed-infused breakfast sandwich just yet. While pot advocates should be glad places like Kettleman’s are at least entertaining the idea, it's probably best to stick with your tried and true brownies for the moment. That said, should this become a reality, I know just the man to promote your little morning taste of heaven.

Isn’t Tommy Chong coming to town later this month?