Now that baker Dave Dahl has cornered the local toast market, with loaves of hearty Dave's Killer sandwich bread popping up on supermarket shelves from Whole Foods to Winco, Portland's wild man of baking is taking on bagels. The company is starting small, selling batches of boiled-bagel versions of its stellar flax- and sunflower-seed-packed organic Good Seed bread at its Milwaukie outlet store and at the Saturday Portland Farmers Market. Are they good? It depends on how you look at it: As traditional bagels go, the schlumpy rounds are leaden and underwhelming, with little of the springy chew that makes bagels so addictive. But toast 'em up and it's a whole different story. All of a sudden you've got a yeasty, crunchy, seed-speckled circle of whole-grain bread crust—and nothin' but the crust. For those of us who covet the brawny, hearty heels of a sandwich loaf, this is genius—one package of four Dave's Killer bagels is nothing but bread heels, strong enough to act as the base for a monster sandwich or a mountain of cream cheese and gravlax. Now, that's killer.

EAT: Dave's Killer Good Seed Bagels are available at the Healthy Bread Store, 5209 SE International Way, Milwaukie, 335-8077, and at the Saturday Portland Farmers Market. $4.50 per package. daveskillerbread.com