The Deep Dish: Xingfucun's Frost Makes Oversized, High-Class Bagel Bites

As online voting continues for the 2017 Pizza Cup, The Deep Dish will be previewing a few of the restaurants vying for the title of Beijing's most beloved pie. So take a look, grab a slice, and pick the team you want to be victorious.

Xingfucun Zhonglu has seen many changes over the years. Some local businesses were pushed out earlier this year, before newcomers like Cannon's rose to take their place. But one thing has remained consistent throughout this long, strange trip called life. Well, actually, two things:

1. Frost has continued to provide the expat-heavy community of Xingfucun with American-style comfort food and less-common Asian dishes for 13 years.
2. When pizza's on a bagel, you can eat pizza anytime.

While Frost's digs have changed recently (but barely), after a hop and a skip to the next building over, technically off Xingfucun Zhonglu and on a small alleyway, their food, their vibe, and their mission have all remained. Their menu, rife with western staples that we all simply need from time to time, includes pizzas, salads, burgers, as well as some Asian dishes like udon and Singaporean dishes. Their menu will reportedly be taking a turn for the Japanese in the coming months, but they assure us their comfort food will always remain.

And of all those American-ish comfort dishes, one stands out, in particular: their bagel pizza. Bagel pizza is for many Americans a taste of childhood; something Mom would whip up when running low on groceries and energy. That appreciation for cheap, fast, hearty DIY pizza translated for me (and likely for others, as well) into the mini pie frequently being made in college – a precious respite from the Easy Mac and Ramen diet of overworked, underpaid college sophomores.

So to stumble upon bagel pizza on the menu of a casual-yet-swanky hole in the wall on Xingfucun Zhonglu in Beijing, I was ecstatic.

Despite running the restaurant with her American husband Jeff Powell, co-owner Sheri Zhao assures us that nostalgia was not a factor in choosing the bagel life. "There's just a lot of pizza around Beijing, we just wanted to do something a little bit different."

And I'm glad they did. The pizzas are small but affordable, at RMB 49 (for both halves of the bagel, mind you, together equivalent to the mass of personal pan pizzas elsewhere). There are several variations – Hawaiian, pepperoni, an avocado-bacon version, and more – all made with bagels prepared by Zhao's American-trained bagel-baking friend.

At first taste, we were upset to taste absolutely no tomato sauce. If you're putting pizza on a bagel, you're already stretching the definition of what "pizza" is, so to lack sauce is simply a bridge too far. This is just a cheesy bagel. But the bagel pizzas come served with a pretty little streak of marinara on the plate – so pretty, in fact, that we initially assumed it was just part of the plating – allowing guests to dip their bagel pizza in the sauce, ensuring we each get exactly as much as we want.

We paired our pizzas with two glasses of Frost's "Grand Bomb" – a shot of Grand Marnier dropped into a mug of Asahi beer – more out of curiosity than anything else. The highest praise we can afford it: it doesn't taste as weird as it sounds, just like a weird beer.

Frost's dark and intimate atmosphere, friendly and attentive staff, delightful company in the form of owner Sheri Zhao, and – most importantly – the comforting tastes of some of our most down-to-earth western favorites served with style together make Frost an affordable, attractive and comfortable hangout for the hordes of foreigners in the neighborhood. The next time you miss home and Chinese Pizza Hut's bizarrely upscale, processed pies aren't cutting it, head to Frost to for some of the warmth of home.

Haven't yet voted in our 2017 Pizza Cup? Simply scan the QR code below to have your say before the winner is announced on October 19:

Photo: Mary Kate White, courtesy of Frost