Knead to Know.

No matter where you are in America, it's not very hard to get your hands on a bagel, especially with national bakery brands like Thomas', Sara Lee and Pepperidge Farm selling them. Though bagels have historically been a culinary staple of New York, some of their hottest growth markets now include Alabama, Georgia and Texas, per IRI data. But when did these boiled-and-baked dough rings start to play in Peoria? According to ADWEEK--which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year--it was 1984. That's when Kraft purchased frozen bagel brand Lender's, and when our columnist George Lazarus identified bagels as a national snack in the offing, even if only 7 out of 10 Americans had ever tried one. "Recent developments," he wrote, "suggest that bagels are an attractive business for growth potential." Well, he called that one right. Today, bagels are a $1,7 billion industry, per IBISWorld. By the way, according to data from Betway, New York is no longer the leading state for bagel consumption--it's now Hawaii.