Call Your Mother Deli, which opened its downtown Bethesda location on Aug. 3, has won the Best Bagel award in Washington City Paper's Best of D.C. 2026 competition, beating out shops across the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

The win, announced by the MoCo Show on Tuesday, Aug. 25, comes just three weeks after the "Jew-ish" deli opened its doors at 4828 St. Elmo Ave. The space previously housed Hardwood Artisans, Design Within Reach and, before that, Johnny Rockets.

The contest drew 18,375 voters who cast 37,852 votes across 181 categories. Bullfrog Bagels finished as runner-up, and two Montgomery County shops made the finalist list: Bethesda Bagels and Goldberg's New York Bagels.

The Bethesda opening marks a return for co-founders Andrew Dana and chef Daniela Moreira, whose popular pink "Lil' Deli" trolley operated on Old Georgetown Road for five years before relocating to Riverdale Park last year. Dana is a Washington Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree; Moreira, a native of Argentina, is a James Beard Award semifinalist.

"Bethesda has always felt like home for us," Dana said in a July 28 statement ahead of the opening. "It's a community where people care deeply about supporting local businesses."

The husband-and-wife team started Call Your Mother as a farmers market bagel stand before opening their first brick-and-mortar shop in D.C.'s Park View neighborhood in October 2018. Their bagels are boiled, then baked in a wood-fired oven. The chain now operates more than 20 locations across D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Colorado and Illinois, after selling a majority stake to private equity firm Invus in 2025.

The Bethesda menu features signature sandwiches like the Jetski, DelRay Club and Sun City, plus scratch-made babka muffins, white cookies and locally roasted coffee. Call Your Mother also runs a Pike & Rose location at 11807 Grand Park Ave. in North Bethesda.

The St. Elmo Avenue shop is open 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays and 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends.