Ess-a Bagel

NAME: Ess-a Bagel
LOCATION: 831 3rd Ave. New York, NY 10022
PRICE: $5.14

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be introduced to this gem of a bagel shop by a seasoned New Yorker. In terms of pure aesthetics, Ess-a has the nicest interior of any of the bagel peddlers I have visited thus far. There is a large seating area filled with marble table tops where you can sit and enjoy your bagel. The line to get a bagel stretched about 20 people long in front of me but moved fairly quickly and we had no problem finding a seat despite the crowd.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Ess-a bagel is the best bagel I have had in the NYC area so far. Delightfully crispy on the outside, warm and chewy on the inside. It is so big that it actually dwarfs the plate that it rests upon and filled me up for hours.

Unfortunately there were some drawbacks. The vegetable cream cheese was only "ok." It had a bit of a yellowish color that I have noticed at a few shops in town and was too heavy on the onions. The texture was nice however, and it stuck nicely and evenly to the bagel.

The coffee was incredibly watery and weak. If I returned I would not order it again.

Despite the drawbacks, the bagel itself was excellent and raises the bar for my quest substantially. Truly testament to the city's bagel-mania.

RATING:
BAGEL:
SCHMEAR:
COFFEE:

Brooklyn Bagel

NAME: Brooklyn Bagel

LOCATION: 35-05 Broadway Astoria, NY 11106 (there are other locations around NYC as well)

PRICE: $4.60

As you can see I have already violated my control group by ordering a large coffee instead of a small. Never fear, the price I listed is for that of a bagel, veggie cream cheese, and a SMALL coffee.

Now, down to business. As you can probably even tell from the picture, Brooklyn Bagel is far superior to yesterday's "Bagel-who-shall-not-be-named." The bagel itself is fluffy, pleasantly chewy, large, and adorned with a generous speckling of all those tasty bits that make the "everything" on an everything bagel. The veggie spread is generously applied and coats each part of the bagel evenly. The spread is creamy, soft, and has just the right amount of veggies distributed though out.

The coffee comes out HOT, and by hot I mean lawsuit hot. Don't take that first sip for at least 15 minutes or you can bet your charred taste buds will not be able to taste the classy bagel you just ordered. Once cool, the coffee is dark, strong and pretty darn good (I drank the whole large without any hesitation). Best of all, it wasn't packed in the bag with my bagel, so there was no chance of ending up with an unintentionally coffee flavored bagel.

The staff at Brooklyn Bagel is a little rough around the edges. While they are very polite to the customer, you can constantly witness them being cranky and yelling at each other. Many of the workers have trouble understanding your order and usually have to ask 3 or 4 times to get it right.

Attention must also be brought to the sheer number of spreads and bagels they offer. From Nutella cream cheese to Tuscan Artichoke, to walnut raison, there is an impressive variety. I've tried the Tuscan artichoke on a separate occasion and it was quite excellent.

Also of note, while I didn't try it, they offer a French Toast flavored bagel on weekends that looks fairly amazing (the person behind the counter was trying to sell me on it pretty hard). I could see it being great with one of the fruit or nutella flavored cream cheeses. I may just try it next time I pop in.

While, admittedly, my bagel experience in NYC is limited (I have been to about 5 different bagel shops), Brooklyn Bagel currently holds the title of "Best overall bagel" for having a consistently tasty (though not the best there is) bagel, and offering a variety of delicious spreads.

RATING

BAGEL:

SCHMEAR:

COFFEE:

Mt. Olympus Bagel

NAME: Mt. Olympus Bagel

LOCATION: 3315 30th Ave. Astoria, NY 11103

PRICE: $3.42

disclaimer: The control group for my Great Bagel Adventure will be an everything bagel, untoasted with vegetable cream cheese and a small coffee, black. I make no apologies if you do not like this combo. This allows me to fairly compare quality of each establishment.

It is with great sadness that this is my first post for Bagel Quest. Apparently the Greek Gods ate shitty bagels because Mt. Olympus bites it hard in all areas. After my journey home, not only had the coffee soaked through the bagel due to poor packaging but the bagel was literally ice cold. The consistency was something akin to a frozen bagel from a supermarket: cold, hard, and flat (though make no mistake, this was not a flagel). The cream cheese was a wet plaster-like consistency that stuck to one side of the bagel and took significant scraping to apply to the other half.

As mentioned before, the coffee was poorly packed and had applied itself to the bottom of the bag (I'm surprised the bottom of the bag didn't bust open) and my bagel. Though the addition of coffee flavor to the bagel could only help in this situation. The coffee itself was non-offensive but nothing special at all. Weak, slightly watery, but not unpleasant tasting.

I will note that this was the cheapest bagel/coffee that I have had since arriving in the city and that the staff was cheery and polite but that does not make up for this car crash that calls itself a bagel. With all the bagel options in NYC, there is no reason to waste your time, money, and taste buds at Mt. Olympus.

RATING

BAGEL:

SCHMEAR:

COFFEE:

and so it begins.....

I recently moved to New York City from Los Angeles, CA where what is considered to be a bagel is really just regular bread in the shape of a bagel. I spent nearly eight years of my life bagel-less and alone, not realizing how much I was really missing out. Well I have seen the light (err.... dough?) and have made it my mission to explore the city through the eye of it's many bagel shops and hopefully help others in their Quest to find the PERFECT BAGEL.