It’s a little embarrassing that Boston doesn’t have a single “real” bagel shoppe. By real, I mean a neighborhood store that makes their own bagels, whips their own cream cheese, and offers fresh lox. Any place that sells french toast bagels is, by definition, not a “real” bagel shoppe, regardless of whether they do all the aforementioned things.
Someone should open one. Really. It would do extraordinarily well.
The closest we have is Bagel Rising, which fits the bill and then some, but is all the way out in Allston (which for all practical purposes is not in Boston). I’m sitting here now while I wait for some service on my car to be finished, and the place is mobbed. At 10:20AM on a Tuesday morning. On weekends there’s pretty much a non-stop line out the door until after lunch. I just had a toasted onion bagel with chive cream cheese, nova lox, and an egg on top. It was unbelievable.
The bagels here are just as good as anything you’ll find in NYC. But New Yorker’s are unfortunately justified in claiming that their bagels are far superior. Because while they have a great bagel shoppe on practically every block, we have a single one in a run down part of town dominated by college students and hipsters (I say that with great affection for Allston. I lived here for four years and loved it, but it’s not exactly the most accessible or desirable location for the typical Boston or Cambridge resident). Anyone visiting Boston looking for a bagel is stuck going to a Bruegger’s or Dunkin’ Donuts, which just isn’t right. And it’s also just not practical to venture out to Allston every weekend for breakfast.
So come on. Great business opportunity here. Anybody?
Okay, I’m done with my rant.