Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Back East Bagels!

Food is awesome. I love food.

It would be rad to eat a live octopus in Japan, a still-beating cobra heart (saw it on Anthony Bourdain!) or the hottest peppers known to man. I wanna try everything I can at least once, even if it causes a slight headache or massive stomach pains. I wanna sample the food and wine of every country, I wanna eat the sick shit, I wanna be the sick shit. Because food is important. Food is delicious, entertaining and demanding. It's a carnal pleasure, a simple yet required activity. An absolute must. So why not make it fun?

Am I gonna review something kick-ass? Did I just stuff a kabob full of barbequed shark into my mouth? Not really. I went to a bagel shop recently, they had good bagels and coffee, and that's about it. Stay with me, folks!

There's a few cafe and coffee shops around, so I like to take advantage of one when I can. There's always Starbucks, gas stations with stale coffee littering every corner and a few hidden gems, independently owned and operated. I'm not living in a giant mecca of amazing food, but I am living in an area that has some decent stuff. Plus, I'm finding that reviewing food is so very easy. If I'm gonna make my goal of "one blog a week," I better find something quick and simple. Next topic: drinking Lebanese beer and watching bad movies on HBO in a dirty hotel room. True story.

I heard about this place from a friend, and I'm always one to scope anything out involving...well, coffee. I got a coffee cup to go, and loaded it down with some kinda hazelnut-vanilla-kinda brew, and it was great. For some reason, it reminded me of summers during high school, where I'd stock up on at the local Circle K coffee, head out to the skate park and shred it up. I'd then spend hours and hours playing video games at home after realizing that hot cement will burn through your Vans in under twenty minutes. Summers suck.

They also have a ton of bagels (yeah, duh) that range from being covered in varying flavors of cream cheese to breakfast-food-loaded bagels, with meats and eggs and cheese. Everything I ordered over three visits was pretty good, so it's safe bet that, food wise, this place will be up your alley in some way. I'm not from the east coast, so I can't comment on whether or not these are truly "back east bagels," but we recently played shows in Jersey and New York, so I guess I feel I have a bit of an opinion. My opinion is unwarranted and doesn't make sense (all I ate on tour was Wheat Thins and peanut butter and jelly) but I'll say it's like being back at home. Ahh, the delicious bagels of nonexistant, made-up home.

I might have to score the whole experience a little lower than I want to, since it seems to close pretty early. I had to make the walk of shame one afternoon, after demanding a hot, burning liquid be entered into my body. I did that thing where you walk up to the door slowly, making sure to look like you think it's open, but just to be safe, making it look like you're still curious about it's store hours. Just so you won't have someone passing by see you tug on the door handle like the only thing in the world that mattered to you was a bagel lathered in fish. The thought of someone thinking, "HEY! He thought it was open but it was really closed he fucked up ha ha ha!" is not only mentally shattering, but completely asinine and insignificant. These are the things that haunt me.

I wish I got more pictures, but I'm finding it harder and harder to publicly take photos of the stupidest things. I think I need a giant "PRESS" laminate draped around my neck to overcome my shameful relucatance. Or balls. Yeah, it would be nice to have some balls.

Overall...B+!