68 Bagel & Grill

 

Located at 1116 Eastchester Drive Suite 112 in High Point, 68 Deli Bagel & Grill serves breakfasts, bagels, and sandwiches. It is open from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Online ordering is available.

 

The newest addition to Centre Stage plaza, 68 Bagel & Grill is a bit of a headscratcher. The name suggests a location further up Eastchester past the Palladium, and a more established bagel shop is less than a mile away. This bafflement aside, 68 Bagel & Grill does have several things going for it. It’s spacious and clean, the staff is courteous, and there are more menu options than you’d expect. Like the other are bagel shops, 68 offers bagels with various spreads, breakfast sandwiches, and lunch sandwiches. To those, they add French toasts (including stuffed), pancakes, and omelets. The ability to get a more-than-a-sandwich breakfast without the bustle of a diner is a definite draw. The fact that they use Giacomo’s meats is another perk in their favor.

 

For my first visit, I picked up a Jersey Shore (Taylor ham/egg/cheese) on an everything bagel to go. The sandwich was prepped quickly, and the pricing was fair. The melty cheese/salty meat combination hit all the right flavor notes. The bagel, however, was chewier and breadier than a true New York style, and the texture seemed a bit off. They make them in-house rather than using New Garden as a supplier, so they get points for effort at least.

 

If getting your hands on a great bagel is your only concern, you’re probably better served going down the street. However, if you value ambiance, customer service, variety, or aren’t seeking bagel supremacy, 68 Bagel & Grill makes for an attractive breakfast or lunch option.

Sedgefield Bagels & Deli

 

Located at 5002-F High Point Road in Greensboro, Sedgefield Bagels & Deli offers bagels and sandwiches for lunch and dinner. It is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. Online ordering is available.

 

This Sedgefield shopping center spot has been home to a number of eateries over the years, and the recently-opened Sedgefield Bagels & Deli is the latest to try to stick. The sister location (Oak Ridge Bagels & Deli) seems to be doing well for itself, and the bagels themselves have the proper pedigree (Long Island by way of New Garden bagels), both of which are positive indicators.

 

Another check in the plus column: selection. There were plenty of bagel varieties to choose from when I stopped by this morning. The sandwich offerings include classic egg/cheese/meat or deli combinations, but there is also a willingness here to go outside the box. This includes embracing Southern ingredients (BBQ pork, pimento, hot honey) and upping the non-bagel offerings (everything from salads to loaded fries to Belgian waffles).

 

I stuck to the tried-and-true for my first visit and went with a Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on an everything. It was as tasty a rendition as I’ve had in the other New York-style bagel shops in the area, and at $6.49, it was slightly less than what High Point Bagel is charging these days.

 

As with most bagel shops, seating is limited, but Sedgefield Bagels does have a few tables at its disposal. Since they are new, this may be a pending addition, but a wall menu behind the counter would definitely improve the ordering process.

 

Given the quality (New Garden Bagels can do no wrong), variety, and convenience (about eight minutes from work), I am glad for Sedgefield Bagels’ arrival, and I hope they can last.

High Point Bagels

 

Located at 1228 Eastchester Drive in High Point, High Point Bagels offers bagels, sandwiches, and baked goods. It is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily (though temporarily closed on Tuesdays). Catering is available.

 

Contrary to popular belief, good bagels are not hard to find in the Triad. You just need to know where to look. New Garden Bagels in Greensboro, with its Northern roots and traditional preparation (boil then bake), is one such spot, and High Point Bagels, which shares those attributes, is another. Though a bit rough around the edges, HPB offers unquestionably the best bagel in High Point and among the best in the region.

 

Owned by a Long Islander (with the accent and attitude to match), High Point Bagels lives up to its pedigree. Those of us from the New York/New Jersey area will find little to sneer at here as they nail the requisite (crisp outside/chewy inside) texture. And while the inventory varies, when HPB is fully stocked, the selection is hard to beat. On a good day, every flavor you’d expect (everything, pumpernickel, onion) will likely be accounted for, plus HPB offers the ever-elusive egg bagel as well as several types of spreads and cream cheeses (and muffins and black and white cookies and….you get the idea). You can’t go wrong with a breakfast sandwich here (they offer Taylor ham, which nets them another authenticity point) though if you arrive later in the day, the Reuben sandwiches, messy as they can be, are delicious. Try one on pumpernickel.

Though food quality is a constant, your experience may otherwise vary. High Point Bagels occupies a small, utilitarian (wall of license plates notwithstanding) space with only a few tables, and lines out the door aren’t uncommon. Staff are mostly friendly and frequently husting, but woe unto thee who ends up in line behind a large, complex order. In short, don’t go here if you’re in a hurry or want a quiet eat-in experience (unless it's an off-hour), but if you’re getting your bagels to go and have time to spare, you should be fine.

Kernersville Bagel

 

Located at 931F South Main Street in Kernersville, Kernersville Bagel serves up bagels, bagel sandwiches, coffee, and desserts. It is open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

 

The sister store to Greensboro’s venerable New Garden Bagels, Kernersville Bagel upholds the same high standards…and offers more seating. My wife and I went during opening weekend expecting to find the selection picked over, but we were pleasantly surprised to encounter plenty of availability. On a good day, expect to find a dozen or so varieties with plenty of spreads to go with them. While business was brisk this Saturday morning, the hard-working staff was hustling and able to keep pace.

 

We ordered a pair of bagel sandwiches to eat in and a half-dozen bagels to go. The Taylor ham/egg/cheese combo, a New Jersey staple, is done justice here. As with the New Garden store, the bagels offered at Kernersville Bagel are some of the best in the Triad. Transplanted Yankees (especially fellow members of the tribe) will feel right at home here (grab a black and white cookie to round out the experience) while Southerners may find themselves culinarily converted. Only bad luck (i.e. they run out of your favorite type of bagel) can let you down here: the bagels certainly won’t.

Greenfield's NY Bagels & Deli

Located at 2160G New Garden Road in Greensboro, Greenfield’s NY Deli and Bagels offers bagels and Jewish deli-style sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. Online ordering for pickup or delivery (via Grubhub) is available as are catering and Kosher options. The restaurant opens at 7 a.m. daily.

Despite its name, Greenfield’s NY Deli and Bagels has a somewhat convoluted lineage. It was opened last month by Tom and Anthony Cassano, associates of Robin Greenfield, who started the original Greenfield’s in Greenville, South Carolina nearly two decades ago. And while Greenfield, known as The Jewish Mayor of Greenville, seemingly adds a touch of authenticity to the operation, she is not a New Yorker but a native Floridian. None of this is reason enough to avoid the establishment, but those who have been to delis in New York/New Jersey should recalibrate their expectations for the Greensboro area.

By those standards, Greenfield’s is definitely promising, albeit with a few quirks. There is a decent amount of seating, especially relative to New Garden Bagels. A New York City skyline mural spans one wall though much of the décor here is strictly functional.

Greenfield’s bagel selection, on the other hand, is quite commendable. Though exact availability varies, there were about twenty kinds on hand when I visited, including varieties not easily found elsewhere such as Black Russian and Blueberry Brown Sugar. Spreads, like the bagels, are made in-house.

The rest of the menu isn’t as expansive, but it does offer both classics (Reubens and pastrami sandwiches) and more recent touches (The Larry David, a shout-out to Curb Your Enthusiasm, features Nova and whitefish on a bagel with lettuce, tomato, capers, and cream cheese). A deli case also features an assortment of salads and sides, there a few baked goods, and like any proper Jewish-style deli, Dr. Brown’s sodas are on hand too.

For my first visit, I tried an omelet sandwich (egg, cheddar, and pastrami on a plain bagel) as well as an assorted half-dozen bagels and lox spread to go. Those used to the smooth and uniform appearance of mass-produced bagels may be confused by the rougher appearance of the bagels found here, but I took this as a sign that they were homemade. Thankfully, the taste and texture fit the appearance: a crisp, crackly skin and a chewy interior. Legit. The accompanying pastrami was satisfyingly smoky, and the sandwich as a whole seemed well worth repeating. A word of caution, however: this is an omelet sandwich, not a mere egg sandwich. Expect to use two hands.

Pricing here varies. At $6.25/half dozen or $12.50/dozen, bagels are about the going rate. The omelet sandwiches start at $4.50 for egg on a bagel and increase accordingly with each topping added. Putting lox on anything brings you over $9.

Annoyingly, while prices are listed on the menu at each table, they are not (or at least were not when I visited) listed on the wall behind the counter. The blanks beside each item were perplexing to say the least. Also, while the tie-dye shirted staff were friendly and enthusiastic, they did appear at times distracted.

Greenfield’s knows how to churn out a quality bagel, and the menu holds enough promise to make return visits likely, but between New Garden Bagels down the road and Giacomo’s across the street, there are, for the time being, better options for both bagels and sandwiches in the immediate area.

Bagel Battle Bonanza: New Garden Bagels, Bagels and More on Main, and Bagel Station II

There are some who swear that good bagels do not exist outside of the New York City metro area. That may be an overstatement, but the influx of transplanted Yankees may account for many of North Carolina’s better bagel offerings. Those in the bagel biz who don’t hail from the region at least have an idea of what they should be emulating: firm and crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside, a result of boiling before baking. Some bagel places get this right; some don’t and should probably stop trying.

Three such “haves” are New Garden Bagels in Greensboro, Bagels and More on Main in Lexington, and Bagel Station/Bagel Station II in Winston-Salem. Each establishment has its own strengths and weaknesses, but you can’t go wrong with bagels from any of them.

New Garden Bagels can be found in the New Garden Crossing Shopping Center at New Garden Road in Greensboro. Offerings include bagels, spreads, breakfast sandwiches, and deli sandwiches. The establishment is open from 6 a.m. to 4p.m. daily.

Though tiny enough to preclude dining in and not the cheapest option ($1.09/bagel or $13.08/baker’s dozen), New Garden Bagels offers the best bagels I’ve encountered so far in the Triad. The consistency (crisp outside, chewy inside) is spot-on. New Garden stocks more than a dozen varieties of bagels at any given time, and there is usually a good mixture of sweet (cinnamon crunch, blueberry, chocolate chip) and savory (garlic, onion, salt, tomato basil) as well as several types of everything (egg, wheat, and traditional) bagels. There are also at least ten cream cheeses including lox, all of which, like the bagels, are made in-house. Staff are patient and accommodating of the indecisive. Though a baker’s dozen + cream cheeses has been my default order, New Garden also offers a few sandwiches (Taylor ham, whitefish salad, sliced lox) that I will have to try the next time I start feeling nostalgic for home.

Bagels and More on Main is located at 19 Main Street in uptown Lexington. It is open until 2 p.m. Monday-Saturday and until 1 p.m. on Sunday. Sandwich, soup, and cream cheese specials rotate regularly.

Lexington is best known for BBQ not bagels, and amid these somewhat low expectations, Bagels and More on Main acquits itself nicely. The bagels are a reasonable facsimile of a New York style (in that they aren’t just round bread), and the homemade spreads are quite tasty. We sampled a honey walnut cream cheese that, while very sweet, was hard to resist. Bagels and More is also more spacious than a typical bagel shop and has more of a café/coffee shop/sandwich shop vibe.

That said, the selection is a bit more limited (maybe ten varieties?) relative to other bagel shops, and the recent addition of “and More” reflects an attempt at catering to a wider audience (via soups and sandwiches). This might not be the most authentic bagel experience around, but it is a fine fit for the area, and the owner is friendly.

The Bagel Station is located at 129 Oakwood Drive in Winston-Salem while its sister store, Bagel Station II, is located at 1977 Peacehaven Road in the Whitaker Square Shopping Center. Both establishments are open until 2 p.m. daily, and both offer deli and breakfast sandwiches as well as coffee drinks and smoothies in addition to bagels.

I had a chance to sample Bagel Station II’s wares at a recent Yelp event and liked what I tasted enough to pay them a visit. Truth be told, this is a bit of a chewier bagel albeit one that preserves the requisite crisp crust. On paper, Bagel Station II has a lot to offer, but in the flesh (so to speak), it’s a mixed bag.

First the good: Bagel Station II offers a commendably large selection and plenty of seating. You will find more than a dozen bagel varieties here (including a brightly hued rainbow bagel) and nearly a dozen spreads. Add to that the coffee selections and baked goods, and you’re in for more than the usual bagel shop offerings. The sausage, egg, and cheddar bagel sandwich was served hot and fulfilled a craving.

That said, there are a few drawbacks. Pricing ($1.09/bagel or $11/baker’s dozen) seems very favorable at first, but four designated-as-premium varieties run 60 cents more each and can’t be included in a dozen or half-dozen. Bagel Station II can get quite busy, and while counter staff are proficient at keeping the lines moving, they also seem harried and rather curt (the cashier, on the other hand, was polite). On food alone, Bagel Station II is worth a visit, but if you go during peak times, make sure you know what you want and be prepared to order it quickly.