Brooklyn Water Bagel Co: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
When Brooklyn Water Bagel Company, which is partly owned by Larry King, opened its first west coast franchise in Beverly Hills last month a ton of red flags went up. First and most obvious is the Larry King thing. Seriously… that’s your selling point? (Can that guy’s dentures even cut through a real bagel?) Then there was the whole “Brooklyn water” thing, which anybody who has ever been to a New York style pizza place in L.A. should be familiar with. (Really? You pay to have water flown in from New York City to make that pizza? You’re an idiot.) Oh, but don’t worry. Brooklyn Water Bagel Company doesn’t use actual Brooklyn water. They’ve developed a “proprietary water treatment technology system” to create the ideal water for making bagels. (Idiots as well.)
And yet something about their nonsense worked. Maybe it was my one and only soul crushing experience at Noah’s, or the impending Passover holiday, but something willed me to go and check out the bagel that Larry King claims transported him back to Brooklyn with one bite.
First… THE GOOD.
The bagel itself. You can see them cooking up the bagels fresh through a window into the back, and it all looks Kosher (not literally, of course). The bagels don’t need to be toasted, and there’s even a chance of getting a warm one (always a good thing.) Crisp outside, chewy inside… definitely a good bagel.
The classics are there. The “salads” seem to be fresh and good. We were fans of the white fish spread ($9), and you can even get nova eggs and onions with a bagel for $7. Everything was pretty fast food franchise’ish, but all in all it was a tasty lunch.
The ice coffee ice cubes. If you are a fan of ice coffee you will love this place. Their self serve drink area is 20% soda, and the rest coffee. They have a ton of different flavors, and the self serve ice machine dispenses ice coffee ice cubes! Stupid gimmick? For sure. Made me excited because of its awesomeness? Definitely.
THE BAD.
Pizza melts, signature salads and Brooklyn Wraps. Really? Is this necessary? You had me at delicious bagels.
They serve something called a “Scooper Melt”. I’m sorry, but if you scoop the inside out of your bagel you suck. It’s an abomination, and shouldn’t be encouraged… even if you’re filling the scooped area with corned beef, cheesesteak, or a tuna melt.
The sweet potato fries. Kind of terrible.
And… THE UGLY.
It’s Beverly Hills and you just couldn’t help yourself, could you.
Should have known from the beginning that Brooklyn Water Bagel Company was just another gimmick filled cheesy chain, but the bagels are actually half way decent. If you’re in the area, and craving a bagel you could do a lot worse (provided you can ignore the bad and the ugly.)
Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., 262 S. Beverly Drive, 310-786-7400
Posted by Zach Brooks at 11:00 am, April 21st, 2011 under Bagels, Beverly Hills, Brooklyn Water Bagel Company.
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I’m a fan of the bagel selections, particularly for the breakfast sandwiches. They didn’t blow me away but were definitely better than average.
I do think, though, that the coffee ice cubes could fall under “the bad.” Great in theory; made my coffee gross and bitter in practice.