La Bagel Delight - WTF?

I visit the La Bagel on 7th and President fairly often and, to paraphrase Peter Finch in "Network", am mad as hell and can 't contain myself any longer.

What genius designed their order-taking, two-line system? I mean, the place was totally renovated not 2 yrs ago and it's utterly and completely dysfunctional. Rather than have people circulate through the space -- ordering at one counter and picking up at the other -- you are forced to cram your way towards one of the two ordering stations, force your way past everyone else waiting for their orders, shout your order to the person you can barely see behind the too-tall coolers, pray that your order is prepared correctly, shuffle out of the way of the other people ordering, then fight your way to the front to pay and pick up.

To top it off, it's a freaking bagel place and you can barely see the bagels. Plus, the bagel selection... come on, what year is this, 1985? No Asiago? No even mildly adventurous flavors? I know, I know, these are "New York" bagels, but please... we've already tossed the "New York coffee" myth out the window for Gorilla (and I'd like nothing more than for Peet's to drive every single Starbucks out of the city).

This morning I ordered a toasted onion with - wait for it - butter AND cream cheese. You should have seen the look on the order-taker's face... you'd have thought I asked him to shit on my bagel. He actually rolled his eyes, looked at the cashier, and they both cracked up laughing.

I officially hate La Bagel Delight.

Mare, it ain't Minneapolis no more.
Asiago bagels? Get real. Peet's cawfee? I'll give you Peet's right here ...
Only kinds of decent bagels are plain, onion, egg, pumpernickel, poppy.
And they are not made at La Bagel Delight, no matter what location.
PS counter help at the one at 7th and 5th is much better.

http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=43440

Egg bagels are the most disgusting things on earth.

I'm the Mary after she moved to the big downtown condo.

Salt bagels. Yummy

Don't you love when you go to a restaurant that is in the business of serving everything on their menu...and then they laugh at your or get annoyed with things their customers order? I used to work at a Panera- now that's asiago...and lots of cals/carbs too mmm sometimes I miss them.

I was on the UES @ a crowded bagel shop and a man ordered lox on a bagel, sans schmear. The man behind the counter asked a couple times and then I think several of the associates laughed.

8thandPrez wrote: Egg bagels are the most disgusting things on earth.

I'm the Mary after she moved to the big downtown condo.

Ok, like bagels, I like my MTM closer to Dick Van Dyke instead of post-Grant Tinker. Old-school.
In the condo she had too many Ted Baxter dreams.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/14759/the-dick-van-dyke-show-to-tell-or-not-to-tell#x-0,vepisode,1
[around 5:03]

http://www.hulu.com/watch/673/the-mary-tyler-moore-show-love-is-all-around#x-0,vepisode,1

Sweetie this is New York City and in some places the old customs remain. Ordering a corned beef sandwich in katz'z with Mayo and asking if they do have white bread is gonna get you a look. A bagel with cream cheese and butter is gonna get you a look. But.. You are the customer so either should be served up with a smile and a thank you for your business.

Is butter and cream cheese so weird? That's how I've always had cream cheese on a bagel. And I'm from South Florida, the sixth borough.

Anyway - the bee in my bonnet is more for the terrible store layout than for the bagel selection.

Subject: Re: La Bagel Delight - WTF?

8thandPrez wrote:

Plus, the bagel selection... come on, what year is this, 1985? No Asiago? No even mildly adventurous flavors?

I officially hate La Bagel Delight.

I am speechless. You really can't even make this stuff up.

Everything Bagels are as mildly adventurous as you get. That's what lox, shmears, jellies, meats and cheeses are for. Not together, mind you...well, unless you're looking for a gastrointestinal adventure

eat_snacky_smores wrote: Everything Bagels are as mildly adventurous as you get. That's what lox, shmears, jellies, meats and cheeses are for. Not together, mind you...well, unless you're looking for a gastrointestinal adventure

Bah. If Panera can do asiago, La Bagel can. Plus, it's also not like their toppings are particularly adventurous either...

I despise that place too. Nasty workers and confusing lines! Regardless of the quality of bagels--ALL other bagel places have better service. ALL of them.

Sorry, I didn't see the already active bagel thread... I should have folded this into that one.

Subject: Re: La Bagel Delight - WTF?

8thandPrez wrote:
This morning I ordered a toasted onion with - wait for it - butter AND cream cheese. You should have seen the look on the order-taker's face... you'd have thought I asked him to shit on my bagel. He actually rolled his eyes, looked at the cashier, and they both cracked up laughing.

I officially hate La Bagel Delight.

What idiots. Imagine if you had asked for the same bagel with butter, cream cheese, and jelly?

I once got that reaction from a bartender when ordering a drink. I never returned to the bar again.

Hey

If you want butter and cream cheese, got to Key Food and buy both those items and keep them in your fridge. Every morning you can go to la Bagel and get a fresh bagel and make this sandwich in the privacy of your own home.

This is Brooklyn, I would not want my kids seeing you ordering such an abomination.

Please
:oops: :oops:

Yeah, sorry 8thandPrez, but I'm not with you on this one. I'm a bagel purist.

Which is why I'd never be at La Bagel Delight in the first place. :twisted:

8thandPrez wrote: Is butter and cream cheese so weird? That's how I've always had cream cheese on a bagel. And I'm from South Florida, the sixth borough.

Anyway - the bee in my bonnet is more for the terrible store layout than for the bagel selection.

I've been in New York since I was 11, and this was when good bagels outside of the city were almost unheard of and were extremely well appreciated where they were.

I always had my bagels with butter AND cream cheese until I stopped burning those calories so well.

Don't let the doubters bring you down.

never mind 8thandPrez's taste in bagels and toppings.

it's still true that la bagel delight on 7th and Pres. is the most poorly organized store i have ever entered, and for all the reasons 8thandPrez points out. i won't go there for that reason. curiously, la bagel delight on 7th ave and 5th street has none of those problems.

I've fallen in love with Murray's Bagels in (gasp!) Manhattan. better than anything in Brooklyn I've ever had.

I actually really like La Bagel as a place though. I'd rather go there with the shouting and the bustle. I've known some of those people casually for a decade and they are cool. I avoid places like S'Nice, that drip with pretention in comparison.

As for Butter and Cream Cheese on a bagel...ack!

I drove past La Bagel Delight today and thought -ack no- and I managed to drive past Murray's later in the evening and thought- with all of this bagel talk, I'd LOVE to stop there and get a good chewy bagel...alas, I needed to get a friend home and walk the dog I'm sitting for- likely, it wasn't open so late anyway.

Just sayin' ya'll got me cravin' bagels.

eat_snacky_smores wrote: I drove past La Bagel Delight today and thought -ack no- and I managed to drive past Murray's later in the evening and thought- with all of this bagel talk, I'd LOVE to stop there and get a good chewy bagel...alas, I needed to get a friend home and walk the dog I'm sitting for- likely, it wasn't open so late anyway.

Just sayin' ya'll got me cravin' bagels.

BAGEL HOLE!

filmlover44 wrote: [quote=8thandPrez]Is butter and cream cheese so weird? That's how I've always had cream cheese on a bagel. And I'm from South Florida, the sixth borough.

Anyway - the bee in my bonnet is more for the terrible store layout than for the bagel selection.

I've been in New York since I was 11, and this was when good bagels outside of the city were almost unheard of and were extremely well appreciated where they were.

I always had my bagels with butter AND cream cheese until I stopped burning those calories so well.

Don't let the doubters bring you down.

I like butter and cream cheese on my bagel.

If you, the paying customer, have cash and the bagel boys have bagels, cream cheese, butters, and mustard, and you want it all together, the bagel boys should promptly serve it to you with a smile.

Please, a purist would only slather chicken fat on a bagel

triebensee wrote: Please, a purist would only slather chicken fat on a bagel

Schmaltz and bagels are both traditional Eastern European Jewish foods, but I've never seen anyone put schmaltz on a bagel, including my Yiddish-speaking grandmother (R.I.P.).

delete

veets wrote:
I understand there are people reading this who have no idea what I am talking about!! Lol!~

there have been quite a few of those times, but I dig ya anyway, Veets ;-)

This place is the biggest buzzkill on a Saturday morning in the neighborhood. The fact that folks flock to this mediocre spot, and not to Area or Bergen, is proof that they're too lazy to push that stroller another few blocks. It'd be good for the arm muscles, and would help burn some of the calories off that cream cheese behemoth you're about to ingest.

In total agreement here, 8thandprez.

I really do not want to participate in this bagel obsession you have here. I just had to stop in and share my immense hatred of this place. Yes rude staff and very awkward ordering and paying area. What killed me is when I was there against my will, they refused to toast bread or bagels for us. I ordered a tuna fish sandwich on rye bread with lettuce and tomato and onion and an ice tea and it was $8.60. I got LIVID! Then when I tasted it the tuna was DISGUSTING! I ended up smashing the sandwich on the counter and cursing up a storm. I will NEVER go there again.

Ahh, yes. THERE's the stroller reference I was waiting for...

new2hood wrote: Ahh, yes. THERE's the stroller reference I was waiting for...

Those stroller people are a serious thing in Park Slope and Fort Greene.

fivefifths wrote: [quote=new2hood]Ahh, yes. THERE's the stroller reference I was waiting for...

Those stroller people are a serious thing in Park Slope and Fort Greene.

"stroller people"? you mean "parents"?