Bruegger’s Bagels

I keep hearing good things about Bruegger’s Bagels from trustworthy sources, so I decided to give the chain another shot.
There are a few things I require from my bagels:
1) They need to be boiled.
2) They need to be crusty.
3) They need to be chewy.
4) They need to be tasty.
What will separate the good bagel places from the great bagel places is the availability of hot bagels throughout the day. Don’t make me get there at 5am to get a hot bagel. You do not want to see me at 5am. Trust me.
So when I went into Bruegger’s for an after lunch snack, I was glad to see the baker baking, the kettle boiling, and signs reading «hot» in various bagel bins. Oddly those signs seemed to be placed willy nilly, because the bagels in those bins weren’t hot, and the hot bagels were in a bin without a sign.
Maybe it was the sign-changer’s day off.
The plain bagel was the hottest, so that’s what I went with. And right off the bat, I could tell the color was a bit lighter than I might like. No worries. Color can be deceptive. There was a little crisp crust on the outer layer of the bagel, but it was lacking. And the crumb had some chew, but that too felt restrained. As did the flavor.
It feels as if Bruegger’s knows how to make bagels, but for some reason they are just holding back. And that’s frustrating. A little more time fermenting the dough. A bit more pulling to build up the gluten. A few additional moments in the kettle. A minute or two longer in the oven. Those would make these good.
For now, they are fine. I’ll call them bagels. But I want more from a bagel shop. Maybe other bakers on other days would take these bread rings to the next level. Maybe it’s a matter of individual locations, like it is with the large super market chain in the area.
When things are made by human hands, regardless of the system for making them all the same, they bear the signature of their maker.
This was good enough for me to try another Bruegger’s before too long, but not so good as to be in a hurry to do so.

Do not go to this brueggers. Terrible customer service and worse food. Needed a quick lunch, ordered chicken Caesar salad. They made it with cranberries and blue cheese??? Then remade the correct salad. It was very small, the chicken had fake grill marks and is clearly cooked somewhere else and frozen. It was slimy and squishy. There was very little lettuce, what was there was dark green with brown spots and bitter. The dressing can’t be considered Caesar, it was water and tasteless. Very disappointed.

Large warm bagels and friendly smiles is a good way to start your Thursday morning everyone I was in contact with was very friendly and they had a much larger selection than the location on Union Street the bagel racks are full and this place is so inviting and Cute! Huge location and plenty of seating.

The bagels are adequate. Lol. Yup. If you want a convenient, fresh adequate bagel with cream cheese and coffee they do fine. It’s clean and with several locations in our area convenient.
It’s just short of a real bagel.

Service. Service…Service stinks. Long waits, out of simple items. I went there today and was told they were out of regular coffee. Not that they haven’t made another pot but they were out. I have not experienced this at other Brueggers.

Okay, call me crazy. I swear the bagels from Bruegger’s have been shrinking in size every year since 2006.
Well, they have always been small but this is 3 – 6 bites and done!
Tasty but small especially for the price point. The Cinnamon Sugar and Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper are worth trying.