Big City Bagel

Not sure how anyone can consider BCB 4 or 5 stars. Went to breakfast. Greasy, overdone homefries. Undercooked eggs (over medium and scrambled — both runny). Grits, tasteless and watery. Mediocre bagels. Coffee was decent.
Décor: uggghh. Yellow, bathroom tile! Felt like we were in a 70’s shower.
Bright spot: Server very nice and tried hard to make us happy.
Not planning to go back.

South Florida sucks for coffee shops. Chains like Panera (where I was greeted with a «what’s an Americano?») and Starbucks abound, but if I’m going to be sitting there working for a few hours I’d like a bit more character.
So I stopped at Big City Bagel for breakfast one morning, reluctantly on my way to the Panera in the same mall. Big City is definitely more of a restaurant than a coffee shop, but they had wireless and friendly looking staff, so I set up against the wall with my power-​hungry laptop and had some breakfast. And watched the blue-​hairs. And ended up staying for lunch. Every day for a week.
By the end of my time there I was a regular. After a couple of days I pulled in late one morning, and some other jerk with a laptop had taken my table (the only other guy with a laptop I’d seen since I started coming), so I set up on the other wall. Dana, one of the managers, apologized and told me they’d hold the table for me the next day if I was coming back. Sure enough, the next day I arrived to a busy restaurant at around 10:30, and my table was open and beckoning to me amid the hustle.
I can recommend the whole wheat pancakes, hold the icing sugar sprinkles. Add a hot sauce’d poached egg, a fruit cup, and enough coffee refills to get you bouncing. There really should be a combo with all of that stuff in it.
The owner, who I’ll call Big City, is a character. He’d come in early afternoon, sit in the corner and hold court with the other regulars, bellowing «Amelia, you got a customer!» whenever anyone would walk in. He was always sending people on their way with a complementary something to go.
The lunches were all good. Roast veggie wraps are tasty, and the soups are great.
There were very few customers substantially under 65 years old, which I suppose is to be expected of the neighbourhood. Every day, a table of six to eight highschool friends would come in and camp. One day they brought a yearbook that I think said grad year ’51? I enjoyed the bent (over, not twisted) couple in matching teal blue sweatshirts who ate lunch and took a huge bag of food to go. The guy reminded me of a fish the way he gawped his mouth between bites when he was eating.
The place empties fairly quickly after the lunch rush, and I had it mostly to myself between two and four, when it closes. One of the other regulars (I think) who would hang out with Big City always gave me a hard time for staying ’til the end without helping to clean up.
I understand that there is no point in them staying open past three, and that they have to give me the boot at four when they actually close, but I wish they stayed open ’til seven so I didn’t have to relocate to finish off my workday.
Big City is a shiny bit of soul in an otherwise dried up area. Highly recommend.

Love this place! Great lunch & breakfast specials! You can get breakfast all day!

Nice spot to grab breakfast. Fast, fair prices, pretty good food, and very friendly service and management. I love that they give out free pastry while you wait for your order. Very Cool.