Submitted by STREAMOFCONSCIOUSN3S t3_y868cd in rva
Just wanted to say it. They're so good.
Submitted by STREAMOFCONSCIOUSN3S t3_y868cd in rva
Just wanted to say it. They're so good.
Nate’s also made me wait a hour for two bagel sandwiches. What the hell!!
I find “I waited an hour (or longer) for my meal” posts like this fascinating. I’d be so impatient after like 15 minutes I’d peace the fuck out.
I’m not even being snarky! I honestly don’t know how people have such patience and self control.
I’m right there with you. Only reason I waited was because I had to pay during the online order.
Amen
Did you order online and schedule a pickup? If not that’s on you
I ordered online but did not schedule a pickup. To be honest I just assumed a bagel place would be quick.
I remember liking them when they had them at the café at my old job, but I don’t think I’ve had one since. Might be nostalgia goggles.
IMO Chewy’s has the best bagel in town, but Nate’s lost me even more when I started having to wait so long for my order.
I haven't tried any of these places but I am curious what you mean by "real bagels". What is the distinguishing factor between a Panera bagel, per your example, and a real bagel
A bagel is typically boiled before baking. This is why a traditional bagel has two distinct textures, the soft and chewy inside, with the slightly harder “outer shell” type part around it. Panera bagels are allegedly not boiled at all, but rather steamed, making them by definition not a traditional bagel and arguably just flavored bread with a hole in it. This is a common gripe for northerners like myself living in the south or from those few southerners with a discerning bagel palette. Historically in RVA, many places either trucked in real bagels from somewhere else, or made/procured non-traditional “bagels” leaving crummy options all around. As someone born in NY and a bit of a bagel-nazi, I’ve found Nate’s to be tolerable but not particularly good, Cupertino’s to be standard but not reliable (like they fell off the back of a truck in Bushwick), and Chewy’s to be my favorite so far.
Thanks for the info! This honestly clears a lot of things up, I didn't know it goes so deep with bagels.
Yup, spot on. Cupertino’s falls in the flavored bread camp with Panera. They may boil their bagels but it sure doesn’t taste like it. Gotta boil to get that chewiness.
Have you lived in pa/ny/nj? Nate’s is a real bagel and there is no real pizza in Richmond imo
> Chewy’s is the only good bagel in Richmond
Chewy's makes a competent sourdough loaf that coincidentally is shaped like a bagel---a "bagel-shaped object" or "BSO" if you will. However, they make a poor bagel.
Best in Richmond metro by a pretty wide margin. (No offense to Nate’s.) Bodos out in Charlottesville takes the Best in State title though.
Have you tried Chewy's in Carytown?
Yeah, it’s perfectly fine. On par with Nate’s or maybe a little better. Definitely a good bagel, but Cupertino’s/Bodos still take the trophies home in the Vanderbilt Virginia Bagel Cup.
I wish I understood the Bodo’s hype. It feels like they’re made to be enjoyed as bread for sandwiches. I can’t imagine eating one untoasted with cream cheese
A huge part of the Bodos hype comes from the overall experience, rather than just the bagel itself. Bodos will get through 100 customers in the time it takes Nate's to go through 10, and they're half the price of Nate's. That said, I go for the sandwiches, so you're probably right there.
As best I can tell - and I ate my share of Bodo’s while I was living there, but usually sandwiches, lol - the thing about being anti-toasting is that the bagels are so fresh you wouldn’t need them toasted. A lot of the bagel shops I’ve been to up in NY have a similar vibe, except they seem to take it as a slight if you want your bagel toasted. I worked at a bagel shop in Norfolk in high school (imo: Yorgo’s is not as good as Bodo’s, on par with Cupertino’s, significantly better than Nate’s, and I’ve not tried Chewy’s yet) and they do toast bagels, but very likely only because they don’t make them throughout the day. It all seems kinda silly to me - sometimes you just want a toasted bagel, and that’s totally fine - but there’s no explaining pride.
I have bagels brought down by folks from up north
There’s def something diff in water but sure can do a good bagel
The notion of water playing a role in bagel taste has been largely debunked.
Also for pizza I note
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If I’m eating a bagel in the morning, there isn’t a reason for it to not be freshly made. In my experience baking, bagels and other bread don’t have noticeable textural changes until they’ve been out for 5hrs. Nate’s does not toast any of their bagels, which makes it super obvious when they’re not fresh and sometimes I would suspect, from the day before. The last bakery I worked at had a man who would come in and ask us to microwave his croissant. A toasted bagel could never offend me after having to frequently torture a baked good in such a vile way.
A microwaved croissant? Holy smokes. That actually is a slight. Like, an affront to butter itself.
He might as well have been asking me to microwave one of my children, all the labor and love that goes into making a traditional croissant :(
Y THO
I cannot be made to understand.
He was probably sad our French pastries didn’t taste enough like a croissan'wich from Burger King
I toast but eat them with only cream cheese. Not at all a bagel sandwich guy, personally.
The boiling is where it’s at for me!
Chewy’s are slow proofed and kettleboiled too. Nice glassy exterior with a chewy but not dense interior
I've only had their retail (from Little Green Grocer) and those were not at all glassy exterior. I'm also the biggest fan of sourdough bagels.
Nate’s >>> Chewy’s
Have you tried Chewy's Bagels yet? IMO waaaaaay better than Nate's, though I haven't tried Bodos or Cupertino's so I'm not sure how they stack up.
I haven't had Chewy's. I should try them but what comes to mind with the name Chewy's is the petstore e-tailer haha.
You're not far off, the place is named after the owner's dog.
Not that it matters, but I'm an avowed Cupertino's stan. Chewy's is miles better than Nate's, though.
It's amazing to me that Chewy's bagels are more expensive than Essa-a-bagel on W 32nd street in New York City. It's an odd LCOL city item flipped on its head.
Because it's a specialty luxury item here and a run of the mill item in NYC
That's a reasonable way to think of it, and I'd think of them as a luxury item if they were the quality of an ess-a-bagel bagel.
ok, purporting to be a luxury item? I clearly need to try essa bagel. Had Russ and daughter bagel this summer, and it was really disappointing. I used to love H&H way back
I’m sure they are great but don’t sleep on the bagels trucked in from NYC by Europa on West Broad. The egg everything bagels are outstanding.
I was there a week ago and they were out of everything bagels. I should start calling daily...
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I get a bag of bagels there every week. IMO better than Bodos if you follow the heating instructions.
Wawa is better than Bodos, except according to anyone from Charlottesville
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I’ll have to try Europa, but your complaint is that Cupertinos isn’t fresh…but the bagels trucked in from NY are??
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That does, thanks! Love a good bagel so I will try to hit up Europa. Weird about Cupertinos that it sits out for so long. I love their sausage, egg, cheese on everything bagel. Don’t think I’ve had them plain so never noticed.
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I don’t know where you got that info from, but I am pretty sure they don’t sit out for 8-12 hours due to them being made overnight…. There hours wouldn’t allow that since they close at 130pm
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I have been in the store at 7am and all hours of the day because it’s one of my regular stops. They do have a baking shift overnight if i am not mistaken, but to claim they sit out for 8-12 hours is kinda wild, they don’t get set out at 7pm or even 11pm, they don’t even get all of them made before then I believe. Do you understand how quickly food cools down after baking? Sometimes I have things (not from here) be cool before I even get to my car in the parking lot.
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We can agree to disagree for sure, I know for a fact that they have someone in there making the bagels until at least 3am every morning. It’s the beat option around without having to drive hours. I’ve never had Bodo’s so I can’t speak on an issue about something I don’t know.
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I can mention it to the owner for sure 😁❤️ but I asbolutely do not work there, will never work in the food industry again
I like Cupertino’s a lot. Personally, I think Chewys is the best locally. Nate’s was okay until they took away my favorite cream cheese and kept serving me stale bagels of sadness!
Chewy's has my favorite bagel in town, and it's worth it to note the service there is incredibly fast and friendly. I could be in a 20 person line out the door on a Saturday morning and still be on my way in about 15 minutes at Chewy's. Nate's could never.
Color me crazy, but I like the bagels from Wegmans (the kind in the display boxes, not the prebagged stuff) better.
Wegman’s does a very good bagel. Not surprising since they are a NY-based company.
Oh yeah, for sure. And never a 55 minute wait.
Maybe I need to give Cupertino's another chance. Every time I have been the bagels were stale. Like left out on the kitchen table for 3 days stale.
I should give them a go as well. Tried to go a while back and their website said they were open but no lights on and the doors were still locked.
Don’t like bagels but this seems as good of a time as any to ask what the best place is in Richmond for a good biscuit?
probably a source of endless debate and this might not be the best answer, but i love the wavy gravy at the fancy biscuit
i don’t eat meat, so my options for biscuits and gravy are very limited, let alone a biscuit paired with anything at all. super filling, not too expensive, and good coffee too.
I really like the biscuits from early bird biscuit. They are my favorite in Richmond. I love their raspberry and rotating jellies so I only gotten a biscuit sandwich like once or twice there.
Early Bird is on top for sure. Great breakfast sandwiches and their homemade pop tarts are so damn good
Saison market
Southern biscuit company bag mix from the grocery store, make them with buttermilk. Add good crispy bacon, a runny yolk egg, and a slice of deli American cheese (no Kraft singles!)
Portland (I've come to the conclusion that the PNW is the only place for good biscuits and the south lost their touch)
This couldn’t be more false.
waiting to be proven wrong (also I know I'm being inflammatory with that comment, I like seeing people's reactions)
Lived in PDX for years. Pine state biscuits are fine but not worth any sort of line or wait. Had some of the worst southern food/grits in my entire life from screen door.
New Yorker who has eaten a metric ton of great bagels from Long Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan and NJ. Good bad and in-between. Cupertino’s works for us. Just ate one for breakfast. Would it survive in NY? Sure, would they be highly rated? Not really. Nate’s for a breakfast sandwich bagel I didn’t mind but not my go to. Will try Chewy’s for sure. Value matters to me as I will eat these by the dozen when I buy them so Chewy’s may be out.
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Food Lion blueberry bagels are the best. Let’s fight.
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diocboedskes t1_isz82ga wrote
It never ceases to amaze me how many people think Cupertino’s are real bagels. To me they’re on par with a Panera bagel. Chewy’s is the only good bagel in Richmond, with Nate’s somewhere in between (but Nate’s loses a lot of points for rudeness).