Bagels Forever

Reconstructed from memory after we lost our notebook...
In a word: Good solid breakfasts for downtown-bound office drones; quite possibly the best real bagels in Madison.

The specs: #0019
Address, hours & details via Isthmus; reviews at Yelp, Hot Dog Chicago Style, Cap Times; Bagels Forever web site;

JM ate the ham-cheese breakfast bagel with an orange juice.
Nichole ate the bacon-cheese breakfast bagel with a coffee.
The bill (with a bag of 6 more bagels and cream cheese) was well under $10.
JM gave Bagels Forever a B; Nichole gave Bagels Forever an A- (see our grading rubric).

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We grabbed breakfast on the way to our house closing, so we were rushed, but the clerks were pretty quick. We couldn't resist ordering patently non-kosher sandwiches, which were decent. JM said they were no better than Burger King, but Nichole disagreed and thought more of them (for one thing, you can get "hole wheat" at Bagels Forever). The coffee was very good, but creamer was nowhere to be found.

JM always wants to know, "Why does Bagels Forever close?"

Nichole always feels a little weird about going to Bagels Forever because she used to buy three dozen bagels there at 6:40am once a week for a Jail Library Group fundraiser. Without fail, whether she called ahead or not, it was the same. She'd ask the clerk to slice the bagels. They'd say it was too early and the bagels were too hot and the slicer would smoosh them. She'd say she was willing to risk it. A bag of perfectly sliced, warm bagels would be forthcoming. Only the wimpy banana nut bagels would be even slightly smooshed. Repeat, 26 times in one year, with great success for Jail Library Group and satisfaction for hungry, sleepy library students.

Comments

[JoAnne]

"...quite possibly the best real bagels in Madison."

Real bagels? In Madison? Not a chance. Not since the Madison Bagel Company closed back around 1995 or 1996. That was probably before your time, though...

[nichole]

Yup, sure was. When we wrote this we had no idea of the partisanship bagels inspire (see also: the lengthy Gotham discussion on TDPF). That scared us off using the word "real" for just about anything....