Saturday, June 22, 2013

Brooklyn Water Bagel…




As promised, my review of the newest, most cutting edge franchise in Framingham…”Brooklyn Water Bagel”...a name as obnoxious as its homeland…

With apologies to my New York City-bred friends, why is it that nowhere else has anything as good as in New York City?  Why are we always being force-fed the idea that you can only get the “best” in NYC?  Just ask any person from NYC, and they’ll tell you that they have the best “X”…the best pizza, the best bagels, the best Chinese food…apparently NYC is the best of everything…I’ve been there, and have to agree…it has the best terrible traffic, the best homeless panhandlers, the best filth on the streets, and the best worst smelling areas.  And you have Donald Trump.  Ok, I’ll give you your due…I love my New York friends, but you can have the rest of it…

Brooklyn Water Bagel (“BWB”) is the most recent outpost of a small franchise system, touting that boiling the bagels in Brooklyn water is what makes New York bagels taste great.  Its sub-slogan is “it’s all about the water”.   They claim to have a patented system that replicates the chemical make-up of Brooklyn water (let me guess, New York invented H20…) and the pH balance of water (recently, as a result of a lawsuit, the franchisor changed to only claiming that is has a trade secret relating to the water).  I’ll tell you, they’re full of “water”…

Walking in to the new Framingham location, you can tell that a lot of money has been dumped in to the location.  With a sort of “brick house” feel, with real and faux brick inside, as well as a viewing area where you might occasionally find the staff mixing bagel dough, this was a costly build-out.  There is a large beverage station to the far right, including a variety of different syrups and flavorings to add to beverages, but the bulk of the area is seating.

Let’s get right to it…how do the bagels taste?  Let me tell you…like bagels.  I have tried salt, everything, pumpernickel, sesame, egg and plain bagels, and you know, they taste like salt, everything, pumpernickel, sesame, egg and plain bagels, just like I would buy at Finagle a Bagel, Stop & Shop, Roche Brothers, BJ’s and Costco.  And let me also tell you, for the premium price, you should be getting premium taste.  I’ll get to the bagel sandwich in a minute, but a dozen of the bland bad boys will set you back 12 dollars.  To their credit, they give you premium freezer bags.  But, go to BJ’s, and you can get 27 fresh baked bagels for the same 12 dollars…just “food” for thought.

Obviously, BWB’s money is made on their breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches, and for you, dear readers, I’ve sampled a few.  I’ve had a reuben, a tuna melt, turkey and egg and cheese.  I’ve attached a few pictures…
Nice packaging!  I always like a nice package.

Turkey, lettuce and tomato on Sesame


Giant, bladder busting ice coffee, with ice coffee cubes!

Tuna melt-inside of bagel scooped out, appropriately melty
but missing some of the carb-goodness.
Decent quality tuna.


They have great take-out packaging.  The wrap the sandwich tightly, then put it in a box that is reminiscent of a McDonald’s Big Mac box.  If the sandwich was supposed to be warm, it was still warm by the time I got back to the office.  I give them points on the packaging, which must cost them a small fortune in franchise fees…

One peeve I have at any chain…inconsistency.  The very nature of a chain and a franchise is consistency…what you order at a Subway in California should be exactly the same at a Subway in Massachusetts.  So, too, for BWB, but this place can’t even be consistent from visit to visit.  One day we went for lunch and my bagel sandwich came with a pickle.  The next time, no pickle but a small container of potato salad, but my dining companion that day got nothing…so on and so on, each time we went.  It doesn’t make sense…For an average of $7.95 for a sandwich on a bagel, it should come with a side, and someone to feed it to you.  Instead, sometimes you get a pickle, other times not.  I wish I could give it a more fabulous review, but when your featured item (the bagel!) is the most-bland part of the sandwich, there’s some work to be done.

It’s not all bad, and I really do hope they thrive…I know that it’s become a bit of a meeting place around town, which is good, and there’s really only one other traditional bagel shop in town, and I wouldn’t go there on a bet.  Also, it does have an interesting spin on iced coffee.  BWB features a drink called the “Cubsta” (pronounced “cube-stah”).  This is regular iced coffee served over ice cubes made from ice coffee, so no watered down back-wash at the end.  An interesting idea, but its iced coffee isn’t even as good as DD, and you all know how I feel about double D…

For now, I’ll give it a qualified fork up.  I think they need to tweak their recipes, but more importantly, their prices.  The got the texture thing down, so let’s work on consistency…

Until next time America…have a bagel and a schmear.