There’s a new bagel joint in town, and it’s less than a mile from my house! And it’s from one of the people behind the excellent Pizza Bones in Church Hill.
I’m talking about Julio’s Bagels on Brookland Park Boulevard in the Northside. They just opened up on Tuesday, but I headed over this morning after a coworker told me about it last night. I stepped into the back of a healthy line around 8:06 (they opened at 8)and was out the door with my bagels at about 8:40. It’s a new shop, so I’m sure they’re sorting out production, but that’s the biggest difference between Richmond’s bagel shops and pretty much any generic place up north. Shops in NYC or Jersey are so fast they leave you wondering how folks make it through a shift without slicing off their fingers.
So the bagels? They made a great first impression. They were still warm (not toasted—I’m not an animal) when I got home. Valerie’s and my bagels were crisp on the outside, and dense yet chewy on the inside. I could taste that sourdough flavor on the interior (I would characterize it as “just right”), and there seemed to be maybe a little less salt on top (I had a salt bagel, duh) than I would prefer, but I already want to go back. These bagels strike a balance between the almost crunchy, more bready bagels of Chewy’s and the kinda dense pedestrian bagels of the tristate area (excluding the better examples which are in a league of their own). I think the size could be more consistent, but that can be worked out in time. This is a very promising start and can’t wait to give them a second try.
Bonus points: they’re using Recluse coffee. There’s a full service coffee bar at the counter, but I grabbed some cold brew this morning. Only after finishing half of this delicious cup while waiting on my order did I see the sign over a kegerator indicating it was a single-origin, natural process Honduran coffee. Dang! Great stuff. Tasty bagels and coffee in the same spot, so close to home? Sign me up.