Mr. Bagel
601 Forest Avenue, Portland
775-0718
You can’t miss Mr. Bagel! Even if you’re flying down Forest Ave., your eyes will certainly be drawn to the giant plywood bagel guy on their building. A little forewarning, he’s serving up one seriously large-and-in-charge bagel, which he seems pretty happy about; what can I say, pal? The smile on his face is infectious; saddle up partner.
Wait, wait, wait… before we go in, there’s one more thing about the outside that’s pretty cool. You can see the bagels being made in the back through a big glass window on the front of the building. In other words, you can take a peek at what you eat. It’s as “free, free, free” as the bucket of hard candy on the counter when you walk in.
Now, I figured that if I were going to really test the bagel limits, I should hit ’em on a Sunday morning. So I did. Entrepreneurs of Portland unite! Rick Hartglass (Mr. Bagel himself) was sitting adjacent to Mr. Young of Young’s furniture. Mr. Hartglass was anything but stationary, though. He frequently got up to help out his bagel hawkers, taking turns at the cash register and refilling coffee during busy spells.
Amidst Mr. Bagel’s entourage of seventy-somethings was a little boy with cream cheese all over his face. He approached me to see if I shared any of his interests. “Do you have a skateboard? What about roller blades? What are you writing?” Needless to say, Mr. Bagel is for ages three to one hundred and three.
During the entire time that I sat and enjoyed my bagel, customers streamed through the door, and Mr. Bagel’s courteous service team pumped out bagel after bagel slathered in yummy cream cheese.
The girl who took my order was really nice and seemed somewhat amused at my indecision. Not only are there bagels, but croissants, cookies, muffins and cinnamon buns, too. Even when you stick to the bagel realm, it’s not altogether easy to choose between 15 types of bagels and 11 cream cheeses. Do the permutation: that’s 175 different bagel possibilities. Hope you’re hungry.
Let’s talk about my bagel for a minute. I don’t have much to say other than, “Yippee!” Does that sum it up? Let me elaborate…
The outside of my bagel was crunchy and the inside was warm and chewy, but not too chewy. The veggie cream cheese was full of more veggie action than any other I have experienced to date.
One more thing. How on Earth did they get so many toppings on my ‘everything’ bagel? And furthermore, how did they get some to stick on the underside. What an enigma, Mr. Bagel.
Speak of the Devil, his personage is the ambiance of this place. He’s up on the wall in a mural of various pictures with celebrities from Tom Brady to Bryant Gumbel. And what a songbird – he sang along at quite a volume to all the choruses of the oldies playing.
Mr. Bagel has been in business for over 25 years and has 13 franchise stores from Brunswick to Scarborough. Conveniently for you Gorhamites, there’s one right down the street there, too.
For such a unique atmosphere, Mr. Bagel, you deserve a 9. For hiring good service you get an 8. And for the best damn bagel in Portland, you get a 10 for food quality. You’re composite score is a 9.
Joe Reynolds can be contacted at [email protected]