OT: Best Bagel in CT

[8893]

Growing up in Connecticut everything on long bread was called a grinder.

Same here. Chicken parm grinder, cold cut grinder, etc.

Although the lingo may have differed if ordering at Subway.

When I lived in New Jersey briefly in middle school, it was all hoagies.

 

[storrsroars]

Jersey has the best bagels. If you ever find yourself in South Orange, NJ. Go to Sonny's bagels. Same bagel recipe for the past 80 years (Watson bagels in Newark.)

I have to agree - NJ has some good ones. Mostly just south/west of Newark, but also down Princeton way. Timmy's in Manalapan has good bagels, bialys and a highly addictive tuna spread.

We have a bakery here that does a reasonable facsimile of NY water bagels, but since I no longer travel regularly to NJ, for the real article I now have to wait till Christmas visit to SIL's and the annual visit to Ben's Kosher in Carle Place.

 

[huskyjawz]

I second the Bagel King nomination

Third.

It's all about the bubbly, crispy outside.

 

[Guapo]

Via Corner Grinder on Franklin Ave; everything is a grinder hot or cold:

Grinders – Corner Grinder

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Go to Trader Joe's and get this stuff. Then you can order any kind of bagel you want and customize your "Everything" to your liking. Also, since you can put it inside a bagel sandwich or stuck to the cream cheese or butter when open faced, eating is a lot less messy of an endeavor. It's great. Looks like you can get it online at a few places if you don't have a Trader Joe's.

Are you suggesting we become the kind of person that brings their own condiments (and seasoning) to a restaurant? No thank you, sir.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

I only get the everything bagel if I'm having it as an egg sandwich. Then it's just enough salt. On its own, though, I agree

I used to live in Danbury with my parents but I'm now in the city about a 10 minute walk from Ess-a-bagel, so to be honest, I now have absolutely zero desire to ever return to bagelman. They're not bad for CT though.

 

[huskyjawz]

It’s hard to find even great nyc bagels. They are there but not ubiquitous. Forget bialys which are the best thing ever, but practically extinct

Kossar's on Grand St., only real bialy on the planet.

 

[Chuck]

Are you suggesting we become the kind of person that brings their own condiments (and seasoning) to a restaurant? No thank you, sir.

Not sure I've eaten a bagel in a real bagel place in years. Wouldn't be the same if it wasn't wrapped in wax paper (foil if it's a hot sandwich) and eaten at home, my office (or in the car). That being said, I'm absolutely the kind of person who takes condiments from a restaurant for my office, so I wouldn't look down on bringing condiments either!

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Couldn't be further off base. Most bagels stink, there are even fewer places that truly do bagels right than there are pizza places that do it right. A true NJ bagel is nothing like the soft bready cr@p you get at most places.

Your first two sentences are on the money. Whether NJ bagels are superior to my favorites in Manhattan, Queens, and Nassau County, I don't know.

 

[JMick]

Growing up in Connecticut everything on long bread was called a grinder.

I grew up here too and have heard both used interchangeably, both in speech and on menus.

 

[August_West]

Celebrity Bagels in Tenafly is worth the trip

my hometown through elementary school

Brookside Bagels in Simsbury is very good.

my hometown through high school


So why is it that I live in the lower CT river valley Bagel wasteland now?

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Jersey has good bagels. Ramapo Valley bagels has a killer sandwich:

Ah, you feel the ol' arteries hardening just looking at it. Used to hit this place before AAU tournaments. Kept you going for a whole day of games.

Luckily for my diet, the gas line replacement along Ramapo Valley Road is keeping me away. Plus, there's no parking and its nearly impossible to take a left coming out.

 

[husky429]

Brookside Bagels in Simsbury is very good. Same with Bagel Chalet in Avon.

Brookside is exceptional when they are on point. Ive ordered the same thing there probably 100x growing up and now visiting my parents on weekends.

Quality of the exact same order varies greatly. Can be out of this world delicious, down to nearly inedible or somewhere in between on any given day.

 

[methodology]

Subs and Grinders are interchangeable in CT. It's never a hoagie though

What about a wedge?

It's always a grinder. Hot/ cold doesn't matter if it comes on Italian bread

 

[methodology]

Taylor Ham (not Pork Roll!), Egg and Cheese. Classic New Jersey. One of the places in my town puts a hashbrown on the bagel sandwich to add a bit more clogging power. I need to go back and look at the diet thread so I don't run over and get a sandwich now!

My go to breakfast sandwich is bacon/ egg/ cheese topped with home fries on a hard roll. It has to be legit home fries none of that bs potato wedges called home fries. Then some hot sauce

 

[businesslawyer]

It’s hard to find even great nyc bagels. They are there but not ubiquitous. Forget bialys which are the best thing ever, but practically extinct

Fully agree as to bialys. Whomever does the bagel platters for our firm on Friday actually includes two bialys most weeks which I get in early to make sure I get one of. I should find out who makes it. (Not that I need a second one a week.)

 

[businesslawyer]

I remember when Lender's bagels was a one store retail bakery. Great bagels then, water bagels at it's best. Now the are all over the country and are garbage. Come to the coast in Oregon and I'll make you a true NY style water bagel.

The place in Hamden? Used to have breakfast there occasionally in the 80s when in law school. Even then, their bagels sucked compared to what I grew up with in Westchester.

 

[businesslawyer]

I second the Bagel King nomination

Bagel King, without a doubt, are the best bagels I've had in my 40 years in the state. Not counting NY bagels driven up daily.

 

[Danzz]

They are a goldmine in town. Always busy. Place is packed on Saturdays.

You can't get in the door on Sundays.

 

[Old school]

Fancy bagels in southington.

 

[storrsroars]

What about a wedge?

It's always a grinder. Hot/ cold doesn't matter if it comes on Italian bread

From The Origin of Hoagies, Grinders, Subs, Heroes, and Spuckies

But the weirdest-sounding of all has to be "wedge," which is only familiar to natives of Westchester County, NY, and Fairfield County, CT, the two counties directly north of New York City. Some sources group it in with the shape-names, based on a diagonal cut in the middle of the sandwich, or a wedge cut out of the top half to make more room for fillings, but the real story's probably the simplest on this list: "wedge" is just short for "sandwich," and comes from a Yonkers deli whose Italian owner got tired of saying the whole word.
​

I remember when I first encountered Subway, their stores used a wedge cut and I didn't understand why they didn't call those wedges.

 

[whaler11]

Bagels, like lobster rolls, pizza and beer, are pretty easy to make.

As the next 37 pages will demonstrate, it's not hard to find a good one anywhere.

yet people brag about drinking Rolling Rock...

 

[August_West]

yet people brag about drinking Rolling Rock...

Miller lite?

 

[businesslawyer]

From The Origin of Hoagies, Grinders, Subs, Heroes, and Spuckies

But the weirdest-sounding of all has to be "wedge," which is only familiar to natives of Westchester County, NY, and Fairfield County, CT, the two counties directly north of New York City. Some sources group it in with the shape-names, based on a diagonal cut in the middle of the sandwich, or a wedge cut out of the top half to make more room for fillings, but the real story's probably the simplest on this list: "wedge" is just short for "sandwich," and comes from a Yonkers deli whose Italian owner got tired of saying the whole word.
​

I remember when I first encountered Subway, their stores used a wedge cut and I didn't understand why they didn't call those wedges.

In the 70s, in Westchester, wedges was the only proper term. I didn't know what a hoagie or a grinder was until I showed up at Trinity for college.

 

[whaler11]

Miller lite?

Miller Lite is excellent. It both tastes great and is less filling.

The type of beer enjoyed by the cismales who built this country.

 

[crazyUCfan23]

Bagel man in Danbury has great breakfast sandwiches.

 

[Purple Stein]

Lox Stock is very good. Their Steak and cheese bagel sandwich is bomb.

I’m a Lox Stock regular - cheddar bagel with jalapeño cream cheese OMG...

 

[Devland]

Subs and Grinders are interchangeable in CT. It's never a hoagie though

Before I moved to CT I never heard of a sandwich called a grinder. It was always a hoagie or sub. When someone asked me if I wanted a grinder I got a little nervous.

 

[Mano]

Am I the only one who doesn't much care about bagels? I'm half Italian and I've never understood the obsession with bread in general for that matter.

 

[JMick]

Am I the only one who doesn't much care about bagels? I'm half Italian and I've never understood the obsession with bread in general for that matter.

I like a good bagel, but I am not that crazy about them either. I'd rather have an egg sandwich on a hard roll. Or even better, on everything-styled rye bread