The Lady is a Champ

This morning I spent time with a new lady and things are getting serious. Let me tell you all about her!

The Bagel Lady is in Rockwall Texas and I’ve been hearing about it for a while so decided to stop by and check them out on my way to work today. The first thing you notice when you walk in is that it’s very much a place with ‘regulars’ who ‘hang out’. Everyone else who came in seemed to be greeted by name, and there was an older gentleman sitting on a seat by a table talking to everyone. This man just had a knee operation recently, and it’s doing a lot better. Not 100% yet, but much better than it was! This man used to double date with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. This man used to be a musician and had long hair back in the day, but never a ponytail as he never cared for ponytails on men. This man has a work wife at Bagel Lady who, according to her, probably gives him more grief than his actual wife. According to this man, this place has the best bagels around, just like when he used to live in New York. I know you’re all thinking I had a very in depth, detailed conversation with this man. I never spoke to this man once the whole time I was there. These are all things I just learned about him by osmosis! But these are the kinds of people who frequent this place. We used to call them “characters”. If you ask me, there is a tragically short supply of “characters” in the world anymore. I think social media as distilled everyone down to the same basic baseline of person and has made everyone really boring now, but that’s a theory for a different discussion. This is clearly the kind of place that people talk about when they say “Remember that place years ago where everyone know everyone and it was like a second home?” I immediately felt welcome and it was a great atmosphere.

They don’t just sell bagel sandwiches, they also sell a variety of pastries and desserts, including my favorite, Baklava! I went to the counter to order and didn’t look at the menu, I just asked what I should get. He recommended the Egganator or the Eggxcite or Eggpocalypse or whatever it’s called, the sausage egg and cheese bagel. He also recommended the pastrami sandwich, which the character older gentleman immediately opined about, saying it is outstanding. I decided to try both sands.

While waiting for my food, I was greeted by the owner who I know had to be the owner because I could immediately tell she was very New York, and very Jewish, and that’s one of my favorite combinations of people. Like I said, I like “characters” .My sands came out shortly and they both look good, the pastrami actually looked amazing. I decided to try the Eggscellent sand first and it was good. Honestly didn’t knock my socks off, but the bagel was delicious. I got it on a garlic bagel and it was very fresh and lovely. It was around this point where the older gentleman hollered across the room to ask me if that pastrami was delicious like he said! I told him I’m about to find out… I tried the pastrami sand and holy S. This is a damn good sand! I got the asiago bagel on this one and it was perfect. The pastrami was flavorful and the mustard/sauerkraut combo was delicious. One thing about me, I’ve never been a bagel guy which is why it’s taken me this long to check this place out. What I learned today is, I just don’t like the bagels you buy in bags at the Walmart. I’ll eat THESE all day long and twice on Sunday. Not on Saturday though because they’re closed for Shabbat.

It was a great experience, great atmosphere, interesting people, and I expect I will patronize this establishment enormously in the future! This is a unique place. I drive all over this city looking for places like this. The fact that it’s so close, in Rockwall, is a blessing. Not many places like this around and it’s beautiful. Don’t waste it. Do not sleep on the Bagel Lady. Neither figuratively or literally!

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