Bagels & Co

"Originally started as a pop-up, Rosen’s Bagel Co. started selling bagels at Brew and Brew, and eventually the bagels could be found at restaurants and coffee shops all over town. The brick and mortar location on Burnet Road, right by The Domain, evokes classic appetizing stores like Russ & Daughters Cafe in New York City with its cheerful lighting and white tiles. The traditional bagels here are among the best in Austin—slightly chewy, with a golden-brown and crisp outer crust—and like a proper bagel, they don’t need to be toasted (though you can get them toasted on request). Additionally, Rosen’s makes housemade cream cheese, schmears, lox, and whitefish salad for their bagels, (you can also get it all by the pound). Where Rosen’s truly shines, however, are the artfully composed bagel breakfast sandwiches, including the Classic Lox, the Not A Taco, and the Bodega Bagel. The espresso-based drinks here are pretty good, too. photo credit: Holly Dirks Food Rundown photo credit: Holly Dirks Rose N Shine Rosen’s basic bagel breakfast sandwich starts with a fried egg and Sunrise Sauce, a housemade spicy and citrus-y aioli. You can choose your cheese (american, swiss, etc) and protein (bacon, ham, sausage, etc.). You can also get avocado, but you definitely should get a crispy hashbrown. photo credit: Holly Dirks Classic Lox The Classic Lox at Rosen’s comes with the house-smoked and cured lox, tomato, onion, capers, and the star of the show, a schmear of lemon-basil cream cheese that you didn’t know needed to exist until you’ve had it. photo credit: Raphael Brion Not A Taco It’s a bagel in a breakfast taco town, but it’s doing its best to hang. Here you get a fried egg, chorizo, avocado, pickled red onion, and cilantro, all on a jalapeño cheddar bagel. It’s not a taco, but it works. photo credit: Raphael Brion Bodega Bagel The “Bodega Bagel”—with a fried egg, a slice of american cheese, and ketchup, all on a buttered poppy seed bagel that gets pressed and perfectly browned—tastes just like New York, but without the pigeons, the exorbitant rent, and the subways that may or may not come." - Raphael Brion