Tag: brooklyn water bagel

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. Adds Even More Lunch Options!

Although Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is a small chain of 24 locations in six states (the majority of which are located in Florida, including the original location in Delray Beach), local franchise owner Daniel Kurland takes great pride in his restaurant, the service he provides and the company’s growing menu.

Brooklyn Water Bagel has been open on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel, just west of I-75 (at the front of The Grove at Wesley Chapel’s property) since 2021 and since then, Daniel says, his breakfast business has been booming. After all, Brooklyn Water Bagel’s kettle-boiled-then-baked bagels (and other baked goods) are made with water that is “Brooklynized” on the premises to give them that authentic New York-bagel taste.

But, since all Brooklyn Water Bagel locations are open for both breakfast and lunch, the company has been working on expanding its lunch menu and Daniel recently invited the Neighborhood News to come sample the new options.

He says the best seller of the new menu selections has been the Little Italy bagel sandwich — made with salami, capicola and ham with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, banana peppers and vinaigrette dressing. It’s like an Italian sub but on your choice of Brooklyn Water Bagel’s dozen+ bagel varieties.

My favorite new item, however, is the new bagel dog, a premium beef hot dog (or chicken sausage) that is wrapped in bagel dough, topped with everything seeds and served with spicy mustard and sauerkraut (which honestly, is the only way to eat a hot dog, in one reporter’s opinion). The menu doesn’t call the hot dog “Kosher” or even “Kosher style,” but at Jewish delis in my native New York, we would have called it a “special,” or oversized hot dog, and the flavor is definitely Kosher-style.

Photographer Charmaine George also enjoyed the new spicy grilled chicken sandwich (right), which is topped with bacon, pepper jack cheese, pickle slices, lettuce, tomato and spicy mayo. It is served on a club roll or the bagel of your choice.

Charmaine and I also enjoyed the new club melt sandwich, which is served open-faced and combines warm ham, turkey and bacon with melted Swiss cheese, tomato, onion and butter on the bagel or bread of your choice.

All of these lunch sandwiches also are served with an authentic deli-style sour pickle.

*The new pastrami, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich was a hit with our editor.*

And, for you salad lovers, Brooklyn Water Bagel has now added a new cobb salad, with ham, turkey, bacon, egg and shredded cheese with grape tomatoes served atop a bed of tasty greens.

Of course, there’s also still delicious corned beef, pastrami (either of which are available as Reuben sandwiches), roasted turkey and chicken, tuna, egg or whitefish salad sandwiches on your choice of bread or as wraps. And yes, there is even a pretty authentic-tasting matzo ball soup, offered as a cup with one matzo ball, as well as in combination with a variety of different sandwiches.

New Breakfast Items, Too…

The new menu options available at Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. aren’t only for lunch. First of all, the entire menu is available for breakfast or lunch, which itself is great news.

However, for those looking for something more than the usual smoked salmon and cream cheese (it’s called The Williamsburg there) and egg, bacon (or Taylor ham) and cheese bagel sandwiches, there is now a new corned beef “hash” sandwich with a hash brown, plus corned beef, egg and American cheese, as well as pastrami, egg and cheese sandwiches. There’s even The Greenpoint sandwich with egg whites, spinach, mushroom and Swiss on a scooped bagel.

*There’s no better way to top off a great meal than with a delicious S’mores bagel and a Cubsta iced coffee drink.*

Save room for dessert, because not only does Brooklyn Water Bagel still have the most authentic (and decadent) black & white and chewy chocolate chip cookies in our area, a variety of fresh-baked muffins (including a new orange cranberry option), and flaky rugelach pastries, it also now offers a scrumptious, open-faced S’mores bagel with Nutella spread and toasted marshmallows (right).

And yes, I still love Brooklyn Water Bagel Co.’s delicious coffee blends, especially the Brooklyn Infusion blend (with vanilla, caramel and Kahlua flavors) and the new Hanna Banana blend, which is available for the spring only. If you don’t see a coffee flavor you want, you can add shots of U-Bet chocolate syrup, vanilla and a variety of other flavors. For you iced coffee lovers, check out the “Cubsta” iced coffee, available with coffee-flavored ice cubes.

You can even take out bulk bagels, large-size cream cheese spreads and pre-packaged tuna, egg, chicken and whitefish salad.

Brooklyn Water Bagel (27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd., Suite 101 (next to King of the Coop), is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. For more info or to place an order, call (813) 775-2275, or visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com.

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. — Legit Bagels, Delicious Coffee & More

As a native New Yorker raised on bagels and lox (aka smoked salmon) and bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches, but who has been living on the west coast of Florida since 1993, one of the hardest things for me to find in our area has been true, New York-style kettle-boiled-then-baked bagels that tasted anything like those I had been enjoying since I was a child.

Yes, there is a place in North Tampa, another in Clearwater and one in Brandon, but until recently, no such “legit” bagel place has existed in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel.

Daniel Kurland is a New Jersey native who first moved to the east coast of Florida and was living in Vero Beach when he first tried a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. bagel.

“I grew up on bagels,” Daniel says. “Every town in New Jersey had a couple of bagel places. But, when I moved to Florida, it was hard to find good bagels.”

Daniel says he was a steady customer of the Vero Beach Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. before he moved to near Wesley Chapel three years ago and says, “I was shocked by the lack of not only good bagel places, but of breakfast places in general. Not even a Denny’s or an IHOP.”

So, Daniel, who has had many previous careers, including a “dot com” business that he sold. He owned and operated a bar in Ft. Lauderdale before moving to Vero.

“Owning a bar, I liked being part of the community and I was looking for that feel again,” he says, when he found what he believed to be a perfect location for a Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., on S.R. 54, just west of I-75, in an existing strip center at the front of developer Mark Gold’s fast-developing Grove property.

OK, Let’s Talk Food!

Daniel says that the thing he first liked about Brooklyn water Bagel Co. was the fact that just about everything is made in-house, using water that is “Brooklynized” right in the store.

“We use the water to not only make the bagels, but also our coffee (more on that below) and our desserts (ditto),” he says. “I really think it makes a difference,” and the location’s growing roster of regular customers seems to agree with him.

“Our most popular ‘regular flavors’ of bagels are probably the everything and plain,” he says. “If we ever run out of those, we might as well close our doors.”

And, while my personal favorite Brooklyn Water Bagels are the Black Russian (pumpernickel) with (sesame) seeds and the white sesame and poppy seed varieties, Daniel says that there are a few other flavors he can rotate in and out.

For example, although he always has cinnamon raisin bagels in his bagel bins, he recently has been selling cinnamon crunch bagels that are proving to be pretty popular, and others like blueberry and egg that can be rotated into the selection. “We’ll even do an olive cream cheese in the spring.”

My favorites at Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. are the “Williamsburg,” with authentic Nova Scotia-style smoked salmon, cream cheese and tomato (I hold the onion it comes with) or a bacon, egg & cheese on a double-toasted bagel. But, Daniel says the “not-spicy” chorizo sausage sandwich shown below is among his favorites, as are the made-to-your specifications fluffy omelettes next to the chorizo sandwich above. Photographer Charmaine George added spinach, mushrooms and bacon to that omelette, which was served with two crispy hash brown “cakes.”

Also available are the “Brooklyn,” with bacon, sausage and ham, eggs and cheese, and the “Jersey Boy,” with Taylor ham, eggs and cheese. There’s also a “Greenpoint” with scrambled egg whites, spinach, mushroom and Swiss on a scooped, toasted whole wheat bagel. You can even get fresh avocado on a bagel.

Lunch, Coffee & Dessert!

The lunch menu is limited to tasty NY-style basics — a corned beef Reuben (with sauerkraut, Swiss and 1000 Island or spicy mustard on rye), a turkey or pastrami Reuben (with the same toppings) called “Rachel,” and tuna and chicken salad melts. I have tried all but the chicken salad and so far, so delicious.

I’ve also made my own sandwich from the Brooklyn Sandwich Board with corned beef and pastrami, although there’s also house-roasted chicken and even whitefish salad. Charmaine also enjoyed the roasted chicken, bacon & avocado wrap above.

Don’t miss the beverages, either. I’m kind of addicted to the Brooklyn Infusion coffee, flavored with vanilla, caramel and Kahlua, although there also are dark and medium roasts, as well as decaf and pumpkin spice varieties. The same flavors are available cold, too, as iced coffee “Cubstas,” and there’s also CinnaBuzz coffee with extra caffeine. There’s even actual coffee-flavored ice cubes at the coffee bar and fans of authentic egg creams will find New York’s beloved Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup and soda fountain seltzer.

The decadent dessert options include legit black-&-white and chewy chocolate chunk cookies, plus house-baked muffins, in flavors like cookies & cream and a mixed-nut “stud muffin.” Daniel says the only dessert items not baked in-house are the variety of different rugelach, a rolled Jewish-origin pastry available in chocolate, cinnamon, apricot and other flavors.

Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is located at 27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54), Suite 101 (next to the new King of the Coop chicken). It is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. To place an order or for more information, call (813) 775-2275 or visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com.

brooklyn water bagel

It’s All About The Water At New Bagel Company

Another small (20-store), but growing chain is the Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., which opened a couple of weeks ago in the plaza just west of the intersection of S.R. 54 (aka Wesley Chapel Blvd.) & I-75 — and, for me, it is the New York-style breakfast (and lunch) place people in our area have been hoping would open here for a long time.

Local franchise owner Daniel Kurland says the key to everything made fresh at the Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is the “Brooklynized in Wesley Chapel” water, which is a filtration and mineral-adding system that makes our local water taste much better.

“We even use this great-tasting Brooklynized water in our soda machine and coffee,” Kurland says. “Come on in and taste it for yourself!”

All I can say, after two weeks in business, is that the bagels are “legit” and kettle-boiled before they area baked, and the bacon, egg & cheese (top right, with a seeded “Black Russian” bagel) and Nova Scotia salmon (top left) bagel sandwiches definitely taste authentic.

The omelets are huge and fluffy (and served with crisp hash brown “cakes”) and the selection of hot and cold coffee (served at a coffee station, top center) is amazing!

Try the “Brooklyn Infusion,” which combines vanilla, caramel and Kahlua flavors. There’s even a coffee-flavored ice cube dispenser for you iced coffee fans!

The Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. (27835 WC Blvd., # 101) is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. For more info, visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com or call (813) 775-2275 — GN