Jannah loves brunch more than I do, but I am and always have been a breakfast guy. It’s hard for me to not pick bagel places as my top choices for breakfast, but give me the fried eggs, toast, crispy bacon and perfect grits at EggTown (photo) over the other places on this list, all of which are worth visiting.
1. EggTown
2. Brunchie’s
3. Zio’s NY Bagel & Deli
4. Brooklyn Water Bagel Co.
5. Happy Hangar Café
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.
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.
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.
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.
When I lived in New York City in the early 1980s, the two most iconic Jewish delicatessens in Manhattan were the Stage Deli, which closed for good in 2012, and the Carnegie Deli, which permanently closed its doors at the end of 2016. The two delis, which also were bitter rivals, were located about a block from each other on 7th Ave., near Carnegie Hall, and both were known for their huge, overstuffed sandwiches, weighing in at a pound of meat each.
I thought both famous eateries were gone forever; that is, until Wesley Chapel Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. franchise owner Daniel Kurland told me that all 16 or so of the locations in the Florida-based chain were replacing their existing deli lunch sandwich meats with authentic corned beef and pastrami (and a few other items shown on this page) from the wholesale distributor that has stayed in business since the Carnegie Deli closed.
“Brooklyn Water Bagels even tried to get an exclusive,” Kurland says. “Our corporate entity wanted our stores to be the only places you could get these authentic Carnegie Deli items, including corned beef, pastrami, potato knishes, cheesecake, sour Kosher pickles and even mustard.”
But, Kurland added, “We were told that there were delis and restaurants all over the country, many in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, where the first Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. locations opened, which already were buying these items from the Carnegie Deli wholesale distributor. They had to be grandfathered into our agreement with Carnegie.”
So, while it’s not the only place in the U.S. where you can sample these items that I loved so much when I lived in Manhattan, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is one of very few places on the west coast of Florida, and is certainly the only place in Wesley Chapel, where you can buy them.
And, because the Carnegie Deli was famous for its 1-lb. sandwiches, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. today offers the (pictured above) Manhattan Combo sandwich — with 1-lb. total of Carnegie Deli corned beef and pastrami, on authentic Jewish-style rye bread (or your choice of bagel) with Carnegie mustard (which also is available for purchase in a squeeze bottle), or the also-popular 1000 Island dressing. No, there’s no steamer “drawers” keeping the moisture (and heat) in the meats before they are piled into your sandwich, but otherwise, they are very much the same tasty (albeit fairly fatty, yum!) deli meats I remember from New York City.
There’s also The Manhattan sandwich, which offers 1-lb. of your choice of corned beef or pastrami, as well as the Half-Pounder Deli sandwich, which has just 1/2-lb. of your choice of corned beef or pastrami, for you lightweights. There’s even The Reuben, which features corned beef or pastrami with sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese, with mustard or 1000 Island dressing on toasted rye.
And, considering that a Jewish deli sandwich would never be complete without a Kosher sour pickle, Brooklyn Water Bagel’s Carnegie Deli sandwiches are all served with a matching Carnegie pickle.
But Wait, There’s More!
Growing up, I was never the biggest fan of potato knishes — which, at most delis, are either square or round single-serving “pies” with a dough crust, stuffed with uniquely seasoned mashed potatoes — but for those of you who crave them, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. also offers Carnegie Deli’s round (only) knishes, that are very much like the ones we got at our local deli in Woodmere, Long Island. The knishes are especially delish with the Carnegie mustard, too.
And, you can even finish off your meal with a nice-sized slab of Carnegie Deli cheesecake, which is a creamy, yet dense dessert which is offered with a cherry sauce either poured over it or on the side.
And, don’t forget that Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. also has a delicious roast turkey, bacon and avocado wrap, tuna, egg, chicken and even whitefish salad sandwiches (all of the creamy salad options are available for to-go sale in tubs) and, oh yeah, a huge variety (at least dozen or more different kinds, from standard plain, sesame and everything to more exotic types, like Black Russian with seeds) kettle-boiled-then-baked fresh bagels and pick-your-own fillings omelettes that are available for breakfast or lunch anytime you visit. The smoked Nova Scotia salmon is authentic, too, and also is available for sale in packages, as are a variety of different types of cream cheese.
And, just in case you’re not a cheesecake fan, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. has a great variety of other outstanding desserts, most of which (not including the authentic Jewish rugelach pastries) are made in-store, using the franchise’s “Brooklynized” water.
The black & white cookies are the best in the area, the chewy chocolate chip cookies have huge chocolate chunks and the house-baked muffins include blueberry, chocolate chip, apple cinnamon and banana nut.
And, if you love delicious coffee, Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. has the best hot and cold coffee in town, at least in my opinion. Its Brooklyn Water Coffee Roasters is its in-house micro-roaster, roasting its coffee in small batches (never larger than 90 lbs. at a time), and purchases only beans that are rated 80 points or higher by the Specialty Coffee Association of America (or in the top 3% of coffee in the world). My favorite available-all-year-‘round variety is the Brooklyn Infusion, with Kahlua, caramel and sweet vanilla flavors, but the seasonal Winter Wonderland blend, with white chocolate, caramel and hints of coconut also is amazing, although Kurland says it will be gone by the spring.
Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. (27835 Wesley Chapel Blvd., Suite 101) is open every day, 6 a.m.-3 p.m. For more information, visit BrooklynWaterBagel.com, call (813) 775-2275 or see the ad on pg. 34 of our latest Wesley Chapel issue to receive a free bagel just for stopping by.