Freshly baked bagels and 12 varieties of cream cheese are available just down the street at Bagel Café 21, with an excellent drink selection to complement a toasted breakfast meal.
Bagel Café 21 is located on Campbell and Coit, just about a 15 minute walk from campus proper and less than a five minute drive. It’s located in the same strip mall as Jersey Mike’s, and in the same parking lot as Whataburger and the Bike Mart (formerly the Richardson Bike Mart). The indoor seating area is small, but as the second summer ends and winter approaches, the outdoor seating area will start to feel nice as well. It’s generally open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and provides a nice close-to-campus early morning option with its fast service.
The cafe’s namesake offering comes in multiple varieties, ranging from the classic everything bagel to sweeter options like the cinnamon sugar bagel and savory ones such as bacon cheddar. Even their plain bagels come with a twist on the weekends: they’ve got rainbow colored bagels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a pop of color to go with the customer’s favored cream cheese spread. This too comes with multiple good options, with the garlic and herb spread and the lox spread being standout cream cheeses. The lox spread comes pretty close to replicating a regular lox bagel with salmon, and the garlic and herb spread just seems like an enhanced standard cream cheese. Moreover, they also offer multiple bagel sandwiches both breakfast and lunch themed.
For coffee, it’s both good and cost-efficient. You won’t pay any more than two to four dollars for any normal coffee, and the specialty horchata, matcha, and chai drinks cap out around seven bucks. In essence, unless you want a milkshake, the drink prices are comparable to Starbucks while being of higher quality. The matcha and horchata drinks aren’t the pinnacle of greatness but are serviceable options that are close to home.
Like this review, any visit to Bagel Café 21 will be best as a short and sweet one: a quick stop before a morning class for any one of the excellent freshly baked options. And there’s fridges with grab and go drinks if you REALLY can’t wait. Bagel Café 21 provides a perfect place to get a bagel to go with your fix.