Bagel on Damen

I stumbled on this gem while on an afternoon shopping excursion in Wicker Park, at 1252 N Damen Ave. Real boiled bagels, delicious soups, gratis cucumber water, and most importantly Stump Town coffee. I am eagerly anticipating my next visit!

Bagel on Damen
1252 N. Damen
Chicago, IL 60622
773-772-2243

is this place associated with the extremely expensive and sub-par Bagel on broadway or are they just basically the same name?

I don't think they're related to The Bagel on Broadway. Bagel on Damen gets their bagels from NYB&B on Touhy. They do feature Stumptown coffee, though, but even great coffee is sub-par when made by a terrible barista.

I don't think it is affiliated. One Yelp review says that their bagels are from New York Bagel Bialy. Many reviews say service is very, very slow.

Here is their menu from their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/notes/bagel-on- ... 1781060988

The Bagel on Damen is run by the guy who used to own Rockstar Dogs on Ashland (alas, no stripper pole this time).
Much like Birchwood Kitchen, its a casual place that is clearly run by industry vets. Nevertheless, the operation is not as smooth as one might hope.
Bagels are good, I mean, they're from NYB&B, how could they not be?
The much-hyped cream cheeses didn't blow me away - white truffle and pine nut just wasn't super flavorful. Olive was quite tasty, though.
The Stumptown coffee is great, by any reasonable person's coffee standards, but I'm sure the baristas at the actual PDX cafes (or our very own Intelligentsia baristas) would be aghast to find the coffee sitting on a heating element, rather than freshly made.

DH and I went there on Saturday.
We like to give restaurants some leeway as far as getting out the kinks shortly after opening, but we were so disappointed that we won't be back.

We were told the wait for bagel sandwiches was 20 minutes, so we decided to just have bagels and with cream cheese. We come to find out that the wait for a toasted bagel (with cream cheese, but you apply the cream cheese yourself) is also 20 minutes. Really, they need 20 minutes to toast a bagel and put it in a bag. There were definitely a bunch of people waiting, but maybe 8 parties or 2....maybe. Do they only have 1 two-slotted toaster???
Our bill was $25 and change. We got 2 coffees, 2 untoasted (uncut) bagels (one plain and one sesame), 2 small containers of cream cheese and a bag of beans. The beans were $13, for less than a pound, maybe half a pound? The bagels were hard and chewy, and not in a good way and we are both bagel lovers. All the cream cheese is self-serve (even for eating in) and you pick your little container out of a fridge and bring it to the counter when you pay. We both had the truffle and pine nut cream cheese, which is $1.69 for each teeny container of the stuff. It was good, but nothing I will dream about.

I will say the brewed coffee was fantastic, but there's a lot of fantastic coffee around. We used the beans this morning. It was good. Not as good as I had hoped for the price.

There are very few seats, the wait and order system is messy and confusing and the space is crowded with furniture, fridges, and merchandise. Additionally, the coffee area is poorly organized. I will be interested to see how they fare as there are some great quick-serve, tasty breakfast options (Lovely, Milk & Honey, Sweet Cakes) in the neighborhood.

Odd to hear about Stumptown. On a project I did in Portland Oregon, they declined to be involved because they felt the size of the facility would not show off their product correctly in a consistent manner. Too many hands to train w/too much turnover and not enough direct supervision to do justice to the brand.

Seeing Stumptown teaser ads over the last few months, I've been wondering how they planned on controlling their justified concerns from a distance. It seems that they've done a 180 on this. Portland remains one of the only places I've done business that I was turned down by purveyors because of this fact. Same thing happened with a bakery and a restaurant equipment vendor I wanted to use.

Chloe54 wrote:We got 2 coffees, 2 untoasted (uncut) bagels (one plain and one sesame)

Wait...I'm sorry. They serve toasted whole bagels? Not sliced down the middle?

Jazzfood wrote:Seeing Stumptown teaser ads over the last few months, I've been wondering how they planned on controlling their justified concerns from a distance.

It looks like Stumptown is expanding. According to a large sign painted on the wall, Bagel on Damen is getting their Stumptown coffee from Brooklyn. I tried two brews—an Ethiopian and the Hair Bender blend. I thought both were decent but not worth going out of the way for.

ndgbucktown wrote:

Chloe54 wrote:We got 2 coffees, 2 untoasted (uncut) bagels (one plain and one sesame)

Wait...I'm sorry. They serve toasted whole bagels? Not sliced down the middle?

Chloe said untoasted.

The coffee is $13 for 10oz, i.e. $20.80/lb. This is expensive compared to Intelligentsia and Metropolis, but it is only marginally more expensive than the prices on Sumptown's own website.

The menu I posted upthread says that those cream cheeses are $1.49 for 2oz.

Ugh, sorry, can't read.

Am I reading it wrong too? It says untoasted (uncut). That to me means its whole, not toasted. Not split down the middle. I think the point was it was a dry bagel in a bag... How does Dion Antic open and close so many places? I don't get it.
http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/ ... to-chicago

Sorry if that was confusing.
Two dry bagels in a bag.
The bagels were not cut.
The bagels were not toasted.
You know, like when you buy a bagel from the baked goods bins at Jewel.

And to further this point of being uncut....she said something to the effect of "I could have them cut for you (Pause, looks behind at the madness in the kitchen) but it would probably be better if you just cut them at home."

There were two levels of pricing on the pre-packed little containers of cream cheese. The truffle pine nut is from the higher tier, which I swear was $1.69, but if I'm not that is a-ok, and I apologize for the mis-info.

you'd think a bagel would be cut

been here as i live around the corner. this place is da bomb! stumptown sent its own machines to serve it's grooovy grind.

as the l2hers say, 5 forks out of 5!

My wife and I walked in yesterday at about 11am, looking for a nice bagel sandwich. We're fans of NY Bagel and Bialy and cruise up to the Lincolnwood location on Sunday mornings (only 15 minutes from Wicker Park with no traffic). Let's just say that I'll continue to buy my bagels directly from the source. It should be noted that I didn't buy anything. I wanted to, really wanted to try a sandwich for lunch but the one menu my wife and I shared to view their offerings, was clearly marked with a "No Substitutions Please" notice. Fine. I asked if I could "make my own sandwich," to which our cashier responded with a "no - we'd rather you pick one off the menu." What? Why? Maybe I like the Alexander the Great option but don't want an Onion bagel or Russian Dressing. It seemed that none of the options were anything I really wanted and would have been fine if I could have substituted one or two things.

I don't mind the "no substitutions" thing but it typically means you'll have to build your own. Not here. After looking at the menu for five minutes or so (with the cashier patiently waiting for our order), I looked at my wife and asked if she wanted to go somewhere else, to which she replied quickly, "yes!" I handed the menu back to cashier and politely said "no thanks, I don't really see anything on here I would order." We settled for Picante for a quick take out lunch. It should also be noted that I don't drink coffee so I could care less about beans from Portland. If this is what they want to hang their hat on, call it a coffee house and downplay the bagels - you don't make them anyway.

I give this place 6-12 months unless some serious changes are made. It's a shame because WE STILL NEED A GOOD BAGEL PLACE IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD! By the way, Caesar's Deli, a few blocks south on Damen makes their own bagels and they're not bad.

Classic. I envision this thread getting better and better. You've got to love the self-righteousness of a bagel/sandwich place prohibiting substitutions.

On the other hand, I can see how this would absolutely not work with anything other than an onion bagel:

The Alexander the Great:
Turkey, bacon, sliced granny smith apples, avocado and russian dressing on an onion bagel - $7.95

Maybe next time you should ask for an Alexander the Great plus a sesame seed bagel. When the sandwich comes, lift all of the ingredients out of the onion bagel and place them into the sesame seed bagel.

How can you move stuff to an uncut bagel?

Darren72 wrote:Classic. I envision this thread getting better and better. You've got to love the self-righteousness of a bagel/sandwich place prohibiting substitutions.

On the other hand, I can see how this would absolutely not work with anything other than an onion bagel:

The Alexander the Great:
Turkey, bacon, sliced granny smith apples, avocado and russian dressing on an onion bagel - $7.95

Maybe next time you should ask for an Alexander the Great plus a sesame seed bagel. When the sandwich comes, lift all of the ingredients out of the onion bagel and place them into the sesame seed bagel.

That's funny. For 8 bucks, I'd hope that they could add those ingredients to a sesame seed bagel themselves. This is the sandwich I would have gotten if I didn't have to talk to anyone else in the afternoon. Those onion bagels can be pretty strong. Unfortunately, my wife is a pretty picky eater and much less adventurous. She didn't see a combination that she was interested in. Would she have settled for something? Sure - but what's the point of ordering a sandwich only to take it home and disassemble, then reassemble it with other ingredients? She was more pissed off than I was.

I tried this place today.

I wasn't terrible, but I also wasn't particularly impressed.

I ordered a toasted plain bialy with truffle & toasted pine nut cream cheese. The bialy was alright, but was a little too bready and didn't have enough chew. The cream cheese was good, but with such a unique flavor I was expecting more....flavor? It was a little different, but I was sort of waiting to get hit with that truffle flavor, although you could taste the pine nuts...sort of.

The coffee was also...alright. I prefer my coffee on the darker side, and I found both the brews offered to be very mild. They were very good for mild/lighter roasts, but it just isn't really my thing. If you have two different roasts, you should have one light and one dark, not one light and one slightly-less-light.

There was no issue with the wait, but in all fairness, there were probably 5 people in the shop, including myself and my co-worker.

The total for 2 just-above average bagels, 2 sides of wildly-overpriced cream cheese (nearly 2x the cost of the bagel), and two too-light coffees was $11.

For over $5 per person, I expect better. While this place is a nice idea, I don't think I will be returning unless the product improves or the price comes down a little.

Had lunch here today and add me to the "not too impressed" group. Friend and myself ordered the "moof" and the "shroom." I acknowledged the "no substitutions" to the cashier and asked if that meant all ingredient or could I switch out the type of bagel. She told me it was fine to change the type of bagel so I asked for a works bagel instead of wheat for my "shroom" sandwich.

$15.40 and about 16 minutes later our sandwiches finally arrived, mine on a wheat bagel. The porto were large and juicy and the cream cheese was just fine. Can't imagine I'd ever go back though.

this place kinda sounds like a disaster

If this place makes it to summer it might set a new record for Mr Antic. He would struggle to manage a Subway. If it is normal mode, he will shutdown with no notice and stiff his employees and suppliers like he has done so many times in the past.

Darren72 wrote:Maybe next time you should ask for an Alexander the Great plus a sesame seed bagel. When the sandwich comes, lift all of the ingredients out of the onion bagel and place them into the sesame seed bagel.

And tell them to hold the onion bagel between their knees

Ate there just before closing today. Friend ordered the Moof and I ordered the Alexander the Great. Both were good, but not really worth going out of our way for. Our order came quickly and the service was great (the cashier even allowed a substitution! Shock!), but we were the only ones there so I can't vouch how they handle any sort of crowd.

djenks wrote:this place kinda sounds like a disaster

It sure does. At least in the short term before he goes out of business, he'll be steering some extra revenue toward a proper business like NYB&B.

They're buying bagels from NYB&B so they're mostly serving people who live in the area and don't want to go to Lincolnwood? Not everyone has a car, and even if Bagel is run by a d-bag, a closer source for good bagels is a good thing, and this is from someone who hated Rockstar Dogs.

I love good coffee and was eager to try the Stumptown Blends, so I decided to check this place out. However, with the arrogant, hipster attitude displayed by its employees, I see no way that this place will survive the year. The staff, particularly the waifish, pixie of a cashier steadfastly refused to let my friend use the bathroom and repeatedly referred to the "No Public Washroom" sign. This is one of my pet peeves, that fortunately you rarely find in Chicago. If you serve sandwiches, coffee and drinks and have tables for your paying customers to eat and enjoy them, have a bathroom available. Eventually, after a great deal of pained begging, and a staff conference with someone in the back office, whom I can only assume was the owner, one of them waived her through and deigned to allow her to relieve herself in their bathroom. The Coffee was good and the bagels and spreads were decent as well, but this place will never see another penny from anyone I know.

You mean they wouldn't let a paying customer use the washroom? That's insane.

I'm pretty sure that if you serve food/beverages on site you HAVE to allow customers to use the restroom...but I can't find any verification online, so I could be wrong. But what a stupid way to lose business!