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By: Dan I. Cook

The Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. says that their water supposedly makes their bagels a whole lot better tasting. Naturally I was intrigued and had to review this place.

But first, I’m going to let you in on a big secret: Did you know that New York has special water that makes all their food taste better?

According to Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., they’re revolutionizing the bagel-making process from start to finish with their proprietary water treatment system called “Brooklyn Water Works” which uses advanced technology to enable them to replicate the natural composition of the water that flows from the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York into the homes of Brooklyn residents.

Seriously?

If I had a dime for every time an ex-New Yorker, who now lives now in South Florida, who has told me how great their water is, I would be semi-rich.

If you follow me on Yelp or in my past reviews, I’m not a big fan of cranky New Yorkers and NY Jets fans who think everything is better in their ex-hometown.

So I tried a bottle of this special water. It’s in a cool blue looking plastic bottle which says, “Hydration with attitude.” For a second I was afraid to open it fearing a recording of a person with a New York City accent was going to yell, “Miami Dolphins suck!”

“Screw it” I thought. I opened it anyway and nothing. No recording, no magic genie, no special vapor, nothing. I took a big swig. I bought a bottle for my daughter Madi who took a big swig and the truth is their water tastes like – water.

I really don’t know how to explain it beyond that. A diehard New Yorker would have to tell me what they think.

The Bagels

So what brought me to the Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. is curiosity mainly. I heard this company made some outstanding bagels and I wanted to taste them for myself. You see, I’m a bagel freak. I love bagels and scallion cream cheese, Nova and capers, and all the other good stuff you place on a nice, well-prepared bagel.

The restaurant only has one queue which stretches from the back of the store to the front. Don’t even think about cutting the line because you can’t. The queue is contained by a wall that separates the dining room from the line so no way to skip the line, thank goodness. I could see that being an issue because the line was long when we were there. Kudos to the design team. As you wait in line there is a big window to the right that displays all the machinery where the magic happens. As you inch forward to the cash registers you come up to a open cooler where you can buy different cream cheeses, juices, and that magical water.

Finally we near the cash registers. Behind the counter you see all the different types of bagels. The anticipation was killing me. Madi looked at me and said, “This place is the Dunkin’ Donuts of Bagels.” I had to agree.

Our Order

We ordered a dozen bagels sliced (they give you 13), a chocolate chip muffin, a plain bagel with egg, cheese and bacon, two bottles of magic water, two containers of cream cheese (scallion and sun dried tomatoes), and a large cup of coffee.

It was a little over $30 bucks.

The employee gave me a cup for my coffee, our order number, and then I walked over to the coffee bar. There was iced coffee to the right, and hot coffee to the left. They were set up like beer taps which was pretty cool. I did a mixture of the hazelnut tap and banana blend tap. We then waited for our order. Not even five minutes went by and one of the workers brought out our food. She then asked if we wanted freezer bags for the bagels. Yes, please. Man, I thought that was cool too.

Taste Test

My daughter just loved the muffin and said it was one of the best she has ever had. She described it as light and fluffy. I had a garlic bagel and part of an asiago and sun-dried tomato bagel, both with scallion cream cheese. I toasted them before I tried them. They both were very tasty with a crunchy exterior with a soft chewy interior. Since I’ve never been to New York, I would say they tasted like the ones at Bagels & A Whole Lot More and Rob’s Bageland. Both of these joints make outstanding bagels.

Did the water have anything to do with making The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. taste good? Honestly, I couldn’t tell. What I do know is this: they make an outstanding bagel. The coffee tasted great too.

Verdict

About the water: I came up with an idea while typing this review that in the near future I’m going to ask for three folks that have Brooklyn water running through their veins to do a blind taste test: I’m going to see if they can pick the Brooklyn-ized water from here or water from Publix or Zephyrhills. It will be a dance-off between these three. Be ready for that. But in the end, I think people will find it interesting that the water is really nothing more than an in-house commercial reverse osmosis system. That’s it.

Back to the review: this place is a solid four thumbs up. What makes this a four, although they are new they get a lot of credit for how state-of-the-art this restaurant is. I like the queue where you can look at all the cool stuff. The coffee cup had an uneven texture to it which made it cool to the touch without one of those cardboard sleeves. The Coffee Bar is unique and I’ve never seen anything like it before. I was told that if you get a iced coffee they actually make the ice cubes out of pure coffee. How cool is that. Also, when you get a freezer bag, it has instructions on the outside explaining the best way to freeze your bagels.

This place should do very good in Coral Springs. It’s pricey, but isn’t everything in New York City?

Remember to tell them Dan and Coral Springs Talk sent you and Stay Hungry!

The new restaurant is located at 2554 N. University Drive with hours from 6 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Author Profile

Dan Cook

A native of Broward, Half-Samoan Half-Irish or Afa Tasi, Food Warrior, Beer Ninja, United States Marine, owner/talent of danicookeatdrink.com. Retired Oakland Park Police Department/BSO Sergeant, DLE.