Bagel Jo’s Deli and Cafe

Hey, a bagel place right near my house! This will be great… um…
I echo Heather’s review in total. The first thing I saw was the little girl sweeping. My guess was four years old. It was cute, and yet… she was doing too good a job for a four year old or even an eight year old. The practiced work of an employee. She had experience. It was a little too much.
The place was was empty, with just a couple of people milling around. Yet the woman behind the counter had the brusk attitude of a slammed line cook. As if there were many pressing matters at hand. The two people in there were not even eating, but just sitting, reading the paper. it took a long beat to be aknowledged, we were rushed to the register, the food took longer than two bagels from the front of the line should have any reason to, and the trays were slapped down in front of us. Dropped, really, with no ceremony or even a glance. I felt like a chore.
Seriously, there were more empty chairs than there were bagels. The case had barely a handful, sitting lonely and forelorn. I wanted to take them all, to allow them to fullfill their bagel destiny. The menu was sparse– it was counter-​order style, but no overhead desriptions or options. We had to look around for a to-​go menu to even know what spreads there were. There was very little notice of anything they carried or made.
The bagel was starchy, store-​bought, crumbly, dry, boring. Not the slick, cruchy, springy «bagel» you would expect. Clearly not boiled, but just a piece of bread.
The atmosphere is strip-​mall-​ish, a 90s look to the furniture but with repro’s of oil paintings of people from the 1800s? The kind of catch-​all that would be quaint in a locally owned coffee shop, but here seemed slapdash and inorganic. The casual, laid-​back, non-​contact familiarity of the people in there really DID make it feel like you were eating in someone else’s kitchen. Like the kitchen of a family that watches tv while they eat, they all had separate paths and little talking, but seemed to be in the middle of something else where eating was just a rushed necessity. I felt like a houseguest who had over stayed his welcome.
This is the kind of place you would go to for breakfast or lunch if you worked and lived in the area. NOT anyplace you’d drive out of your way for at all. With bagel shops every mile or so, there are so many other options as to make this pointless.

No. Don’t bother. Really.
I gave this place two stars only because it was cheap, and they did actually have bagels, as was suggested by the name. Other than that, I call this place a giant FAIL.
1. Service was bad. The woman behind the counter was not exactly rude, but she was short with us, and she was behaving in the manic and frenzied manner of one who has a line of customers trailing out the door on a short staff day. Other than my boyfriend and I, there were only two other customers in the place, and they had already ordered and been served.
2. Limited selection. There were something between 5 — 10 types of bagels to choose from, and I believe they offered four types of cream cheese — one of which was plain. I think if you are going to specialize in just one item, you need to really have a wide variety, as well as some specialty options that are not available at every other place in the area.
3. The bagels themselves were lackluster and half-​assed at best. There was none of the joyous crunchy-​on-​the-​outside/​chewy-​in-​the-​middle characteristics that I expect in a good bagel. And despite the fact that I had a blueberry one with honey-​almond cream cheese, it still largely lacked flavor. I don’t even know how one manages to make that a possibility.
4. The atmosphere is weird. While we were there, a little girl of about five years old (presumably the owner’s daughter — or at least I hope she was!) was sweeping the floor. I would have thought it cute if I had seen it happening in someone’s house, but it seemed grossly inappropriate in a place of business. There was also a man stationed at what appeared to be his home office on one side of the dining area. I assume this man was either the husband or father of the woman behind the counter. It genuinely felt like I had decided to have a bagel in some stranger’s house and was sitting in the middle of their living room uninvited. They just happened to live in a storefront. I found it all strange and uncomfortable.
Again: DO NOT BOTHER. Even if you don’t know of a decent bagel place in town, you’d be better off just grabbing some from the market and having one at home.