Izzy and Mo’s

Want the small-​shop, old-​school New Yawk deli experience? Izzy & Mo’s is the place to be.
Tiny. Teeny. Cozy. Cold (in the back). A two-​person, two-​burner operation. A few ingredients prepared into a dozen or more creative dishes. Homemade bagels, breads and sweets — no need to oversell on the visuals, everything is good enough to need nothing extra.
Jew-«ish» deli, with all the lovely things one would expect to find — lox, awesome bagels, poached eggs, giant deli sandwiches, doughnuts, and other sweets. The menu is HUGE for the real estate, plus the specials. Anything that can be made in-​house, is. As much as possible locally-​sourced and the owner has been doing the locally-​sourced and –made thing for a lot longer than it’s been cool to say so.
Oh, and they have house-​made sodas, juices, and want a drink? They have «schnapps»! (Wish I would have noticed the bloody Mary earlier, because Sunday brunch needs it).
ANYWAY.
We were a group of three and seating in the front was going to be tight — all window/​wall seating. There’s an 8-​top in the back to share with your fellow diners. We got our orders in (chicken liver on bagel, reuben, and special French toast. Plus extra pickles and babka.)
They do charge extra for pickles, because they are that.good. Seasonal veggies and tart tart tart vinegar. You will literally drool. I had the chicken liver «pâté,» which was not pâté but was paired with cream cheese on a bagel to give it a smooth consistency. Brilliant with the pickles to add crunch. The spouse had the special French toast — lots of bready, eggy goodness. Our dining companion got the reuben, a huge sandwich on hearty bread. So.darn.good. We finished off our meal with a slice of fresh babka — like a bread pudding, with cinnamon and delicate chocolate flavors. Subtle, sweet and carb-​loaded.
We couldn’t leave without taking home long ropes of jerusalem bagel for later.
I’d put Izzy & Mo’s up against any New York deli — they’re that good.

This has quickly become my favorite neighborhood go-​to breakfast stop. The bagels are the best in town and the atmosphere is straight out of New York. Don’t walk out without taking some babka to go either; you won’t want to miss out.

My move to the Midwest from the East Coast can hardly be considered a gamble. My brother has been living in Kansas City, a funky little town steeped in history and eclectic culture, for years, and he mounted an excellent, multi-​year campaign to sell me the upsides of living out here.
Which is where this weekend’s breakfast at Izzy and Mo’s comes in, a meal that can be best summarized in two ways:
1. My experience here represents the first time that I felt like I was living in the culturally-​rich, borderline blue-​collar, uniquely artistic version of the Midwest that my brother had sold me on.
2. Having lived with a deeply-​deprived Midwestern bagel depression for months, Izzy and Mo’s not only shatters stereotypes about the potential for quality bagels in the region; it puts up a fierce contender for one of the best bagels out there with its namesake bagel sandwich, laden with east coast caviar cream cheese, gravlax, capers, and a touch of hot sauce on a fresh, chewy bagel. The caviar cream cheese is some of the best I’ve had, making subtle, briny pops in each bite of this symphony of a sandwich.
A few sips of my black coffee with the Black Keys strumming in the background, and I was once again sold on the promise of central America. We’ll undoubtedly be back for the fresh doughnuts and other menu items that we’ve yet to try. Until then, Izzy and Mo’s not only makes my favorite breakfast sandwich in Columbus, it also stands for something bigger: the realization of coastal dreams in the heart of the country.

Oh my goodness! This Place! Adorable inside.
My husband has picked up take out from here a few times but we had our first dine-​in experience yesterday for brunch. Luckily it wasn’t too busy when we popped in so our baby slept in her stroller while we popped up to the bar stools with our 2yr old.
I have never liked corned beef but every few years I try a Reuben because I feel like it’s a sandwich I should like considering the other ingredients. This is the absolute best Reuben in the world :). The spice doesn’t have that ginger sweetness that usually turns me off from corned beef. Not just the best Reuben but one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.
On other occasions we have enjoyed the turkey sandwich special and the bagels with lox. My husbands favorite is the Izzy and my son gobbled up with french toast.

Delightful treat for King Ave!
I stopped in for a late lunch to go. The beautiful space was warm and welcoming, as was the friendly service! My rosemary bagel with cream cheese was delicious! I’m so used to Panera bread-​bagels that I almost forgot what real bagels tasted like! I was also blessed with a delicious apple-​stuffed sufganiyot on my way out – what a delectable treat! I’ll definitely be back for more!

My sisters and I wanted to find a food kosher deli/​restaurant to celebrate my grandmother’s life on the day of her funeral. This place was fantastic. I enjoyed lox and cream cheese bagel and a Bloody Mary immensely. Great atmosphere, excellent service. Will definitely make return to this gem.

So close to giving a 5 stars today!
Went in at 1pm on a weekday in the fall. It wasn’t busy, there were two other pairs eating. My friend and I ordered the Cuban special and the corned beef specials so we could split them both between us. Last time I came it took 15 minutes to get two cold bagels– this time our two sandwiches (one being a hot sandwich) were out in 5 minutes. They also brought water cups and water out to us which was nice.
The Cuban was amazing! So amazing! Just amazing.
The corned beef was amazing! So much slaw– such good slaw. Only qualm with the corned beef was that it was a bit too messy for the small cutting board you are given to eat it on. Also the bread is nice and thick but from my personal preference the crust was too intense for me. It was pretty hard for me to chew through. My friend liked it just fine though.
Last time was a good experience, but this visit was a great one.
I’ll definitely be back again and I like izzy and mo’s enough to likely brave the cold of winter to walk here.

Ok, this is a tough one. New restaurant by the owners of Till. I have heard great things about Till and although I have yet to eat there, when my colleagues suggested a lunch date at Izzy and Mo’s, I couldn’t resist. First impression: it’s small. And cute. There is more seating area outside than in, but if you’re lucky, you can snag the one large table in the back. I like the simplistic, straightforward menu and although I am usually not a meat-​and-​sandwich type of girl, a lot of the items looked surprisingly appetizing. I was craving salmon but given my newfound lactose intolerance, I decided to forgo the bagel/​cream cheese and went for the gravlax (cured salmon) Caesar salad instead. What I liked about it: the greens were greens. Dark, delicious, good for you power greens. The salmon was wonderful — thick (but not too thick) and fresh. The caesar salad came with a balsamic vinaigrette that I am glad I ordered on the side and a few pleasant surprises: fresh rye bread croutons (yummy but not as crunchy as I like), fresh mint, pickled cucumbers, and two perfectly deviled eggs. I also ordered a jelly donut to go, which sadly looked better than it tasted.
Overall, this is a good place to go to for lunch but I think the options are pretty limited if you’re a picky eater or have dietary restrictions (lots of bread and smokey meats). It’s also a little pricey. My bill came to almost $ 15 with tip — not bad but also not great.

Get this deli in your belly!

Not a fan of Till but as a bagel lover (that doesn’t eat gluten much but makes special exceptions for tasty ones), Izzy and Moe’s, the new spot by the same owners, is AWESOME. Love the bagels and spreads. They remind me of a cross between Montréal and NY bagels. Hands down these are the only place in town I would have a bagel and feel it’s worth it. Also, the pastrami, Reuben, and corned beef sandwiches are delicious. The smoked pastrami smelled amazing and was my favorite.
We also ordered bagels for our recent wedding weekend brunch in August because that’s how much we love them. Everything was perfect.
Oh and if you like the big, doughy kind of bagel that you can find at Brueggers or the supermarket, you won’t like these. These are small, not cheap, but delicious! Worth every penny.
That all being said, the service is slow and they need some fire under their butt but they were nice and brought us out some freebies to taste for our wait. Thanks, guys!
TIP: Come early because they do sell out.

Izzy and Mo’s is the newest product of the owner of Till, and it definitely lives up to expectations in terms of Till’s food quality. Everything coming out from the kitchen looked amazing, from Ruebens to bagels with cream cheese and lox. I tried the Mo bagel, which is a Jerusalem style bagel (aka a giant kind of pretzel-​y tasting bagel) with some house-​made hummus with olives and dried figs on top. It was such a great combination of flavors, and at $ 8 it is a good option for a quick lunch if you’re not super hungry.
My only complaint about this place is how long it takes to get your food. I had to wait a full 15 minutes for my bagel which I thought was excessive since there wasn’t much preparation needed. I will say I could tell that everyone working looked very busy and very stressed, so it wasn’t that they weren’t working hard, but the kitchen area, which is actually located right behind the bar is TINY. There isn’t much room to move around without being on top of a customer or another employee. Especially in the winter when the patio is no longer a functional option, it will be very difficult to find a place to sit; there are only about 6 seats inside the restaurant.
If they change the layout and give themselves some more space though, I think Izzy and Mo’s could become a breakfast/​brunch staple in Victorian Village. Their menu is unique, authentic, and everything is beyond delicious!

I have died and gone to hummus heaven. The giant bagel was soft and chewy and the hummus. Like I said to. die. for. It was so fresh and garlicky and nutty. And the peppers and olives on top were the right amount of salty and sweet. I will go back for this whenever I am mad at the world. Also, they’re patio (same as Till) was cute and the staff was incredibly friendly. I’m not a huge coffee drinker but thought I’d try the tahini mocha. It tasted like an almond joy candy bar– the tahini cut the bitterness of the coffee and left a beautiful nutty taste. I WILL be coming back for the coffee and I would love to try more of their sandwiches.

I walked to Izzy and Mo’s from OSU’s medical center for the first time today after reading about it in some online magazines. The guy at the register was very friendly and asked if I’d been there before. Since it was my first visit, he took some time to go over the specials and tell me about the bialy bagel. I think he’s pretty new too, since he was asking the cook/​owner about challah bread – the cook pulled a roll down and split it for the two workers to try. I like watching the kitchen and seeing interactions like that.
I ordered a jerusalem bagel with cream cheese and the pastrami, it came on rye with plain mustard. I got it to go and walked back to my office. The food held up pretty well after the walk and my sandwich was not soggy yet. The pastrami sandwich was amazing. Some of the pieces were fatty, but the meat was moist and flavorful. It came with a small cup of pickles which helped cut the fatty, salty flavor. The sandwich was huge and I was stuffed afterwards. A little later, I wanted to try a bit of my jerusalem bagel and ended up eating the whole thing. It had a chewy texture and was topped with chili powder and sesame seeds.
Together with a 15% tip, my total was just under $ 20 which was more than I typically spend on lunch. Looking back, that was way too much food, but I wanted to try several things. Next time, I’ll get the bagel OR the sandwich, definitely not both. Or coffee and a dessert – their desserts looked really good.

Iced tahini mocha. Amazing, new, different. You’ve just gotta try this place. Get the babka, too.

Love Izzy and Moe’s! I’ve been here twice now and between me and the boyfriend have tried a variety of things. The shop is very small and cute, love the look of it and it’s right around the corner from where I live. I hear they have a breakfast happy hour which sounds amazing! Unfortunately I haven’t been awake early enough for this yet!
Today I got the Bialy which is very similar to a bagel but a little lighter as it’s not boiled. It was covered in poppy seeds and onions. I love onions. It was so delicious! They have three types of cream cheese, plain, pimento and caviar. I went with pimento which is my favorite. All of them are fantastic though.
The boyfriend was a little more hungry than me and went with the Izzy bagel. I had them out it on the everything bagel that also had paprika on it. Inside is filled with salmon, capers, caviar cream cheese and some type of cabbage/​onion slaw. It was as expected, amazing!
I really like how their bagel selection changes frequently. There is always something new and tasty to try. The other thing I would recommend trying is their Jerusalem bagel. It’s shaped like a long skinny oval. Little harder texture than a bagel, more crispy. The flavor is so awesome. Need to find out what they put on it! Oh and I got lucky today they threw a free deviled egg in my to go bag as well. What a lovely surprise!
This is a great place to stop in while out for a walk in Victorian village! My advice — if it sounds weird or different, get it! Because I guarantee it’s amazing!

Yum!!! First, what a great idea to put a cute little bakery/​bagel shop in VV! I’m sure locals are rejoicing that they can cure their sweets and bagel cravings closer to home. Second, great, friendly service with knowledgeable staff. I’m not very familiar with Jewish/​Eastern European sweets and baked goods and the kind girl working the day I went in was very patient. And the bagels are awesome! My favorite (Block’s) is going to get a serious run for their money. But, in all honesty, this is a very different bagel than at Block’s. The latter is more dense and chewy, while the former is somehow chewy but also light and airy. Definitely delicious and a must-​try. Can’t wait to sample more of the wares!

In my view, Till is not only one of the best restaurants in Columbus, but also one of the most underappreciated. Few other establishments match not just their level of execution, but their attention to sustainable, local sourcing of ingredients and high level of craft. I say this mostly to convey how excited I was to hear that they had a new venture, Izzy and Mo’s, in the works.
We went on a fairly quiet Sunday morning in June. Service was a little discombobulated (service has never been Till’s strong suit), but everyone was friendly and enthusiastic about the offerings, and the spread of baked goods was pretty impressive. There’s some counter seating in Izzy and Mo’s itself, but more importantly you can sit anywhere in the outdoor seating area that they share with Till.
We ordered the Izzy Bagel and the Mo Bagel, both of which took a little bit of time to arrive. The Izzy had house-​cured organic salmon gravlax, cream cheese with caviar, and capers on a house-​made bagel. The salmon was beautifully flavored, and the slight hint of caviar in the cream cheese was one of those innovative touches that I’m so fond of Till for doing. There was also a small side of pickled sliced carrots. The Mo came with house-​made hummus, which was slightly coarser than the usual stuff you find at Middle Eastern restaurants, and also had nice chunks of raw garlic, plus a few green olives and figs. We also walked away with a few baked goods for the next day.
Like Till, dining at Izzy and Mo’s is neither particularly quick, nor particularly cheap. But it’s GOOD, and in my view, worth both the price and the wait. As my wife noted, Till was the restaurant she would take out-​of-​town guests to impress them with how good the Columbus food scene is. I would say the same of Izzy and Mo’s.

We really enjoyed our quick breakfast before work here. If you notice things like the freshness of produce and smart flavor pairings you will really appreciate the passion coming from the chef, it shows on the plate. Worth every penny.
We had the Mo Bagel: fresh made hummus loaded with figs, roasted red peppers, the best olives I’ve ever had, and tasty rhubarb. This comes with a fun, skinny, elongated sesame seed bagel. The flavors all worked really well together.
Tofu Salad Bialy: really flavorful, acidic chopped tofu sandwich spread with tomato and lettuce on an onion bun paired with a crisp, bright vinegar marinated rhubarb and cucumber salad.
Great vegan options! Vegan doughnuts pretty please!
What a wonderful experience leaving from breakfast without a grease bomb in your stomach! Support these guys, they are a rare thing.

Stopped in today for the first time. Has the same austere appearance as Till, which is fine. The menu has a nice selection of NY-​style water bagels and Jerusalem bagels which look like a typical everything bagel stretched long.
At $ 11 the Izzy Sandwich is pretty spendy for what you get but it was absolutely delicious, which, along with the premium ingredients, makes up for the steep price. An everything bagel with caviar cream cheese, dill and gravlax along with hot sauce (which seemed absent on mine) comes wrapped in butcher paper and split in half. The caviar cream cheese gave it a slightly pungent taste and the gravlax was melt in your mouth luxurious. The bagel itself was crispy-​on-​outside-​chewy-​on-​the-​inside, just what you want.
To be honest, I thought the entire sandwich compared favorably with what I’ve had from Russ & Daughters in NYC.
The staff seemed a little confused, not quite knowing where components were located and needed to look up the ingredients to the sandwich, but considering it was their third morning open, you wouldn’t want to hold that against them.
I’m a fan, and I’ll definitely be back. Oh and the prices on the bagels and schmears themselves were very modest, in the $ 2 – 3 range. So overall, I don’t think price point is much of an issue.

I was able to stop in to Izzy and Mo’s yesterday right after lunch. Unfortunately, I had already eaten when I realized that it was having it’s grand opening. There were a few people checking it out, and I can imagine if there were much more, it’d be pretty cramped around there. The inside has bar seating, and it shares a patio with Till (owned by the same people). It should be interesting to see how this functions during lunch time at both Till and Izzy and Mo’s.
The menu looked great, and I really wanted to get a sample of everything, but I wasn’t that hungry at the time. I ended up grabbing one of the jelly donuts and a babka and brought them back to my house. I was a fan of both, but they were both a bit heavy, and you definitely only need one, so I saved the rest for later. They have an array of pastries out that aren’t all on the menu, and they make their own bagels, which looked fantastic
I live right around the corner from this place, so I’ll definitely be back to try some of the other dishes. It’s a bummer that they’ll only be open during the week for now, since it’ll make it almost impossible for me to get over there any time soon.
Once I try some of the main dishes, I’ll provide an update, but since the it’s the owner of Till running this place, I can only expect some great food.
P. S. This place has a full liquor license and bar inside for all of you morning and day drinkers.