Emerald City Bagels

Today was my first time visiting. The place was packed… To me that’s a good sign…people like their food. I ordered a salted bagel with vegan cream cheese, cream cheese had a strong overpowering flavor of tofu…..wasn’t that great and probably won’t order it again. I found the bagels to be a little bit harder than I would have liked, l but overall doable. My biggest complaint would be the hygiene practices.The young lady at the front who was pulling the ticket orders was l scratching her arm, above her eye and her face with her gloved hand and then picking up our bagels and putting them through the toaster. Not sure why she didn’t think to change her gloves after she contaminated her gloves, but it left me feeling kinda icky. Also, noticed other employees touching their hair, neck, and going right back to make a sandwiches. Not sure if I will eat here again. Maybe today was just a bad day???

I was craving a good bagel and my partner suggested we make the journey over to East Atlanta for Emerald City bagels. I am so glad we did! The bagels themselves were fresh and had great flavor. But the cream cheese of the month is what made the experience stand out. This month the Fire Roasted Jalapeño and Crispy Chihuahua cheese was by far the best cream cheese I’ve had. I do like jalapeños and spicy things so this was right up my alley but I suspect that this is a great representation of the unique flavors Emerald City offers regularly. We went on Sunday morning but it wasn’t too busy and we were even able to sit at one of the few inside window seats.

This spot has a cool old-timey flare with great customer service. I got “The Suffolk” (pictured) which was pretty good. I chose a sea salt & olive oil bagel and plain cream cheese. It was super salty, but that was my fault. I wouldn’t recommend choosing a bagel with salt in its name to pair with “The Suffolk” since it has capers. The inside is pretty small but there’s a few places to sit. There’s also a few tables outside.

I had a cinnamon bagel with plain cream cheese. It was pretty good, but I thought the bagel was a bit too salty...it was just a bit too weird tasting for me since I expected it to be a little bit more sweet than salty and almost savory. Because of this, I do prefer other bagel places in the Atlanta area.

Love the name and the locations. This cute establishment sits in East Atlanta Village. You can parallel park on the side of the street or park across when you walk inside. It’s quite small but I can definitely say during the weekend it is fully packed out in the morning to try to get there early if you don’t wanna wait, super long. The best is to place an order online and just pick up. I’ve tried a lot of things on the menu and I still love the classic lox. Today I tried that they are new bagel, which was the pumpkin Sage. I love trying their cream cheeses as well today I had the garlic cream cheese. My next favorite The Nassau - white fish salad on a bagel of your choice. For those of you who do not like fish the classic bacon, egg and cheese on sesame bagel is delicious! 🥯 Overall, I really love this bagel location. There’s not many great ones in Atlanta and I would say this is one of the best.