But the truth is that Bagel Bin makes me happy many Sunday mornings when I run to King's Contrivance and come home with breakfast. Mrs. HowChow loves salt and everything bagels, but I have been enjoying the Bin's bialys topped with cream cheese, smoked salmon or white fish salad.
Bialys are cousins to bagels -- baked, not boiled-and-baked and formed without a hole in the middle. They're often a little chewier and usually have onion or garlic pressed into the depression in the middle of the roll. I like the thinner profile. It's the right ratio when topped with fish, a little less bread than even half of a bagel. I toast them whole. My cousin slices them into two parts -- a ring and a thin complete disk. Either way, they're good bialys and a change if you're bored with your breakfast routine.
The Bagel Bin in Kings Contrivance makes bialys every day, although they tend to run out by late morning. I'm not sure about the Bins in Wilde Lake or River Hill [or the one in the Enchanted Forest shopping center on Rte 40]. I have never been sure how the three are related. They seem to have most of the same bagels, but I haven't hunted bialys in the others to know for sure.
The beauty of the King's Contrivance Bagel Bin is that it sits down the row from Harris Teeter. I grab bagels on a weekend morning and pick up juice from the HT cooler and lox and/or white fish salad from the seafood department.
(Update: See emkenton's comment below. Does anyone know how the Bagel Bins are related?)
I've been meaning to try the Bialy at Cafe Bagel in Lynwood Plaza... Just about everything else I've had from there has been fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWe must have crossed paths yesterday, because we were at the KC Bagel Bin as well!! I haven't tried the bialys but have to give a shout-out to their basket-mate: the salt bagel. A toasted one of those used as the bread for a Rabbit (all veggie) or Fat Rabbit (veggies plus 2 slices of cheese) sandwich is so delicious!
ReplyDeletePS-- the back of my Frequent Bagel Sandwich Buyer card lists the KC Bagel Bin and the Cafe Bagel that Amelios mentions in the first comment. I'm guessing that means they have the same owner and the other Bins are a different franchise?
ReplyDeleteNever tried the bialys, but I'm a sucker for those rainbow cookies at Bagel Bin. Yum.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the Bagel Bin at Enchanted Forest!
ReplyDeleteAs a former Bagel Bin employee (over 10 years ago) all of the Bagel Bins at that time were owned by a single owner. The original BB was the Wilde Lake where the employees from all BBs would train before working. Since then, that owner has sold the "franchise" and I am unsure if they were sold as an entire unit or sold to individual owners.
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