Remember how you’d chase down the ice cream truck when you were a kid? I followed a bagel truck recently, at midnight, into a sleepy strip mall parking lot. The man from Brooklyn Bagel Bakery had just dropped off a sack at a Seattle’s Best coffee shop and was locking up after himself when I pulled up in front of his van.

“Hey, uh… so, do you guys have a bakery in Orange County, or do you drive all the way here from LA?” The guy had the afraid-to-speak look of someone stuck on an elevator with a load of Hare Krishnas.

Really good bagels are hard to find anywhere, especially on the West coast. I’ve found 98% of bagel and pizza shops with an East coast allusion in their name inevitably suck. (Yeah, I’m talking to you, Noah’s NY Bagels…) Brooklyn Bagels has a reputation as one of the better ones in LA, and I’d never tried theirs. You can understand my excitement when I spotted their truck in my neighborhood (or maybe you don’t, and I am a freak). Interrogating the bagel man is a minor misdemeanor at worst, during which I uncovered another of his retail accounts in my area (Benji’s Deli in Tustin).

Long story short - I stopped by that Seattle’s Best shop this morning and found they wrapped each of last night’s delivery in plastic wrap, a crime far worse than stalking the bagel truck. It’s bad enough that the bagels were now over 8 hours old. They completely ruined what’s left with Saran wrap. I ran crestfallen straight to Bruegger’s Bagels, where I got theirs right out of the oven, still too hot to touch. While not a great bagel by any means, it’s acceptably good when fresh.

I will schlep over to LA some day and try Brooklyn’s straight from the source. To be continued…

Brooklyn Bagel Bakery
2217 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles
213-413-4114

Bruegger’s Bagel
All over, nation wide

Turkey `N Waffles

Some stories are better left untold. Roscoe’s fried chicken & waffle empire serves pretty good Southern food (for around these parts) in 5 locations around Los Angeles. As odd a combination as it sounds, fried chicken and waffles go together like milk and Pepsi. Think hot, crisp, peppery fried chicken. Grits, greens, corn bread (two kinds), chicken sausage, smothered biscuits, red beans and rice, and of course, waffles.

Went to the Long Beach store a couple weeks ago, and noticed paper placemats promoting their movie. My verdict: skip this straight-to-video turkey. Ostensibly, it’s the story of two shady numbers-running guys from NY who came out to LA and opened a restaurant to pay off loan sharks. I shut off the DVD after the first 20 minutes. The production quality approached a soft porn film’s, but lacked your typical soft porn’s professional acting, writing, and directing . I swear the DVD player gagged when it hoiked out the disc.

If the recent price hike on Roscoe’s menu is paying off production costs, I’m going to be *very* upset.

Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles - Long Beach
730 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA
562-437-8355