I’m usually not one for queuing, but when several friends insisted that I try Courage Bagels, I braved the sun and lined up to try these magical bagels. Courage Bagels is a snug little corner bakery serving up delicious housemade bagels and sandwiches in LA. They have a small area on the sidewalk outside their shop with seating, but it is a counter service spot. We went by around 10 AM on a weekday and we still queued for a solid hour and a half before reaching the counter window to order. In my experience, I find that things with queues generally aren’t that rewarding at the end, but these bagels were outstanding. I honestly wish I got more after queuing for so long but I needed to pace myself for a full day of eating! Check out my review of Courage Bagels below!
The ordering process is pretty straightforward. Once you get to the counter, you place you order and then you can try and find an empty table. The staff will come out and call your order when it’s ready. It’s a very busy area so make sure you keep your ears open for your name!
Courage Bagels – Open Face Bagel Sandwiches and More!
At Courage Bagels you have the choice of full open face bagel sandwich or a half size. You can also get their ‘Rip+Dip’ which is a bagel with Jersey Cow butter on the side, or a simple bagel with cream cheese. Unfortunately you can’t just buy plain bagels to go. There are six bagel flavours to choose from: Sea Salt Sesame, Poppy, Everything, Burnt Everything, Onion and Plain.
On our visit we got:
- Run It Thru the Garden ($7 half size)
- Roe! Wild Alaskan Salmon Roe ($12 half size)
The Run It Thru the Garden features cream cheese, tomato, cucumber, onion, caper, dill, salt, pepper, lemon and olive oil on your choice of bagel. We went with the burnt everything bagel. This was so simple but so delicious. There were two kinds of tomatoes on this, with a generous schmear of cream cheese. The vegetables were fresh and crunchy and the capers added a really delicious saltiness. The bagel was crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I regret not getting a full size of this!
The Roe! Wild Alaskan Salmon Roe features salmon roe, cream cheese, dill and smidge onion. This was exactly how I imagined it to be. The salmon roe was salty with a great brine and it went really well the smooth cream cheese. Should have gotten a full size of this one too.
Overall, I would queue again for these bagels. They are so simple, but the ingredients really sing. The queue times do vary, and I think we just got unlucky with an extra long queue time. The next time you are in LA you need to check out Courage Bagels!
Courage Bagels
Address: 777 N Virgil Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029, United States
Website: http://couragebagels.com/