Reviews for Bagel Stop & Book Nook

11/28/2010 - TOM
Today my son and I went to the Bagel Stop and were a little
disappointed with the experience. The service was ok and the
atmosphere was inviting. I also stopped at the Big Apple Bagel shop
and honestly had to rate them a little higher. Being a native New
Yorker and having eaten way too many bagels I think I am a good judge
of quality and quantity. In any case I ordered an everything bagel
with lox cream cheese. I also ordered coffee and not too much to my
surprise it was tepid because they use the darn plastic carafes which
allow the coffee to become cold. As usual the half and half was
almost empty. Now the last two items are common with almost every
coffee place or bagel shop I've ever been in. The only place where
you can get hot coffee is where they have storage dispensers that are
plugged in. Remember coffee and soup must be served piping hot.

When I got my bagel it was hard to see if it had any cream cheese
on it at all. It almost looked like a small slathering of white
butter. I took it to the counter and the person offered me more cream
cheese which at that point I declined because she missed the point.
The other thing is that the hole in the center of the bagel is much
too large. The "lox" cream cheese had no salmon flavor at all but
maybe that was because it was several million molecules less than one
could taste.

If you opened a bagel shop in NYC and served the same thing you
would be out of business in a week. The Big Apple came out on top.

Thanks,
Tom

06/23/2009 - Tyler Hancock
Maybe because Minot doesn't have many of these types of coffeehouse places, the Bagel Stop stands out even more, especially with the encroachment of Starbucks a couple years ago, which (and how could it not?) seems bland and corporate by comparison, both in ambience and flavor of the goods. The staff, while on a fairly steady rotation of itinerant high schools, is friendly and pretty good at memorizing what you want after only a few trips. The bagel sandwiches are fantastic, the italian sodas and espresso are delicious and deliciously stout, respectively, and the overall theme of the place, with the godawful Bestseller List used books lying around and the flyers for local bands and art events and whatnot, is so disarming and warm that it tends to remove you from whatever stresses you may have and makes you want to talk. Bring a friend and you'll see what I mean. Go alone and it's like a massage for your brain.