If you’ve identified somebody for greater than 1 / 4 of a century, you may suppose you “actually” know them, however typically, you could be incorrect to make that assumption.
Working example: I first met my buddy “Steve” (left) when he first opened his Bagels Plus in a former (however already closed earlier than he purchased the constructing) Bruegger’s Bagels location on E. Fletcher Ave., lower than a half-mile west of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., manner again in 1998.
I additionally thought I remembered Steve telling me that he purchased an H&H Bagels location in New York not lengthy after it was revealed that Kramer, the kooky character on the hit NBC-TV present “Seinfeld,” had been on strike for years from the unique H&H Bagels in Manhattan.
Nicely, it took a kitchen hearth and the store being closed for 5 months — Bagels Plus lastly reopened on the finish of March — for me to search out out simply how incorrect I used to be on each counts.
First, though everyone nonetheless calls him Steve, my buddy the bagel maker’s actual title is Monsieur (sure, like “Mister” in French) Aziz.
Second, Steve by no means owned an H&H location, “They had been my opponents after I had my first Bagels Plus in Roslyn, Lengthy Island.”
One factor I didn’t get incorrect, nonetheless, was that Steve did carry the flexibility to make true New York-style bagels with him when he moved to Florida — “to get away from the snow” — though most New Yawkas say that there aren’t any “actual” bagels in Florida as a result of we will’t duplicate the water within the Empire State.
Steve confirmed me the 5 particular water filters he has in Bagels Plus to scale back the “hardness” of the water right here, though New York is without doubt one of the few cities within the U.S. that doesn’t filter its water due to its pure “softness” and purity.
However, he attributes the authenticity of his bagels to the best way he makes them. “We use wheat flour and a few vegetable flour, yeast and water to make our bagels,” he says. “That’s it. We don’t add oil, salt, malt, sugar or any of the opposite stuff you don’t want that different folks use to make bagels.”
Photographer Charmaine George and I watched Steve make a batch of bagels and we agreed that he didn’t use any of the components he talked about that different folks do use.
He says that one of the vital essential issues is that “actual New York” bagels should be kettle-boiled earlier than they’re baked.
“And, you want the proper of kettle,” he says. “The kettle isn’t a really costly piece of apparatus, however you really want it to make the bagels appropriately.”
No matter Steve and his blissful crew have been doing to them, there’s little question in most native bagel lovers’ minds that Bagels Plus had the closest-to-New-York bagels anyplace close to New Tampa or Wesley Chapel previous to the fireplace that brought about Steve to not solely shut his doorways however mainly rebuild the inside of his store from scratch.
“The fireplace ended up being a blessing,” he says. “As a result of when the fireplace inspectors got here to have a look afterwards, they mentioned that one of many assist beams within the entrance of the shop (now changed) was able to fall down. With out the fireplace, we might by no means have identified about it.”
Steve, who additionally beforehand owned a males’s clothes retailer in Manhattan, additionally had opened an analogous males’s retailer within the Goal-anchored College Plaza behind what’s now his bagel store.
“I used to be occupied with transferring the clothes retailer to this constructing, however after I heard that it had already been a bagel store, I made the house owners a suggestion on the spot.” And the remainder is historical past.
Oh, These Bacon, Egg & Cheeses!
Though each of my sons now dwell in Lakewood Ranch, after I informed them Bagels Plus reopened proper earlier than my most up-to-date go to to them, they each insisted that I carry them Steve’s well-known bacon, egg & cheese (BEC) bagel sandwiches.
“I’ve tried to make a bacon, egg and cheese like Bagels Plus at house,” my older son Jared — who desires to open a Bagels Plus franchise close to him — informed me. “I simply can’t get the eggs the best way they make them.”
Reality be informed, many New York bagel outlets make their bacon (or sausage or ham), egg and cheese sandwiches with fried eggs — and Bagels Plus will make yours with a fried egg, in the event you favor — however anybody who works the grill at Steve’s store is aware of the best way to pour simply the correct quantity of the already-cracked actual eggs onto the recent flattop griddle and fold these eggs into the proper dimension to simply stick out on all sides of the bagel.
And, in the event you like your bacon crispy like I do — I do know there are individuals who favor their bacon “moist,” which I attempt to not maintain in opposition to them — there may be at all times a prepared provide of completely crisp bacon ready to be positioned in beneficiant quantities atop your eggs. After which, a single thick slice of yellow American cheese is gently positioned atop that combo, which melts the cheese simply sufficient.
Steve’s BEC makers, led by his supervisor Trista, are also blissful so as to add salt & pepper or, for people like me, to “scoop out” your bagel earlier than assembling your sandwich. That not solely removes about 1/3 of the bagel’s energy, it additionally permits it to toast up additional crispy, particularly when it’s put by the conveyor belt toaster twice. The one time they gained’t put it by the toaster is when your bagel has simply come out of the oven.
Bagels Plus additionally gives a big number of cream cheese choices — from common and lightweight plain to bacon scallion, mild strawberry and a salmon cream cheese that’s made with actual smoked salmon. You can also get a beneficiant portion of sliced smoked salmon together with your selection of cream cheese in your favourite bagel (left picture). There’s additionally a wide range of contemporary salads (tuna, egg and rooster), roasted turkey and Black Forest ham out there, plus freshly baked croissants, muffins, black-&-white cookies, scrumptious apple or strawberry turnovers (picture under), almond horns and cinnamon rolls.
And sure, Steve nonetheless pretends to pocket new clients’ bank cards and throw an empty espresso cup at them to make them suppose it’s full. He’s a personality, nevertheless it’s onerous to dislike a man who has been retaining it New York actual for 27 years!
Bagels Plus (2706 E. Fletcher Ave.) is open Mon.-Sat., 6 a.m.-4 p.m., and seven a.m.-3 p.m. on Solar. For more information or to pre-order bulk bagels (as a result of they do typically run out), name (813) 999-1216.
