Bagel Bin, Columbia

[Bob Wells]

I'm not sure what I should have expected when I got the Bagel Combo ($10.99) with belly lox. It was a supermarket-quality bagel, a tiny foil-wrapped container of cream cheese, and a plate with hard, pink tomato, two wilted olives, three slices of cucumber, a slice of red onion, and a small amount of belly lox, all sitting on a lettuce leaf. Knowing it might not be enough food, I asked for a plain bagel on the side, and they had the chutzpah to charge me $2.89 for it - that's almost $14 total! Sometimes, when you're writing, you think of THE ONE perfect adjective to describe something, and I indeed found that one, perfect descriptor for my breakfast: lousy.

That's pathetic. And my late father would have ripped them a new one.

I was just up in Columbia for my semi-annual dentist visit, so I paid my semi-annual visit to the Bagel Bin in what's left of the Wilde Lake Village Center. The whitefish salad was a bit watery, but the bagels -- I got a black russian and a supreme -- were nicely chewy and delicious. As usual, they gave me enough cream cheese on one bagel to use on two. About $8.50 for the bagel with whitefish salad and bagel with cc, both with let/tom.