"Ess-a-Bagel was established in 1976 by Florence and Gene Wilpon and Florence's brother Aaron Wenzelberg. Coming from an Austrian baking family, the art of baking or crafting the perfect bagel came naturally to them. Within two years of opening, Ess-a-Bagel was voted #1 in the Tri-State area, and had attracted a loyal following," reads the website.



The restaurant offers fresh hand-rolled bagels, coffee, pastries, and more. The bagels are the star, though. They are baked fresh daily with no artificial flavors or preservatives.



Big options include plain, poppy, garlic, multigrain, everything, pumpernickel, onion, sesame, salt, cinnamon raisin, whole wheat and whole wheat everything.



Flavored cream cheeses include: Scallion, Vegetable, Herb, Everything Herb, Jalapeno, Olive, Sun Dried Tomato, Avocado Garlic, Raisin Walnut, Banana Nut, Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry, Strawberry, Peach, Chocolate Chip, Red Velvet, Oreo, Rainbow Cookie and Lox Cream Cheese.



There are a number of specialty sandwiches available, and you can choose your bagel. Everything from a lox bagel to a Reuben to chicken parmesan.



I kept it fresh with a BLTA - or bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado. I had scallion cream cheese on an onion bagel.



This was like the fresh familiarity of a BLT, but with some added flavor punch of the onion, garlic and cream cheese. I could've done with less lettuce because it waters things down a bit for me. But very tasty overall.



Grade: A