Artz Bagels (review)

Restaurant Review: Artz Bagelz

This little bagel place on 9th, right off of Magazine Street, opened today! I am a serious bagel lover but trying to find them in New Orleans is not the easiest. I've been getting mine at the Crescent City Farmer's Market  and also buying them at Whole Foods and freezing them. Stein's is also a good source- but I've always heard that they import them from New York (that could be a huge rumor). There are also a few restaurants that make their own bagels. 

Anyway, we walked the few blocks to check out Artz Bagelz on its opening day. I forgot to ask them about the name, I'm not a fan :P 

I'm not going to write a long review, since they just started and probably have to work out some kinks, but here's some info and photos for you. 

not open on Monday (obviously, since it's New Orleans) and pretty normal hours 

Good selection of bagel options from sesame and poppy to cinnamon raisin.

Asiago cheese looked good to me.

There's a window to watch the magic happen, but we didn't see anything exciting going on.

The photo above shows their brightly colored interior.

Simple, clean, and bright. Reminds me of Ikea.

The ceiling lights are shaped like bagels... :)

 There's seating outside. It also looks like they put a dog bowl out there.

Now, onto the food. Ben went with the tunafish sandwich on whole wheat bread. You have the option of a bagel, bread, or croissant sandwich. (mmm croissants). He then opted to pay the extra $1.95 for a side salad- I believe it would've come with fruit or coleslaw if he didn't opt for the salad. He thought his sandwich was good but he wondered where the other half of his egg was...

I ordered an egg and swiss cheese sandwich on a sesame bagel. It comes with a meat choice but I asked if I could switch the meat for avocado. After some confusion on their part, I got some lovely avocado slices added. You can tell they just opened today as they're a little nervous :) it's cute

They didn't ask me how I wanted the eggs, which made me assume that the only option was scrambled (like Stein's). But it came out fried, which was great. The bagel was very small (in the first photo you can't tell that it's taking up a tiny spot on the sandwich tray) and I realized that $5.00 was just way too much for such a small meal. (I'm just super cheap right now and realized I make the same thing for $1.50 at home all the time). I think it would be good at $2.50 without meat and $3.00 with an added option for meat/avocado/etc. Anyway, the quality was good and I was happy.

If you wanted, you could get some cookies! They didn't look great to me, so I passed. Also, I missed how much they are on the menu. But, if you want to plan out your meal before you head over, here's a photo of the menu options for you. The lafayette square salad (sans the bacon) sounds good.

Overall, not bad, pretty good even- they get extra points for being in my neighborhood :-D. I would probably pick up a few bagels here- or even a bagel with a schmear- rather than shell out the $5 for a sandwich. Because I live only a few blocks away I'm sure I'll return and take bagels home.

I'd love to know what you think when you try out Artz Bagelz. Leave me a comment when you do!