REVIEW: Creole Bagelry

1337 Gause Blvd.
Slidell, LA

View the menu

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Overall:
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Food:
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Pros: One of the only spots around for fresh-made bagels.
Cons: Can be a little slow to get your order and a little pricey.
Bottom Line: If you're in the mood for good coffee and bagels, this is the place to go.

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Creole Bagelry is one of the few fresh bagel shops in the Greater New Orleans area, and, therefore, it's become a regular weekend stop for the Hippos. The bagelry is reminiscent of a coffee shop, with counter service, a mix of regular and bar-height tables, and local artwork for sale displayed on the walls. The background music usually does a good job of setting a comfy atmosphere and ranges from oldies to local jazz. The shop also offers lunch, centering around salads, wraps, and bagel sandwiches.

We've visited Creole Bagelry on many occasions. In general, the bagels taste fresh, but they don't constantly bake the bagels all morning - so don't expect to get hot, straight-from-the-oven bagels here. They offer a decent variety of bagel types and cream cheese flavors, with a specialty bagel and cream cheese rotating out every one or two weeks. In the past, we've found their savory cream cheeses to be of better quality than their sweet cream cheeses, which often lack enough flavor. Creole Bagelry also brews their own coffee, with gourmet flavors such as mocha raspberry, english toffee, German chocolate cake, and macadamia nut offered on a rotating basis. These brews are extremely delicious and rival any gourmet coffee shop. We find that the normal coffees here are on the caliber of more expensive specialty lattes and cappuccinos.

On this occasion, we ordered a blueberry bagel with cinnamon roll cream cheese (the specialty cream cheese of the day) and a sesame bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, capers, and tomato (actually sold as one of the lunch sandwiches). The blueberry bagel was good, with a buttery, blueberry flavor running throughout it, but the flavor was not very noticeable when eaten with the cinnamon roll cream cheese. This cream cheese, however, was probably their best sweet cream cheese we have tasted - too bad it was only a special! It had plenty of flavor, mixing cinnamon with the sweet (but not too sweet) taste of cinnamon roll icing. It was exceptional. The only complaint here is that sometimes they don't give you a ton of cream cheese on the bagel - it just depends on who is preparing it. Luckily, they had samples out of the specialty cream cheese with which we could supplement the bagel.

The bagel with smoked salmon was also enjoyable. The lox tasted fresh, and there was a good balance of ingredients. The saltiness of the capers and salmon paired well with the creaminess of the cream cheese and the freshness of the tomato. Looking back, this bagel would have been even better with the scallion cream cheese instead of plain, but as is, it was on par with what one would expect. The only downside is that, since this is sold as a lunch sandwich, it will run you about $8. On the plus side, this price includes a side. We chose the pasta salad. It wasn't bad, but perhaps a bit on the oily side.

If you're a fan of fresh bagels, this is one of your only options in the area. Luckily, Creole Bagelry does a pretty good job at what they do and will satisfy most customers. Their prices do tend to run a little high, but we'll take what we can get. Though the sweet cream cheeses are a bit lacking in flavor, the coffee, bagels, and savory cream cheeses are great and keep us coming back for more.