A drawing of the outside of Nate’s Bagels. Image credit: natesbagelsrva.com.

By Claiborne Dillard

On the corner of South Allen Avenue and West Cary Street, you will find a small and vibrant-colored café, with “Nate’s Bagels” painted on a sign above the orange door. I knew I had to give this café a try after my tennis coach and multiple friends requested it.

On an overcast morning, Izzy Lee (‘23), Lucy Ottley (‘23) and I traveled to this bagel shop with high expectations. We believed our experience was going to be perfect. Little did we know the café is located on the corner, resulting in absolutely no parking nearby. We had to drive about a block and a half before finding a parking spot. But we were not going to let this little inconvenience ruin our trip. 

After walking for what felt like an eternity, we finally arrived at Nate’s Bagels. There were around 25 people surrounding the shop, leaving us in a state of confusion. Why weren’t they sitting inside the café? Was there not enough seating inside? Turns out the shop is only doing online orders for pick-up, and no customers were allowed inside. A little disappointed, we decided to order the bagels online, strolled back to the car, and waited until our bagels were ready for pick-up. 

Our order number, 248, was estimated to be ready at 10:47 a.m. So, a few minutes before then, we began walking back to the shop to retrieve our food. At this point, we were a little hangry, and we thought our food would be ready because it had been almost half an hour. As we arrived at the cafe for the second time, we heard one of the employees call out “number 201.” We look at each other with blank faces. We still had 47 more orders before us. I was still determined to have a decent experience, and did not want to waste the money I spent on my bagel, so we sat on the curb, waiting for our number to be called.

After lots of small talk with my friends, a woman finally came out with a brown paper bag and announced our number. Finally, we thought. We could enjoy the bagels we had waited for what felt like hours. But, to add on to all of the stress and list of things not going our way, it started raining. Because we couldn’t go inside of Nate’s Bagels, the only shelter was the car, one and a half blocks away from us. So, with our brown paper bag full of bagels and orange juice, we sprinted back to the car. At this point, we were all beyond hungry. 

The bird’s eye view of the “Classic Breakfast.” Photo credit: Claiborne Dillard.

We drove as fast as we could back to my house so we could try our so-called irresistible bagels. All three of us ordered the “Classic Breakfast,” which includes a fried egg, bacon, and cheese (your choice of American, Swiss, cheddar, or provolone) on your choice of bagel (plain, everything, sesame, poppyseed, onion, sea salt, rosemary sea salt, pumpernickel, cinnamon raisin, Nate’s Bagel, whole wheat, whole wheat everything, or their homemade challah bread). I was a little overwhelmed by the choice of bagels but decided to go with my usual: an everything bagel. I also added avocado and plain cream cheese to elevate the flavor.

As I ripped open the packaging, I was pleasantly surprised. While we had been waiting at Nate’s, my expectations got lower and lower. But I saw a fluffy bagel, a thick layer of cream cheese, and the other ingredients placed perfectly in between the bagel slices. The only initial issue I had with this bagel was the egg, which looked as thin as paper. But, I was so hungry at this point that it didn’t matter. I took my first bite and immediately loved it. The flavors went perfectly together, and I had never had such a well-cooked bagel. Ottley (‘23) explained the “avocado was perfectly ripe, although I wish it was a little warmer.” Lee (‘23) said she “loved the crunch of the bagel, but there was not enough cream cheese,” which I was confused by, because my bagel had about half an inch of cream cheese. 

The reviews online vary. For example, Yelp reviewer Scott F., gave his bagel one star and said, “Poor customer service. Tasteless, poorly made bagels. Don’t waste your time.” Contrarily, a five-star reviewer, Hallie B., claimed, “I swear every time I go I think their bagels and their sandwiches are getting better.” Despite the drastically different reviews, I would rate my experience a three out five stars because my bagel was delicious, but there were a number of disruptions in the way.

After this inconvenient array of events just to get a bagel sandwich, it was hard to tell if I would ever go back. But after actually eating the flavorful bagel, I knew I needed to go back. I may have to wait until they begin to allow customers back inside for dining, but I am very curious and want to try all of their other signature bagels.

Featured image credit: Claiborne Dillard.