Best Bagel

If Dorothy followed the yellow brick road and ended up at Emerald City Bagels she'd forget about Kansas in a heartbeat. Skip over to their EAV retail shop exuding retro NYC charm and sink your teeth into a rosemary bagel with cream cheese washed down with an egg cream. You'll be tapping your ruby slippers with glee. less...

Mom and pop bagel shops are quickly disappearing in the ATL, but you can still tug your teeth through a chewy, authentic bagel at the BAGEL PALACE. This Jewish bakery and restaurant serves up the real thing - boiled, then baked and piled high into wire baskets. Homesick New Yorkers will find all the flavors of home, including wheat, cinnamon raisin, egg, poppy, onion and salt among others. Top your bagel with one of the velvety cream cheeses or try a salty slab of lox peppered in capers. Oy, we love the real McCoy. "2869 N. Druid Hills Road, 404-315-9016." less...

In a city that has become dominated by chain operations, the independent BAGEL PALACE DELI AND BAKERY remains one of a few places you can buy a bagel that doesn't taste like compressed white bread. Here the bagel dough is boiled and then baked to perfection: slightly crisp on the outside, with a dense, chewy interior. There's also a full menu of entrees and sandwiches. We love everything from the chopped liver to the lox. "2869 N. Druid Hills Road. 404-315-9016." less...

4383 Roswell Road 404-256-3751 Goldberg's bagels taste great with butter or cream cheese and lox spread, but you could say that of many bagels. And you can get Goldberg's bagels in more than 20 kinds of flavors (including such Baskin-Robbins-sounding varieties as Chocolate Chip and Banana Nut), but many other bakeries provide such selection. But even plain Goldberg's bagels are baked to be tender, not tough, with no sharpness in flavor. The test of a great bagel is, in fact, your likelihood of eating one on the drive home, even in the absence of coffee or condiments. A Goldberg's bagel, soft and hot from the oven, is impossible to resist. less...

Let's face it: Even though Einstein's is a corporate chain, it's got some of the best bagels in the city. Where else can you get a solid assortment of honest bagels, with whipped cream cheese spreads, even "lite" versions, that aren't stiff as plastic? An added bonus: Einstein's does eggs, scrambled. You must try the scrambled eggs with green onions and country sausage on a cheese bagel. less...

In this familiar, friendly atmosphere, regular customers ask after the Goldberg's grandchildren, who may one day own this genuine, family-owned establishment boasting bakery and deli. Goldberg's has authentic, New York-style boiled bagels in a wide variety of flavors. Unlike chain bagel places, with their flavored, whipped cream cheeses and banana nut bagels, Goldberg's is a no-nonsense bagel emporium. Along with your mixed baker's dozen and tub of cream cheese, you may also pick up kosher pickles, sauerkraut, olives and pastrami. less...