Kick in the Head

Yet another comic about the bagel place I’ve been going to. It turns out that there are a lot of ways to go wrong when your bagel order consists of six specific requirements. So far they’ve never messed up the “bagel” part of the order, so I’ll give them that. Yes, it’s always been a bagel. This time they didn’t toast it, otherwise everything else was just fine.

This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if their bagels were as awesome as the bagels at Terrace Bagels, but while they’re much better than other bagel shops I’ve been to. If Terrace Bagels is a 100, I’d say this place is scoring somewhere around high 70s. For reference I’d put a deli around 50s, and everything below that is some place that is outside of New York (though I’ve heard good things about Montreal bagels, so I’m not counting them out yet).

When I first started going to my current deli there actually wasn’t a tip jar in front of the grill area. I think in the past few months one was added. It was a jar wrapped in paper with no markings on it. Just recently they wrote “TIPS” on it because I guess people didn’t realize it was for tips.

The question is, how much do you give to the two guys who for nearly a year remember your order without even a word from your lips? On top of that they do it with a smile like they’re actually happy to see that you came in again that morning.

My girlfriend and I go to the same deli now that our office moved locations. The last time I went to the counter the guy just said “I got it.” So whenever I’m not actually getting a bagel in the morning I just wait outside while she gets her coffee just in case he sees me and starts toasting up a bagel without me saying anything. At the old deli I started switching up the flavor after he knew that it was always going to be a toasted bagel of some type with cream cheese. But actually at this deli the raisin bagels have decent sized raisins so I think I’ll stick with it.