Clearwater Bagels — Restaurant in Clearwater

TL;DR - If you're gonna talk about a customer, make sure the customer has left. From reading other reviews, it seems like this isn't the first customer service/attitude issue about this place. Two stars because the younger gentlemen in the front were awesome. I don't normally give not great reviews, but there is a first time for everything.

I prepaid for a $115 order of coffee, spread, and bagels. At pick up, I asked kindly if it was possible to just take one container of coffee instead of two, since I over ordered. (I figured, may as well ask if they're willing to give me a refund and one less. If I end up with two, it is what it is. No harm, no foul.) Brian seemed very annoyed when answering "If you called before I brewed it, I probably could have worked something out but can't do anything now. I won't dump it." I understand a small business doesn't want to eat product because I made an ordering mistake & I get that. I said okay, thank you I'll figure it out. (I'm still good at this point) When I came back in to ask about slicing the bagels and to grab the rest of my order (They don't slice them early cause they're still hot) I heard him saying the only reason I was willing to eat it was because I prepaid it, and if I hadn't prepaid for it I wouldn't have wanted it. The other woman goes "Well if she didn't prepay for it and didn't want to take it, then what?" They made a fair point, they weren't wrong at all, but there are much better ways to present good customer service. Him talking loudly enough I could hear him in the front bothered me. When I tried to ask if there was something else I needed to know about my order, she looked at me and said no there isn't. I was annoyed, because I could hear them and I was the only customer at the time, but it was more important to get to my meeting than it was to escalate.

Bagels were great - just be a normal food service person and talk after your customer is gone. I understand the frustration with what you may think is a dumb question, but I took the response rather graciously until this review - You still got my money, I still ended up with 2...

IMO part of me would like to rate 4 stars for various reasons but because my bagels were very enjoyable I believe that should count for something. Came here 2 times while visiting in the area. What they do well: -Cream cheese ( Bacon Horseradish was outstanding! It had strips/pieces of bacon in it (but the bacon didn't really contribute any flavor, the horseradish was the real star) -Overall delicious bagels (however not exactly NY like) -Cinnamon Raisin bagel with Strawberry cream cheese was absolutely wonderful. The bagel was perfectly cinnamon-y. Almost dessert-like. A real treat! -The bagel's exterior I found to be a bit crunchy(even as non toasted) still was good although not my preference -Decent customer service

What could be better: -Don't accept American Express -Social distancing/capacity procedures (hand written on small signs, wasn't exactly sure where to go/what to do) said 2 customers in at a time to order & then to wait outside but customers weren't noticing/following the recommendations. I felt safe, just it seemed a little chaotic. -Sizes of the bagels were inconsistent. Especially for the price which I don't mind paying as long as product is consistent each time. My second time visit, the bagels were noticeably smaller. The bagels are displayed nicely in a case when you're there which visibly had good size bagels in them. -The Everything bagel was a nice bagel but there was such a small amount of the Everything seasoning that it would have been better to just have a plain bagel.

Overall, I would come back based on the...

Today, Was the day! I was finally able to go into Clearwater Bakery, having driven by many times wanting to stop, but too busy to... But today, I went in, and had the best bagel in decades!!! Had a toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese & lox smear. I asked "who makes the bagels"? and was told "Michael, makes the bagels," happened to be the same person who was preparing it! with loads of smear! Wow! The texture of this bagel was toasty but had a soft chew , not a hard cardboard flavorless, laborious chew, that has been my experience with most every bagel I have met. But this one, every bite, was better than the last, my son , bought one too, and he agreed! And the the cream cheese was divine, it was light in texture, like a mound of clouds, piled high, dare I say, eating this bagel was a heavenly experience? .Even the sesame seeds, were on both sides of the bagel and were toasted to perfection and I could actually taste their tiny yummy goodness! This was such a treat today. I will force myself to make a pit stop on my drive, from now on. And try the other varieties and combinations they have there. And you can also buy containers of the cream cheese, with variety of flavors. I'm never buying store bought cream cheese again!.I'm not kidding when I say, I have literally been thinking about this bagel all day, it was that good! Thank you Michael for clearly making the best bagel, in...