Empire Bagel & Delicatessen — Restaurant in Thomasville

UPDATE 12/30/17 ———————— We stopped in yesterday to get a half dozen bagels to go, and a crumb cake. The crumb cake is a home run: large in size and really tasty. This morning we toasted the bagels and I’m happy to say that the dough was properly salted, making our last batch (hopefully) an anomaly. Still, while these are certainly New York-ish, they aren’t quite there. But having empire in thomasville means theres no reason to settle for crappy supermarket bagels.

UPDATE 12/18/17: Picked up a dozen bagels to go. The bagels are clearly hand formed, which gives them an artisanal charm. It also means that the bagels differ in sizes and weight (for those counting calories). As you can see from the photo, the baking was uneven. While the poppy bagels had the requisite crunchy outside and soft inside, the everything and sesame bagels were clearly under baked (and will likely taste better toasted). I'll chalk it up to them being open for just a week, but they'll need to find a consistent bake to live up to their suggestion that you not toast a fresh bagel. The poppy bagel was good, but needed more salt in the dough. The scallion cream cheese was good as was the crumb cake.

I'll give it a few weeks and head back. I'm optimistic that they'll be more consistent by then.

ORIGINAL REVIEW As a born and bred New Yorker, now living in Tallahassee, I'm magnetically drawn to bagel stores and delis. And with their name including both, plus a nod to NYC, I knew I had to stop in and see what they've got. We went to the door and saw a crowd. Yet the door was locked. People saw us and told us to come around to the back. Well...

Turns out today was their very first soft opening for friends and family, hence the locked front door. They officially open on Tuesday. As we are neither family nor friend, we started to leave when the owner, John, invited us to stay and taste. And so we quickly became friend (he's a fellow New Yorker!). And I am soooo glad we stayed.

I'll write a more formal review when we visit next week, but here's what I can tell you: the bagel samples we had were amazing. Perfect New York style bagels. Crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Hand rolled, boiled, and baked to perfection. And their homemade cream cheeses rocked. And let's not start talking about the delicious homemade crumb cake...

I can't wait to go back and order a real meal, with at least a dozen to go. And if you do go for bagels, heed the sign on the wall: toasting not encouraged. You should never toast a fresh bagel. I'm a New...

This Begal spot was a delight to find in the historic downtown area of Thomasville, GA. My family was hoping to find some place we could get a good quick breakfast before we hit the road going back home from out of town, and this was the perfect place.

Food: The first thing we noticed when we walked in was their begal station where they make their begals fresh daily. I was not expecting to see that.

All the food we ate was really good. I got the Cali breakfast wrap after a recommendation from a frequent customer, and my daughters got Begal breakfast sandwich on a garlic Begal & one one the French toast Begal. I loved the Cali breakfast wrap dinner it was a lil healthier but tasted good. My girls liked their breakfast Begal sandwiches as well. We also got a chocolate croissant warmed up of course and it was heavenly. It was flaky and buttery and delicious.

Cost: the prices were affordable and nothing expensive for my family of three to spend eating freshly made breakfast.

Service: this spot is a begal & cafe style shop so they don't have table service so you order at the counter and then pick it up when it's called out. The only knock on the service is that the lights are long in the morning and that's a good thing for this place because it's good food and the locals seem to live it. I don't check to see if we could order online & pick up in the store. My only other nit to pick is that I'd like to see them maybe add some healthy smoothie options to the menu.

Atmosphere; the insides were quaint and what you would expect for a small town begal shop. It's clean with a few tables that had that small town charm.

Do yourself a favor and do and eat if your in the area. You won't be...

have not even tried the bagels yet, I’m writing this waiting in line because it is so unpleasant in here. 100% just saying this because I think it’s important for you guys to understand what a turn off this is, I drove from Tallahassee only to walk into a super chaotic and hostile environment. The guy at the register might as well have been yelling, his energy was so loud and he was so offputting. Clearly did not want to be there and was making it everyone else’s problem. That goes for the person who handed me my bag as well, a small blonde girl who seemed absolutely furious to be having to deal with me at all. I get it, I lived in New York for many years and I understand what it’s like to work somewhere super busy and stressful. The fact is though unfortunately, that as a result, I will definitely not be coming back no matter how good the bagel is and I’ll be sure to mention it to people if they ask me about it because who would allow this type of vibe in their place of business makes me feel like they’re not to be trusted with my food. Also, some sort of line system would be really helpful, the fact that everyone was mailing about completely directionless with no idea what to do or who was taking orders or where orders were being given out contributed to the Vibe in a big way. Also, after paying the guy at the register just walked away and did not tell me where I should be waiting. If my name would be called if he was getting my bagels for me… It’s really amateur stuff and you guys should definitely make a point...