Old Man Joe’s — Restaurant in Westerly

This review is in reply to some of the, few, bad reviews- because they seem to have some consistent themes: the guy in the goofy hat and tourist vs. local, and cost… the guy in the hat does his job a masterfully- if you don’t like his attitude, think of him nostalgically like the grumpy woman that might have served you at a diner in the “good old days”- all the regulars that have gotten to know him find him endearing- that’s what they see when I’m there; as for who the intended demographic is- I’m not sure, but my family arrived in westerly in the 1650s (does that make me a local?), and the people I interact with there range from people I grew up with, to new friends- sometimes other swamp Yankees, and transplants who have decided to make this area home (perhaps they chose westerly over NYC)- as another small business owner, I know you can’t build a business based on tourism and expect to have a job year around. As for costs- we now have a Starbucks, and I can’t imagine their prices are much cheaper, as far as coffee goes, unless you want to buy something from a chain that’s going to send their profit out of town, I don’t think you’ll find coffee or a bagel much cheaper- life is expensive, blame it on the government and big business, not the guy making bagels in the middle of the night.

I’ve found omj to be a great new community centered business with people who care about the food they make and their customers, in a...

I’m speechless. Someone told me that this place “has the best bagels in New England.” “Yeah, right” I thought. Turns out they were right. They’re unbelievably good.

My first experience was picking up a half dozen to go. Not cheap, but delicious. My only complaint is that the everything bagel had too much garlic and salt, making it nearly inedible without scraping a lot of it off. The ratio needs more sesame and poppy seeds.

My second experience was heavenly. I went in to sit down for a bagel and decided I wanted to try a bagel with cream cheese, and add some of their IN-HOUSE-MADE-LOX.

The person at the counter asked if I wanted to try the “Joe’s Gone Fishin’” item from the menu instead, since it had those things and a few more. Reluctant, having looked at the price(!), I decided to indulge. I passed over a 20 dollar bill and said keep the change, which I later realized did not equal a 10% tip (ouch). At any rate, it was probably the best bite of food I’ve had in Westerly so far. SO, SO GOOD. Wow.

Not only is the lox made in-house, but so are all the brined items (and bagels of course). The pickles themselves are to die for. Honestly, try this place and indulge. It’s worth it. It atmosphere is warm (European feeling) and the people are really nice too. I got a few extra pickles to take home when I complimented them.

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If I could give this place zero stars I would. Ordered bagels and cream cheese. One would think this would be a pretty standard order as there would be no cooking involved. Just put bagels and cream cheese in bag and hand to customer. I never received them. Waited an hour. They were busy so I didn’t push and ask where my order was until I started seeing others who had ordered before me get their food. When I finally asked where my order was I was met with a confused look then he said oh no I must have given your bag to someone else. Then he said it’s too bad people don’t come back in when they receive the wrong order. Right, so it’s cool to basically blame another customer for being given the wrong order. On top of the fact I was supposed to be okay with eating food that left a restaurant with someone else? No thanks. I’ll be saving my money and my time for...