Big Apple Bagels (Kalamazoo)
4408 W. Main StreetA few weeks ago I was writing a blog post for a Big Apple Bagels location in Portage. While I was writing that, I went to tag the other location in Kalamazoo and realized, I’ve never written a blog post about that location.
The more I thought about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually been to that location to write a post about it. That was going to have to change.
I was driving around on the west side of town last Friday and was trying to figure out what I was hungry for. Jersey Mike’s sounded really good but as I was getting close, the whole Big Apple Bagel thing jumped in to my brain again. I figured what the heck. I was in the area and I was hungry.
The Kalamazoo location for Big Apple Bagels is on West Main Street and Piccadilly Road in Kalamazoo’s Westwood Neighborhood. The bagel shop shares a building with other restaurants. There’s a Subway location and Lake Burger. Kalamazoo used to have a second Big Apple Bagels location. First, it was on the corner of Whites and Westnedge in a building that became J. Gumbo’s and is right now transforming in to a Savvy Sliders. The store moved down the street to Westnedge and Parker in a building built for them but that location closed to and is now Apoptosis Brewing. That leaves this West Main location and the Portage location as the two left in the Kalamazoo metro.
I stopped in around 1:00 PM so the store was kind of winding down from the lunch rush. There’s an order counter near the back of the store with a display case that includes some sweets. The bins of bagels are behind the counter and they were pretty well picked over for the day. I took a look at the menu board and went for the lunch sandwiches since I usually do breakfast when I go to a bagel shop. I decided to do something new.
I put in an order for the Kickin’ Roast Beef sandwich. I asked for it on an Everything bagel without looking at the shelves. They were out of Everything so I said plain was fine. The cost for the sandwich was right around $7.
There are a couple of seating options in the cafe. There is a lunch counter type area off to the left of the order counter. It’s not a bad spot if you’re dining alone or just sipping on coffee in the morning. There are a handful of high back pub style black chairs pushed up to the semi-circle counter next to the smoothie and coffee bar.
There is also a dining room with traditional four tops and huge windows that let in a lot of natural light. The space felt simultaneously dark and bright. Most of the light was coming from the natural light being let in through the windows but that’s a harsh light that messes with your eyes. There was some ambient lighting as well as some fluorescents but the natural light was the dominate light source at this time of day.
It took less than ten minutes for my name to be called. I grabbed the bag and headed back to the car as I needed to get back to work.
The Kickin’ Roast Beef is a pretty simple deli sandwich with roast beef, lettuce, tomatoes, and horseradish. I peeled off the tomatoes and asked for the bagel to be toasted. It was simple tasty sandwich that got most of it’s flavor for the tangy horseradish dolloped in the middle. The plain bagel was fine but I do wish they still had an Eveything left.
I think I prefer breakfast at Big Apple Bagels but there was nothing wrong with this sandwich. I just think of bagels as breakfast food that pair well with eggs and bacon. I still can’t believe I’ve never stopped in this West Main location. I’ve driven by it probably literally thousands of times.
SW Michigan Dining 