This place is more popular than you'd think. When I arrived at maybe 10:30 AM on a Saturday, I could hardly pull onto the lot. I wondered where all those people could be going. Come to find out, Einstein Bros is the only open establishment in this strip. There's been signage for a Nail place next door since Jesus left Chicago, but it's empty on the inside. At the far end of the strip, there's an empty space with a drive-thru. If/when it opens, you can imagine this place being even more of a clusterfrick--though it should be noted that this overall development has been surprisingly well-designed, at least traffic-wise, so far. Much of the traffic on the lot today was just people trying to get as close to the front door as possible. I'll spare you my thoughts on ostensibly able-bodied people who circle a grocery store parking lot for half an hour trying to get the closest parking space possible, because that's not why we're here.
Inside was an absolute zoo and a surprisingly diverse demographic mix--just as many clearly slept-in sweatpants (on women, mind you) as there was Patagonia. Bagels: bringing America together. The dining room is small and inhospitable. There's only a few tables and, as is the case with the Panera across the street, they seem to be purposely designed to not be comfy. They don't want anyone showing up with a laptop trying to write the next great American novel. All of the seating is clearly visible to the person working the register, lest anyone get any bright ideas. All orders are made to-go by default. You can eat there if you want to, if you can find a table. That might not be as much of an issue at 10:30 AM on a weekday.
I was there to get a bagel with lox, which I've never had from Einstein Bros. I was glad to see that there was one on the menu, since I didn't think to show up with an envelope of lox in my pocket just in case. I've had one of their breakfast-y sandwiches once before--it may have been a bacon, egg and cheese--and didn't care for it. But I think it was more a matter of me not liking the idea of a sandwich on a bagel. A bagel with lox is different, because it's mostly just a bagel with cream cheese. The lox, capers, onions and what have you function as an accent. I got the bagel and a small coffee, and my total, with a 0% tip (feel free to @ me, if necessary), came to just shy of $13. They didn't give me a cup for coffee when I paid nor when they gave me my bagel. I just reached and grabbed one. I took a large, since they couldn't be bothered to hand it to me. I wanted (admittedly) the vanilla hazelnut coffee, and both pots were out. I settled for a breakfast blend.
The bagel was honestly much better than I expected. If you can manage to eat it there, there's a nice contrast between the fresh-from-the-toaster bagel and the cream cheese. The bagel is nice and soft, with the toasted part being just a little crisp. The lox is sliced thick enough to feel substantial, with the trade-off being that they don't give you enough of it to fully cover the bagel. Some bites are just cream cheese and the various other toppings. The shmear is generous, but not as ridiculous as some places in New York, where they give you more or less an entire brick of Philadelphia. Eww! The onions are fresh and delightfully pungent. The tomatoes aren't stale, but they're kinda flavorless in the way that tomatoes at fast-food restaurants often are. I bet that's the case more often than not, not unlike at Wendy's. I'd suggest they find a better purveyor, but I shudder to think what they might charge if they did. read more