"Well, I'm not the world's most passionate guy
But when I…read morelooked in her eyes, well,
I almost fell for my Lola
Lo-Lo-Lo-Lo-Lola)
(The Kinks)
We were in Torrington for an early service call appointment on our vehicle and decided to grab breakfast in town. I fired up the Yelp app, searched for bagel shops near me, and up popped Lola's Bagels.
It turned out to be an excellent choice, because we sure loved our visit.
We found them in a small shopping center with plenty of parking on East Main Street (Route 202). The dining room is modestly sized with four tables.
We saw they have about a dozen bagel flavors (including French Toast and Cranberry), six cream cheeses, seventeen breakfast sandwiches (including Ribeye Steak and Roast Beef), twelve Specialty Sandwiches (including some cool names like Pastrami Crispy and Big Boy Cheese), plus muffins, hash browns, and coffees - plenty of coffee choices.
Yes, they have a Latte, Cappuccino, and Macchiato, but what distanced them from ordinary bagel store coffees (at least in my mind), was the hit parade of twenty-nine flavored coffees - spanning the alphabet from Amaretto and Almond Joy to Salted Caramel and Sweet Irish Cream.
We ordered at the counter from Leonora, a very engaging and friendly host. Our order was simple -an Everything Bagel with Veggie Cream Cheese, an Everything Bagel with Scallion Chive Cream Cheese, a small coconut coffee and a small Chocolate Banana coffee. Everything ran a teense under $15.
Our coffees were made first, a few minutes later, our bagels were ready, so we sat down at one of the tables and dug in. My first observation was that the bagel itself was large and was served warm, as though it had recently come out of the oven. It had plenty of tasty Scallion Chive Cream Cheese. The combination of the warm bagel, the cream cheese, and the savory taste of the Everything seasoning and bits of scallions combined for a real taste treat.
And when I took a sip of my coffee, my breakfast zoomed into another dimension because that Chocolate Banana Coffee was amazing, I mean it was terrific. I loved the distinct banana and chocolate flavors.
As we enjoyed our meal, we saw a steady stream of walk-in customers and food delivery pickups. We noted that when a Grub Hubber or Door Dasher came in to pick up an order, the drinks were made in real time, not pre-poured. This meant the coffees would be delivered as hot as possible, and the cold drinks wouldn't be watered down by melted ice.
There were so many nice things we experienced at Lola's. As far as a coffee and bagel spot goes, it was as good as it gets.