Morningside bagels in Maumelle

Last Saturday morning, I was out towards Maumelle so I decided to stop in at Morningside Bagels. I've always thought it was a shame that there aren't more bagel shops around Arkansas. Maybe there are more than I know about, but Morningside was the first bagel shop I've ever been to in Arkansas. I heard there used to be one out around Bowman but no more. In any case, I took the opportunity to stop in and try it out.

They make their bagels fresh every morning, and even have a glass window overlooking their baking area so you can see it firsthand. Check out their website to see a fully menu, but they have 17 different kinds of bagels ranging from plain to spinach parmesan. They also have 5 different kinds of cream cheese, plus peanut butter, honey, jelly, or even lox. They even have breakfast sandwiches (on bagels, of course), soups, and basic latte choices.

We got there around 8:15 on a Saturday and although there were a steady stream of people through the door and the drive through, nothing seemed hectic or rushed. Everyone there was extremely nice and helpful.

I started off by ordering an Everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese and my companion got spinach parmesan with plain cream cheese. I also had a hot chocolate. Both bagels came out perfectly toasted and generously schmeared. I got to try the spinich parmesean and it was very good without being overpowering. I ate the bottom half of my everything bagel first and it was delicious. The vegetable cream cheese was actually much better than I expected it to be. I would definitely order that again. When I got to the top half, I got to taste the "Everything" part of the bagel. Everything bagels are usually my favorite kind of bagel. They're topped with a mixture of all the toppings that get put on the other bagels, so there's usually poppy seeds, onion, sesame seed and whatever else. At Morningside though, they have a salt bagel that's topped with big pieces of salt (not sure if it's kosher, sea salt, etc). I like salty, but the addition of salt to my everything bagel kept me from being able to taste anything else, including the vegetable in my vegetable cream cheese. If I go back again, I'll definitely skip the salt or everything bagel.

Before we left, I wanted to split a chocolate chip bagel with chocolate cream cheese. I love chocolate, so I didn't want the chance to pass by without trying that. I already had my hot chocolate, but I was still waiting for that to cool down, so I ordered the bagel. It came out very quickly, and was fairly good. The cream cheese with chocolate mixed in was an odd combination, but I suspect some people might like it. I probably wouldn't order it again.

Overall, my experience was good enough that I'll definitely stop in again if I'm out that way around breakfast time. If you like bagels, stop in and give it a try. It's a nice departure from the usual donut choices that usually dominate the weekend breakfast circuit.