'Christmas-break-heaven' to 'back-at-my-desk-office-hell' transitional lunch… Bagel Mania

Bagel Mania | 338 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3JD

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​It’s your first day back at work after your over-all-too-quick Christmas break. The empty office a harsh and deeply depressing reminder of how stupid you were for having not booked the whole week off work. I mean seriously, who works between Christmas and New Year? How is this even an option for anyone who isn’t (and I say this with love as I worked retail for 6+ years) serving wildly-unnecessary-but-dramatically-reduced junk to shopping-weary, turkey-stuffed hacks who’s only alternative is to watch the Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special saved on the Sky box at home?  

Today is not the day for a thoughtfully packed lunch. Today is not the day to eat something plucked from whence it once grew happily and naturally in the ground or on a tree/plant/bush of some description.  Having said that, you do have 20lbs to lose to achieve even 1/10th of the New Year’s Resolutions you’re already questioning your ability to follow through on, in just 3 days’ time.

When lunch time roll’s around – you know what you want: a delicious bagel. Sure it’s no chickpea salad but – it’s not a Big Mac either… so it's a decisision with which you are winning at life.

This was me all of 4 hours ago and yes – I’m still pretty pleased with my ability to have perfectly balanced 'holiday-food-worthy-deliciousness' with 'not-the-worst-food-decision-available-within-a-half-mile-radius-of-my-desk'. I’ve been walking past Bagel Mania every day for the previous few weeks and meaning to stop in for a little jewel of Jewish cuisine. The menu is sizable and given bagels are made fresh to order, one can only assume you could wander beyond the confines of 'The Board' and request any combo your heart so desired. I kind of choked at the counter (as usual) and - despite my groaning tummy - ordered the simple pastrami and cream cheese, before having even given my peepers the chance to spot the NY Pastrami Deluxe or, more devastatingly, the Reuben half pounder. But hey, there’s always tomorrow… right?

I chose an onion bagel (the one closest to me) and waited a quick minute while my bagel was whipped up, warmed through and wrapped up in brown paper (seriously – someone has had lots of VERY recent Christmas wrapping practice…) all ready for me to enjoy on the trudge back to my desk. You can sit in though, the ambience is all you'd exact of a deli lunch counter.

I would have liked to see more pastrami, but I do accept I bought from the lighter, deli-style menu - probably more suited to a breakfast bite, a generous snack or a stomach not streteched by an entire turkey crown and several bags worth of duck-fat roasted potatoes only 72hrs prior. Yummy pastrami, deliciously creamy cheese and a bang-on bagel made for perfect lunching and I’ll certainly be back to beef mine up in honour of my visits to Katz’s Deli – aka: The Best Days of My Human Existence.