Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Right after I moved to Park Slope, I went to the co-op to see what it was all about and maybe even join. The minute I walked in, I was confronted by some militant member telling me that if I'm not a member I can't enter and she escorted me out. I didn't even get a "may I help you" or information on what I needed to do get an orientation or something. That pretty much but me off from that place.

A friend of mine who was a member basically had to take a leave because he was going through a divorce and he got drilled and lectured about delinquency and the time he could and could not take off. Even if I did have the time to put in, I would never want to subject myself to their standards.

I joined this winter and elected a food processing shift to stay out of the line of fire upstairs.

charging extra for toasting is insane.
but more important is that a toasted bagel should not be shmeared until it is room temperature cream chees should never be melted it is just too gross
also the biggest pet peeve is the fact that the jokers behind the counter put the butter or crean cheese on one side only and then close the bagel and cut it
everybody should know that it does not taste the same as being spread on both sides.
to alweays get it done i have to demand it mostly at murray's
gosh this old fart hates the way bagels have gone downhill
but in flatbush in the 50s and 60s the bagel shop just sold the bagels
you had to go to appetizing stores for everything else
what do you expect from a country where dunkin donuts are the biggest sellers of bagels.
go to maple glen bagels in fair lawn new jersey for the best bagel and lox sandwich in the world
lox from acme on a non toasted flagel with scallion cream chees and very thin red onions and the kicker is hot peppers sliced very thin
sheer bilss
go late morning eat have a cup of coffeeand then walk a few feet to johnny and hanges for the best texas weiners and slaw/sweet relish wash it down with a boylan's birch beer

oh the humanity and sheer joy

As a business owner, I understand that you have to do what you have to do to make a living these days. With that said I find it quite unconscionable to charge to toast your bagel... Guess you could just take your own blowtorch with you in the morning and get your toast on for free...

I'm a fan of Lenny's sandwiches, but this is definitely not cool. I totally agree with others above, it really doesn't take that much time to toast a bagel and there's nothing keeping them from helping the next customer. They do that anyway when they're making sandwiches. Goodness. I definitely won't be buying a bagel at Lenny's anytime soon.

The current daughter of Russ and Daughters has been recorded as saying that no fresh bagel should ever be toasted: toasting is only for day-old bagels.

But that's not he point. The point is, if you ask for a toasted bagel, should there be a charge for it? And the answer, unequivocally, is NO. That is offensive to the point of insanity.

Ok all of the "cost to run/repair/buy a toaster" arguments are moot. The point is, there is a cost to run a business, period, and those costs should be reflected in cost of ALL sandwiches. Added a 25 cent surcharge doesn't say "we're covering costs", it says "we want to discourage toasting". Let's suppose 1 in 5 people want it toasted, you can charge 25 cents and risk losing half of those people, or 10% of all business, or you can charge everyone 5 cent more. The latter makes more sense - no hurt feelings, customers return. OR you can man up, and eat the 5 cents per bagel from profit so you can put out an attractive product and service that is considered standard.

I can tell you that I have definitely on several occasions opted to walk a block past Murray's to Brooklyn Bagel because of the no-toasting policy at Murray's. Maybe if Murray's was my favorite bagel, I'd tolerate that shit, but it's not.

And czken, I am sorry you're not from New York, but not all of us have time or desire to buy a bagel and fresh cream cheese and tomato and cut it up and assemble our own sandwich wherever it is we will end up eating it.

No! Charging extra is lame

Seriously? A real bagel shop will take the time to turn out a good bagel. That means toasted or untoasted...so if the customer wants the bagel toasted, toast the bagel and don't charge. Really...how much time and effort does it take to toast a bagel? And I agree with a previous commenter...take the time to spread the cream cheese on the bagel.

Hah, the customer is not always right. Besides, what does that have to do with what an establishment charges?

"Charging for toasting is like charging more for a well-done burger, since it takes up more time on the griddle—a real affront to the customer."

Considering bagel shops don't usually serve burgers, I think it's safe to say this comparison is.. moot.

If you want the bagel toasted, they have to run it through a toaster, which uses electricity they have to pay for. If they want to pass the fee on to you- they have that right, and frankly it makes sense.

I wonder, if I paid an extra 25 cents, would my local shop cut the bagel all the way through for me so I don't have to tear it apart?

Would they put a tolerable amount of cream cheese on it so I don't have to bite into a cream cheese hockey puck?

Would they start to decipher "half the usual amount of cream cheese, please" to mean "half the usual amount spread over the whole bagel", or would they continue to interpret that as "Same thickness of cream cheese, but only on one half of the bagel."?

Would they put the lid on the coffee cup so that the tab isn't over the cup seam?

On another note, there is a difference between the typical mass market doughy "bagel" and a real, true bagel - what we call Montreal style, probably similar to your NY style. I don't consider them to be the same food item. One is a bagel, and the other is a "bagel". I still enjoy them both, but for different reasons! Same name, different food. Kind of like how there's curry, and then there's what you get in England. I still enjoy English curry though :)