Ever since I moved to New York City, I’ve been looking for a good bagel with lox. It might not sound like much, but 1) not every bagel place offers it, and 2) I’ve been picky about finding the right place. I was waiting for a special bagel place to come along and offer it with the right accoutrements. That’s where Main Street Bagels came through. On a recent Friday when I was craving a bagel sandwich for lunch, I stumbled across Main Street Bagels on Uber Eats. I eat a lot of good food in New York, so you’ll understand that I expected this to be good, too. Just good. So you’ll also understand my surprise when it turned out to be excellent, exquisite, just what the doctor ordered on this particular Friday (well actually, she ordered a topical cream for my eczema, but I digress). Wrapped in humble parchment paper and stuffed into a lonely brown paper bag, I could smell this sandwich before I even pulled it out of the bag. I ordered an everything bagel (my favorite) with sliced lox, scallion cream cheese, raw onion slices and grilled tomato. It might not be totally classic, but who cares. It was absolutely delicious. It was salty, creamy, flavorful, balanced—everything you want in a perfect sandwich. The bagel was chewy on the inside and firm on the outside, the acidity from the onion cut right through the creaminess of the scallion cream cheese, while the lox added the right saltiness without being fishy, and the grilled tomato added some warmth to an otherwise cold sandwich. It was the kind of humble discovery that blows your mind. I surely didn’t expect this little sandwich that was meant to satiate my bagel craving would upend my whole day in the best way. I ate this sandwich right before a meeting, and I sat at my desk for a minute in complete surprise and awe at the sandwich I’d just scarfed down.

The sandwich alone was incredibly enjoyable to say the very least. But tack on the mini chocolate babka, and you’re in for a true treat. I’d never had babka before, and now I’m bummed that I’ve missed out on this for the last 25 years. The mini babka reminded me of a complicated cinnamon roll, unwrapping in a sort of strange pattern. But I enjoyed decoding this pastry puzzle, unwrapping layer after layer of light, beautiful dough just slathered in still-melted chocolate. It was all over my fingers by the time I was done. It was a bliss I couldn’t pull myself away from and before I knew it, it was all gone. What surprised me about this babka was that the top of the pastry had a slight crunch to it that I loved. It also had a little crumble on top that added to some of the crunch, and wow, color me obsessed. To be honest, it’s rare that I have a lunch that I find particular impressive. Breakfast, brunch, dinner, dessert? Sure, but lunch? Eh. Having a lunch this humble and powerful totally uplifted my day. Thank you, Main Street Bagels for the lunch I didn’t know I needed in my life.