Bagels aren't a huge thing down here. Sure, people buy them at grocery stores and all, but to my knowledge, there are no bagel of the month clubs, no specialty bagel restaurants...
Wait. There's at least one bagel specialty shop around here. Bruegger's Bagels on Kingston Pike sells a variety of sandwiches on bagels, and it's the only place in town that I know of where one can get a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese. I'll admit, I have a thing for salmon... smoked, baked, even raw. I'm not a big fan on winter weather, but I'd seriously consider moving to Alaska if I knew there was going to be free salmon included in the move-in package.
Today I did a bad thing - I strayed away from my beloved bagel-with-salmon-and-cream-cheese-and-capers-and-tons-of-other-stuff to try out the Turkey Chipotle Club. I know how much meat and cream cheese they lovingly place on the smoked salmon bagel and thought that for $5.99 I would be getting a decent-sized sandwich, as I had not eaten anything except a slice of cold pizza earlier today and was quite hungry.
I was disappointed.
The sandwich was more bread than anything - indeed, aside from the tomatoes, the bread was almost all I could taste. One slice of the bread on that sandwich was twice as thick as all the other ingredients put together. One thin slice of turkey (on peeling the sandwich apart I mistook it for a particularly strange-looking piece of cheese), three strips of bacon, some thin-sliced tomatoes (this was its saving grace, I adore thin-sliced tomatoes), crisp lettuce, and... no mayo. I had been informed that there was to be chipotle mayo on the sandwich.
Nothing. Oh wait, there was a faint, almost mayonnaise-colored film on some parts of the turkey.
Fail.
I ate the sandwich, tasted nothing but the bread and tomato, and for six dollars (and tax) I didn't even get pleasantly full. Just 'sort of not hungry'.
They're a nice enough restaurant, very clean, with friendly folks behind the glass sneeze guard. I had a nice chat with a woman that I believe was the general manager and bought a tub of salmon-flavored cream cheese to bring home while my sandwich was being made.
I'll go back at some point, I'm sure - it's not a bad place by any means, but not really 'good' enough to keep me coming back more than once every few months or so. But when I do, I'm getting that salmon bagel.
-Molly
Bruegger's Bagels is located at:
4618 Kingston Pike SW
Knoxville, TN 37919-5230
(865) 257-4618
http://www.brueggers.com
