Chicago Bagel Authority…I feel like Jake Blues standing in the door of Triple Rock Church..

“Jesus Tap Dancing Christ I have seen the light”

Until now I have not understood any obsession with this type of sandwich. The bread is too dense, too thick and it is like eating a rubber sponge. Each week the hoards at work swarm down as the bagel man arrives with his three types of soft cheese as if Father Christmas had just been. I have tried, honestly, slicing them into three to make them less dense, toasting them to  improve the texture and lathering on so much cheese that it drips out of the hole in the centre all over the place. It has never worked.

BUT Chicago Bagel Authority you may have well turned my head and changed my mind. The secret seems to be to steam the bread, changing it to a moist and soft delight to eat, adding fillings that go together and that people might even like.

 In fact you ‘have’ changed my mind, well to your rather tasty offerings at least.

The staff are very friendly and helpful and although the boards are a bit overwhelming and probably caused the death of several pieces of innocent chalk, I think that the chalk will have died happy leaving such messages nay declarations of taste possibilities upon the black boards.

I went for a “Mikey’s Munch” Roast beef, pepperjack, lettuce, tomato, avocado & parmesan peppercorn dressing on an everything bagel. The beef was great tender and thinly cut, all the salad items worked so well together you would not even consider them salad, several rabbits walked past hungry searching for lunch and were also fooled.  Bugs Bunny was so famished that he gave himself up voluntarily to Elmer Fudd.

The steamed bun was awesomely good and really made this a good sandwich. I will now be eating bagels if they are as good as this one was. With a riduculously vast sandwich board of options to choose from I can see a winter happily ploughing through CBA’s reportoire.

I came across CBA by accident en route to another target eating spot which was full. CBA has two locations one at 953 Armitage Ave, in the shadows of the Armitage Brown line station. This is the one I sauntered into, the second and newer spot is by the Belmont Station at 955 W Belmont Avenue

website: http://cba-armitage.com/