Brandwein's Bagels

I was flying in from boston this past Saturday and needed bagels for breaking fast after yom kippur. I thought I already ordered to have something mailed but it turned out I hadn't. I called brandwein first thing in the morning before flying to N. Carolina and got the wonderful Elizabeth who was wonderful and kind and made sure we got what we needed. The bagels were amazing for the south and the egg and white fish salad delicious. And chapel hill is a charming place. We had a great experience.

Brandwein's Bagels is solid. My wife and I have enjoyed their bagel sandwiches from: (1) the shop at the corner of W Rosemary St and N Graham St, (2) the food fridges at UNC Hospitals, and (3) catered events. Brandwein's serves New-York-style bagels "boiled and baked in Chapel Hill," as it says on their storefront.The store opened in August 2020. The business is named after founder and owner Alex Brandwein, who graduated with an MBA from Kenan-Flagler that same year. Brandwein's took over the small brick building formerly occupied by Midway Community Kitchen. The building was renovated. The exterior now sports a bright, white look. It's certainly an upgrade and a cute space for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community.This place is popular. Limited seating is available inside and out. Outside, the seating is uncovered. Fans were installed outdoors for warm/hot weather.There's no dedicated parking. The closest parking is on N Graham St, south of Rosemary. On that stretch, you have to pay for parking Monday-Saturday, 8am-6pm (otherwise, it's free). Use the ParkMobile app, zone #3612. North of Rosemary, parking on N Graham St and Sunset Dr is free, as is the Carrboro municipal gravel lot at the corner of Rosemary and Sunset.Some of our favorite sandwiches include:#2 The Lox ($12.85) - ACME smoked salmon, plain cream cheese, red onion, tomato, capers, dill, lemon#3 The Reuben ($11.85) - Boar's Head corned beef, melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Brandwein's Russian dressing#6 The BLT ($7.60) - applewood-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, Duke's mayoThese are simply fresh, well-made, filling, and satisfying bagel sandwiches. The bagel flavor and texture is just right, and the ingredients are well proportioned and balanced. Yummy.The service we've experienced has been good.TL;DR version - this is the best bagel shop in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that I know of.

Giving four stars only because past experiences here have been good. A friend ordered takeout sandwiches for us. Hers was a veggie sandwich on a poppyseed bagel, mine was chicken salad with arugula, also on poppyseed. Both sandwiches were on onion bagels. My bagel did not seem fresh, which was odd at 11:30 AM on a Saturday, but I wonder if they were running low and it was just too late to bake more poppyseed bagels so they gave us "potluck."Even so, the sandwich would have been fine if I had ordered just arugula on a bagel, but as my old Jewish mother would have said, a chicken walked through it on stilts. There was a tiny dollop of chicken salad that was mostly mayonnaise and grapes, with exactly three small chunks of chicken. If you're going to sell a chicken salad sandwich, please put some chicken salad on it and please put some chicken in it or call it a grape salad.As mentioned, I've been here before for breakfast sandwiches and fared much better. It seems that they do breakfast sandwiches well and lunch sandwiches not so much.

I bought a blueberry bagel with plain cream cheese. The bagel was a little misshaped and the cream cheese tastes a little sour. The consistency is a bit runny as well. The other bagels behind the counter looked better than the one I received, so maybe it was a one off time.The price was fair! The staff are friendly! The counters are a little confusing because one is for pickup and one is for dine in, but they're on opposite sides of the building.I'd come back, but I wouldn't go out of my way to come here.

Great bagel around the area! Definitely NOT New York style bagels though. I came around 10 am on a Sunday and there were already a lot of people inside. By 11 am, there was a line forming outside. I got an everything bagel with bacon, egg, lettuce, and tomato. The order was finished very fast and we got to eating. The bagel sandwich was pretty small, I was honestly expecting bigger. But it was pretty tasty. The bagel was kind of tough and hard to eat, and the everything bagel tasted a little burnt. Not a taste I prefer. But paired all together, it was good and I was content with the meal! No flavor was too overpowering (except for the burntness), and it felt like a great breakfast. It was a decent bagel, but not worth the trek for me personally.

As a lifelong NC resident, Chapel Hill is my New York City and these are my bagels of choice. I've always had positive customer service here, even during a busy Saturday morning, and they've helped ease my transition from turkey sausage to Taylor ham over the years. This place is so good that you could blindly assume they've been a Chapel Hill staple for decades, but Brandwein's actually opened in 2020. I am raving about them here so that they can stay open for the rest of my life. I'm always impressed with the portion sizes and the option to add hot honey keeps me loyal.

This is my go to bagel shop in Chapel Hill! I love lox bagels and although this place doesn't hit the spot like the bagel shops in NYC, it's one of the better places in this area! I appreciated the variety of bagel types and cream cheese flavors. I thought the lox bagel had everything I wanted although I would've hoped for a bit more lox. I came here on a Saturday morning and the line was out the door as expected, but worth the wait. Parking may be a bit of a challenge to find because the parking lot is small but there is street parking nearby. Overall, I wish I had time to visit more often. The location and limited parking make it difficult for me to visit regularly but it's definitely worth a try if you haven't been before!

I always appreciate the opportunity to have gluten free bagels or any gf options. I thought that the bagel was decent for being my gluten free. I think the texture was kinda off sometimes and it was quite dense/doughy and i'm not sure how toasted my bagel was but it didn't seem too toasty. I really did like everything in the bagel though and the cream cheese is great as well. I'm also stupid i think because the bagel must have come with egg and i got double since i didn't realize it already came with egg.

Great local bagel place. Good variety. Friendly service. Very fresh. Will go back next time I am in town.

Very impressed with how they are able to handle this sophisticated crowd and get everyone moving. Well done! - Place appears small - But, you can really squeeze quite a bit of people inside - Ice Coffee was Excellent! - Great job with the Bagels; - Good Bagels - Don't need to be toasted; - Great Everything Bagels have Salt in the Mix; - Please consider this! - Overall - Great job - Thanks for "Shmearing" plenty of butter on my bagels. Service / Run of the place is awesome! Want to try your Challah!