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Bagels for the East Side
Bruegger’s to set up shop at North & Prospect
By Uko Etim
Personally, I go for chicken breast, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, onions and honey mustard on a cinnamon sugar bagel. Try it, eat it and love it. Just don’t claim it.
Beginning this month, Milwaukee’s East Side looks to have yet another dining option: Bruegger’s Bagels will set up shop on the corner of North and Prospect.
Bruegger’s menu includes assorted salads, pita wraps, soups, coffee, bagels and ciabatta sandwiches.
Longtime employee Jay Long, a recent transfer to the North and Prospect location, said that the all day breakfast is easily the best part of the new restaurant.
The restaurant offers four specialty breakfast sandwiches that can be topped with the customer’s choice of bagel, wheat wrap or ciabatta bread.
“We sell bottomless mugs,” said Callahan Krivanek, a shift supervisor at the Whitefish Bay location. “For $100 a customer can bring in a mug and get it filled with tea, coffee or any fountain soda for the entire year.”
Bruegger’s has made breakfast a focal point of their restaurant. But they do offer lunch and dinner options as well, from traditional club sandwiches to the more extravagant “Leonardo da Veggie,” their take on a vegetarian sandwich.
But their most popular sandwich nationwide is the Herby Turkey, according to Bruegger’s spokesperson Derek Beere.
“When I first started working here,” Krivanek recalled, “everyone, including the customers, told me I have to try an Herby Turkey.”
This sandwich consists of turkey, sun dried tomato spread, light herb garlic cream cheese, lettuce and red onions. It is served on your choice of a wrap, bagel or ciabatta roll.
For better or worse, Bruegger’s menu also allows customers to build their own sandwiches.
Personally, I go for chicken breast, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, onions and honey mustard on a cinnamon sugar bagel. Try it, eat it and love it. Just don’t claim it.
The restaurant also traditionally prides themselves on their soups. There are two to four varieties of soup that seem to vary daily, including fire roasted tomato, steak and onion, four cheese broccoli, chicken spaetzle (a unique chicken noodle) and many others.
“The work environment is so relaxed,” said Long. “At some places, you get those awkward company forced smiles. Here it is different, because everyone is genuinely in a good mood.”
Food and environment aside, Bruegger’s could potentially run into problems attracting college students in an already flooded East Side restaurant market.
It is easy to stay under $5 on the breakfast menu, and the lunch menu can go as high as $7, and that’s just the sandwich.
“I’ll never go,” said UW-Milwaukee student Will Huaman. “It is just a few blocks away from my house, but for $5, I can get a foot-long sub or an entire pizza.”
“I’ll go there once in awhile,” said UW-Milwaukee student Carly Jepson. “[Bruegger’s] may be more expensive, but I would be paying for better quality.”
Bruegger’s North and Prospect location will be opening the last week of September, thought the exact date has not yet been determined.
> Comments
Dave on Sep 15, 2008 at 09:40 PM:
Pretty article Uko... to bad you failed to expose what exactly is going on behind the alleged opening of Bruegger's Bagels. I'm not gonna break the story for you Uko, that's your job.