Bagel Café 21: A Little Bit of the East Coast in Richardson

We think we’ve found our favorite bagels north of Dallas. They're on Coit Road in Richardson, across the street from a Target (in case you're in the mood for a really fun day).

Bagel Café 21 seems to have perfected the art of the East Coast bagel. It serves 21 flavors daily (we see what they did there) in a warm, unpretentious atmosphere with friendly service. The expansive menu includes both breakfast and lunch sandwiches, muffins, coffee and even horchata.
Owner Steven Jackson has been operating this charming little shop for just over a year. With 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry (including as a C-level executive for a $2 billion restaurant and entertainment company), he decided to step away from the corporate world to pursue a venture that better aligned with his values. “I wanted to put my skills to work, open or buy a restaurant and do things the old school way,” he said. “I wanted to make as many things from scratch as possible.”

As he was shopping around for a bar or restaurant to buy, his wife — who spent 12 years in Washington, D.C., and knew her way around a good bagel — recognized the name of the shop and told him it was the only place she liked to get her bagels from. “That kind of perked me up and got me interested,” he said. “I spent several weeks here eating breakfast several times a week, ended up buying it [in September 2023] and it’s just been such a great experience.”

Each day, the staff boils, mixes and bakes every bagel on-site, the way East Coast bagels have been made for generations. Jackson told us that while it’s a laborious process, it’s the only way to achieve the perfect texture that defines an authentic bagel. “It’s the reason big chains don’t do it anymore,” he explained. “But it’s the only way you can get a real New York-style bagel.”

Unable to stop ourselves, we left with an impressive spread of bagels and a couple of sandwiches to try. One of our favorites was the cinnamon sugar. With plenty of warm cinnamon flavor and a sprinkling of crunchy, caramelized sugar, it had – like all of the flavors we tried – everything we look for in a bagel but don’t often find. It was soft, dense and chewy without being heavy, too doughy or tough. Each one had that distinct shiny, golden brown crust that was just a touch crisp on the outside.
For our sandwiches, we tried chicken salad on a plain bagel and the “Turkey Time” on an everything bagel, though diners can opt for sourdough or another bread as well. Everything about both sandwiches tasted so bright and fresh, and we don’t know what it is, but we immediately love a place just that much more if it opts to put sprouts on things instead of any other leafy green — especially when that thing is an everything bagel. Sprouts just play nicely with everything, okay? We’ll die on that hill.

Now that we’re done ranting about sprouts, Jackson told us that he particularly loves to have the shop’s turkey chipotle club sandwich on a rosemary garlic parmesan bagel, which we can’t wait to try. And for those craving a classic, the shop offers a traditional lox bagel sandwich as well that he said is outstanding and made with the highest-quality lox he can find.
In addition to the bagels and sandwiches we enjoyed, we grabbed a pumpkin muffin, which was wonderful. It would have been the perfect companion to the café's horchata, which we're kicking ourselves just a little for not trying. We won't fret too much though, because we know we'll be back soon.

“The community has really embraced us. We have a lot of East Coast people come to the shop and say this is the closest thing to a New York bagel they’ve had here,” Jackson said. “That makes me feel really good and like we’re doing the right thing, but the thing I’m most proud of is our staff.”

Bagel Café 21, 1920 N. Coit Road, No. 211, Richardson. Monday – Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.; Saturday – Sunday, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.