Great Bagels in Raleigh, NC: Benchwarmers Bagels and Coffee
Where: Benchwarmers Bagels and Coffee, 500 E Davie St, Raleigh, NC (inside Transfer Co. Food Hall)
Cuisine: A bagel place
Parking situation: Not too bad – I never felt like I needed a Xanax while parking; super easy and accessible during weekdays
Hipster presence: High but tolerable
History: Benchwarmers is a collaboration between Josh Bellamy and Sam Kirkpatrick of Boulted Bread and Andrew Cash of Jubala Coffee. They launched the project with the goal of applying traditional bread techniques—wood-fired baking, heirloom grains, extended fermentation, and fresh-milled flour—to bagels. The result is a product with real structure, chew, and depth of flavor.
A study in the appropriate use of “Sweet Lord have mercy” when it comes to food: the sesame bagel with plain cream cheese from Benchwarmers.
Check out the glorious blistering on this beauty. (Benchwarmers is located in the Transfer Co. Food Hall.) Crunchy, chewy perfection. Though, a few too many small-framed 20-something fellas in ironic clothing (e.g., muscle shirts with air brushed wolves), $50 tube socks, cutesy tattoos, flip flops, and unpleated khaki shorts milling about for my comfort (you folks know how I feel about hipsters and ironic affectations. Also, you know how I feel about dudes wearing flip-flops beyond designated beach areas.)
[Note: they may no longer offer the peach and saffron flavor of cream cheese.] Also, couldn’t resist getting the peach and saffron cream cheese – pure, creamy, peachy, scrumptiousness. Not too sweet, not cloying. And, yes, there are actual chunks of peach mixed in. I bought a whole tub. I don’t think this tub is gonna make it through the weekend. Though, I must confess, I slathered it on a lesser vessel – a week-old grocery store bagel that’s been kept in the fridge. I know, I know. I went and the did the cream cheese all grades of wrong. But here’s the thing, even the bagel itself was uplifted and made new again by this heavenly fruity spread.
The parking situation: Benchwarmers is inside a trendy food court located close to downtown Raleigh: Transfer Co. Food Hall. This place offers an on-site parking lot dedicated to guests. The lot is next to and behind the food hall. Additional street parking is on E. Davie Street, Chavis Way, E. Cabarrus Street and S. East Street. During the weekdays, even the street parking is easy. I LOVE that the Transfer website has a page dedicated to parking availability.
