Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Bodo's Bagels

Three locations in Charlottesville, a local institution, Bodo's serves up bagels as early as 6:30AM on the weekdays if you're up. It's a good time to go because during regular hours or say 10AM on a weekend you'll have to wait a while before biting into the doughy goodness. Below is the Preston Ave location early one morning.Sticking with an order once I find it, I find the egg on a sesame bagel always satisfying. Bodo's must pack some calories because I'm not hungry for hours afterward. There are multiple cream cheeses to choose from if you're so inclined. They would probably add to the stick-to-the-ribs-ness.
The coffee is never very good. The website isn't clear about what beans are used. Locally roasted beans from Shenandoah Joe's would certainly be an improvement. Fortunately Shenandoah Joe's is right down Preston from this location.

The Corner location is famous for not being open for years. On my visits there I've seen a lot of happy undergrads. The other location, nominally on Emmet could also be considered the bypass location, as in the 250 bypass. The building used to house a Roy Rogers.

When I first moved to town after college before starting school again in the fall, I tried to get a job at the bypass Bodo's. The owner said I was over-qualified. For what looks like an intense, fast-moving work environment, I was certainly not overqualified; perhaps it was his nice way of saying that I wouldn't last.

505 Preston Ave
Charlottesville, VA 22903
(434) 293-5224

3 comments:

TVille said...

Why? Oh why??? is the coffee at Bodos soo bad. I'm always disappointed when I've forgotten to bring my own from home to have with my breakfast bagel. Blech...

cogwheeler said...

Couldn't agree with you more.

John K. said...

Thanks for the nice review, cogwheeler. I do like Shenandoah Joe's (and Dave is very knowledgeable about his product), but we've been working with Lexington Coffee for over ten years and we've gradually tweaked our custom blend to where we're very, very happy with it. They roast an order for us every week, we receive the beans two days after they are roasted, and we keep low inventory so that we are always using fresh beans. Also, we grind just before brewing and keep our equipment calibrated (temperature, fineness of grind, etc).

I'm sorry to hear that you're not a fan of the coffee, but I hope that this at least clears up some of the mystery.

Sincerely,
John Kokola
Owner, Bodo's Bagels