The exterior of Bagel Brothers restaurant in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. If you're in town, the offerings here are worth a visit. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)
The exterior of Bagel Brothers restaurant in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. If you're in town, the offerings here are worth a visit. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)
A breakfast spread featuring bagels, muffins, brownies, coffees and bottled fruit juice occupies a table at Bagel Brothers in Frankfurt. A family ordering a variety of things in June pronounced this assortment delicious. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)
A pair of bagels -- turkey and Gouda cheese on an "everything" bagel on the left, a plain bagel with Nutella on the right -- are served at Bagel Brothers restaurant in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bagel Brothers serves high-quality bagels, pastries and coffee in the heart of downtown Frankfurt. (Gregory Broome/Stars and Stripes)
The German city of Frankfurt-am-Main carries the nickname “Mainhattan,” a reference to the Manhattan-style skyline that sets it apart from most other major European cities.
But that’s not all the city has in common with NYC. Turns out you can also get a pretty good bagel there.
Right in the heart of downtown, roughly equidistant from the city’s bustling Hauptbahnhof, its historic Roemerplatz and the banks of the glittering Main, you’ll find an outpost of the small German chain restaurant Bagel Brothers. If business or pleasure takes you to or through Frankfurt, it’s worth stopping in.
My family and I did just that on a recent excursion to Frankfurt, one of our favorite short-range destinations from our home in Kaiserslautern. We found the shiny, modern facade of Bagel Brothers occupying a gritty corner on Kaiserstrasse, just a few blocks north of the river. Having reviewed the restaurant’s selection online, we entered with high expectations.
We weren’t disappointed. Instead, we were overwhelmed with choices.
Though the restaurant had steady business, the two friendly men at the counter were happy to indulge our indecisiveness as we fine-tuned our orders. Finally, the four of us each managed to assemble a lunch from the vast menu of bagels and pastries available.
I had an “everything” bagel with sliced turkey and Gouda cheese with a walnut-topped brownie on the side. My sweet-toothed son went for a plain bagel smeared with Nutella and a donut filled and topped with chocolate icing. Mom and daughter selected a matching menu of a toasted onion bagel with cream cheese and a chocolate muffin, complemented by a frothy caramel macchiato.
As we nibbled on our own lunches and sampled each other’s choices, it became apparent that there was nothing on our overflowing table that wasn’t good. The toasted bagels were perfectly crispy, the untoasted pleasantly chewy. My everything bagel was coated with flavorful granules of, well, everything, but didn’t overwhelm the turkey and cheese slapped between. The sweet stuff was equally well-executed. And my wife said the coffee was among the best she’s had in Europe, and she’s evaluating from a sophisticated frame of reference.
Despite the impressive spread of food we’d collected, our bill came to just 28 euros, a third of which was absorbed by the typically expensive drinks. The rest was remarkably affordable; we even took home a half-dozen bagels for breakfast the next day for just another four euros.
We talked, laughed and ate at our window-side booth, watching tourists and locals walk purposefully by en route to unknown corners of Frankfurt am Main, a remarkable place that we admire more with each visit. Focus on the skyline and the bagels, and you could delude yourself into thinking you were sitting in a New York deli. But this city, and this restaurant, deserves to be appreciated on its own terms.
broome.gregory@stripes.com Twitter: @broomestripes
Bagel BrothersLocation: Kaiserstrasse 49, Frankfurt am Main.
Directions: From Kaiserslautern, take Autobahn 63 north and follow signs to Frankfurt, a path that will take you on Autobahns 60, 67 and 3 and right past the Frankfurt Airport. Just after the airport, take exit 49 onto highway B43, merge left onto B44 and cross over the Main River into downtown. You’ll soon see the Hauptbahnhof on your left; you can take the guaranteed parking there and walk to the restaurant or turn right down Kaiserstrasse and take a shot at street parking.
Hours: Open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Costs: Bagels start at 80 cents for a plain bagel, with discounts for a half-dozen or dozen. Bagel sandwiches, including varieties such as turkey, tuna salad, chicken fajita and even a bagel burger, run from three to four euros. Salads range from about two to four euros. Pastries and sweets are about two euros apiece.
Information: Call at 069-976-92185 or email frankfurt@bagelbrothers.com. The chain’s website is bagelbrothers.de; click the drop-down menu at left to select the Frankfurt location.
