Bites Nearby: Bagel Place of College Park

Mmmmmmm, bagels. Whether they are for breakfast, lunch or dinner, bagels need to be the right consistency — not too hard and not soft like Wonder bread either.

The whole year I spent in New York City, I became a connoisseur of bagels. I tried them with just about everything — from cream cheese, tofu cream cheese, flavored cream cheeses, peanut butter, or with lox to having them as pizzas, with chicken salad and as bread for cold cut sandwiches.

Although the ingredients in the bagel sandwich were great, the bagel itself had to be stellar.

So coming to Maryland, for this Patch job, I thought I wouldn't find a stellar bagel place. Thank goodness I live near a college town and stumbled upon the Bagel Place of College Park.

Not only is it in a great location and walkable from the metro, they have free WiFi and a lot of tables. If you go on a weekend, you'll realize it's insanely popular for hungover and hungry undergrads.

However, it deserves its popularity.

All of their breakfast choices are great whether your getting a bagel with whitefish or with an egg and sausage.

But if you want to try something awesome, try the pride of Baltimore - lox, cream cheese, swiss, lettuce, tomato and onions on (if you want to be a true Marylander) an Old Bay bagel.

You could also go with the Terrapin, former College Park Patch editor Lauren Evans' favorite. It has cream cheese and you can choose another cheese to melt over it. Amazing, but you're going to have to forget about that calorie-count.

The other bagels to try are the salt, sun-dried tomato and multi-grain.

I'm sure their others are great too, but I like my bagels savory.

Where: 7423 Baltimore Avenue in College Park

Hours: Daily 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Summer hours: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.