Greg's Bagels

I just got back from Greg's Bagels at Belvedere Square, raved about in the Sun, the City Paper and the Examiner (though apparently not Baltimore Magazine - I guess it's not expensive enough to get in there). Whichever commenter told me about it: you were right. They have a fabulous array of smoked salmon, larger than most in Manhattan (NYC's) Upper West Side. To eat them you must either order it on a bagel with or without cream cheese for $6.75 (the bagel by itself is just $1, up from 80¢), or order it by the 1/4, 1/2 or whole pound, starting at about $8.50 per 1/4 lb. And oh my, the variety. Among the Nova, Moroccan, Scottish, Royal Scottish, Alaskan, Norwegian, Thai and literally a dozen other varieties, I ordered the Balti-lox. This isn't "Balti-as-in-Baltimore", but "Balti-as-in-Balti-curry": salmon smoked with honey, ginger and cayenne. Very tasty on top of one of Greg's thin, filling but not heavy vidalia onion bagels with cream cheese. Granted, the small iced tea ($1) could almost easily fit in a child's play tea cup, but Greg's was refreshingly upfront about the need to raise prices. Right at the counter they explain all about rising food prices to their loyal customers, or as they put it (to paraphrase), "or maybe once you read this, soon-to-be-ex-customers". Any restaurant that can keep that much humor in this age of rising food prices has got my patronage. Just not that often - the bagel was good but I've got to conserve my money here!