Bagel Pot is a cosy cafe located in Ambattur and is a part of the upcoming OMR Eat Street in the area. The seating space is warm, the music in the background is quite hip and it keeps things upbeat at this place. While the ambience in the cafe is spot on, the bagels served here are even better! No preservatives, organic products and creative use of traditional grains are the highlights of this cafe. The place is the brainchild of 24-year-old Rennee Saradha, who has tied up with PeriFerry, a social inclusion startup working for the upliftment of transgenders, to hire employees. They have two people from the community working at the café.
They have a wide range of bagels with two basic kinds of breads – ‘classic bagel’, which is your crispy outside yet soft and chewy inside kind of bagel and the ‘sesame seed topped bagel’, which is topped with generous amount of sesame seeds. They also have two flavoured bagel breads called ‘Everything Bagel’ which is infused with sautéed onions, poppy seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds and garlic and ‘Jalapeno Bagel’, which has spicy and tangy jalapenos with roasted red chillies in it. You can customise the bagel as you like it.
The cafe also has a range of what they call ‘schmears’ and melts - these are the variety of spreads that can be liberally applied to the bagels. They have both sweet and savoury bagels. We loved ‘The Fiery Militant’, which has roasted red and green chilli stuffing. It is a great bet for all those who love spicy stuff! The Honey Almond Nut bagel was also quite delicious from the sweet section. For those, who are not interested in the spicy but want something from savoury section, Bagel Pot also offers quite a lot of cheese-based options. Rennee told us how their vendor imports the Parmesan cheese from Italy and no wonder its quality is outstanding. We are told the flavoured cream cheese on toasted bagel is already a favourite among guests.
The staff is extremely friendly and the open kitchen lets them interact with their guests. Kottravai, a transwoman employee at the café is someone to watch out for. The cool attitude and love for work instils a lot of positivity and vibrancy to the place. The employees of the café make every ingredient in-house, from the scratch including their sauces, syrups, breads and pasta. They work with natural ingredients and do not use any artificial flavours. The bagel bread is usually prepared from unbleached wheat flour and the dough is kept for resting overnight.
One of the interesting drinks on offer at the café is the delicious rose-milk. It is quite refreshing in the summer and flavourful. If you like your bagels with coffee, a word of caution - they do not serve Cappuccino. However, they do have something called the Mexican Mocha on the menu, which tastes a lot like hot chocolate and is a great accompaniment with the bagels.
Location : OMR Food Street, Ambattur
