After months of pining, waiting, watching, it is no exaggeration to say that I screamed loudly and joyously upon hearing Joe Gaglio utter those three little words I was so longing to hear: “Want a bagel?” He ushered me into the inner sanctum of Gotham Bagels, where it looks a little like New York City and smells a lot like heaven. There’s a sign up on the wall that Joe’s adorable young daughter assures me he came up with himself. It reads: “MSN to LGA nonstop with shoe removal = $334 on a good day. Lox, CC, bagel, coffee & lots of attitude, on 1st avenue=$18.95. Most of that on Mifflin Street= ten bucks. Gotham Bagels... keep your shoes on the whole time.” Joe told me they’ve been tweaking and perfecting the sacred NYC-style bagel, and he had finally gotten it just about right. “Everything or plain?” As if he had to ask. He deftly sliced an everything bagel and handed it over.

Love at first bite? More like being reunited with a long lost love you last saw on a Brooklyn street corner, slathered in cream cheese and topped with lox. Yum. Like any great artist, Joe is proud of his work, as he certainly should be. His “just about right” puts every other bagel currently available in this city to shame. As I reveled in its perfection—chewy but not doughy, dense but not heavy — he revealed a few more Gotham secrets. Bialys? Yes. Coffee? Yes--and espresso. Cream cheese varieties? Yes. Many, all concocted with an artisanal hand whipped local cream cheese. (It is also no exaggeration that, upon tasting said cream cheese on my bagel, tears came to my eyes. It is the Platonic ideal of cream cheese.) Pastrami? “Pastrami piled high on real rye, with a kosher pickle!” Oh...so, real deli sandwiches? Yes. And lox? and big bowls of homemade soup? Yes, yes, yessssssssss. Oh, and I nearly swooned from sheer joy when Joe began describing a planned summer sandwich.... soft shell crab with slices of ginger....

It’s been an hour or so, but I can still conjure up that oven fresh bagel taste in my mouth, and I am counting the days before I can banish all thoughts of a low carb diet and eat one of these Gaglio bagels every day. Or every few hours. I’m daydreaming about juggling -- a warm paper bag full of every mouthwatering variety in one hand, a coffee in the other, and a newspaper under my arm. It’s making me miss my former home on the East Coast. Luckily, soon I will have just the place to go when I’m homesick. I predict lines around the block. Watch out, imposters, this guy is the real deal.

Gotham New York bagels and Eats, opening soon at 112 E. Mifflin Street