Emerald City Bagels is now open on the BeltLine

Courtesy of Emerald City Bagels

Mother and daughter Deanna and Jackie Halcrow began serving their New York-style bagels in East Atlanta Village in 2018, after building a following through years of farmers markets and pop-up shops. Six years later, their long-awaited BeltLine shop is finally open.

Located in the Citizen Building, next to Kevin Gillespie’s now-defunct Cold Beer, Emerald City is inspired by old-school deli and drugstore counters, where staffers wear white coats and paper hats. The menu at both locations is similar, but because all bagel making is done in East Atlanta, the BeltLine branch was able to expand its coffee program and add a vending machine for faster service.

Hailing from Long Island, Halcrows serves bagels in traditional flavors like plain, poppyseed, sesame and everything, as well as more specialized options like pretzel, sea salt olive oil and rosemary sea salt. Sandwiches include whitefish salad, egg salad, Scottish smoked salmon, pastrami and, of course, a BLT. Vegetarian options and vegan cream cheese are also available. Customers will be able to use their credit card to purchase a bacon, egg and cheese bagel without even entering the store when Halcrows’ machine arrives from Denmark. As Jackie Halcrow explains, the machine will be able to serve four different types of bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches (including one without bacon). Emerald City staff will be constantly monitoring the machine to ensure the sandwiches are fresh.

Courtesy of Emerald City Bagels

Courtesy of Emerald City Bagels

Inside the shop, customers can order a variety of cold brew coffees, from a salted mocha with brown sugar and cardamom to a cold brew seltzer with orange zest and iced matcha, too.

While the new space is similar in size and appearance to the original (hardwood fixtures, lettered menu), it has a terrazzo counter instead of marble and a stand-up dining area, rather than a handful of seats. It does, however, have room for 20 people to dine comfortably outdoors under umbrellas.

Courtesy of Emerald City Bagels

Even more exciting, the Halcrows have added little entertainment elements to the Emerald City experience. Customers can send pre-paid postcards from the shop or dial the toll-free payphone to hear a message from the “Bagel Fairy.”

“We’re trying to give people something to do while they wait for their bagels,” says Jackie Halcrow.

Next, the Halcrows plan to invest in a manufacturing facility so they can focus on wholesaling and shipping bagels nationwide. They also want to branch out into the specialty food world and make par-baked bagels.

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