It’s 1:30 A.M., the Collegetown bars have shouted last call, flickered their lights, and pretty much kicked your drunken-self out onto the Ithaca streets, and you wonder: What will ensue next in your big night out in this city that never sleeps? You see a large conglomeration of students obliterated much like yourself heading towards the same destination drunkenly bantering with hunger in their eyes. Where are they headed, you might ask? Why, Collegetown Bagels, of course. An appeaser of the inebriated appetite, or of the daytime hunger attack, CTB (as it is more affectionately referred to) is one of Collegetown’s most favored dining establishments.
Although CTB is most renowned by students and teachers alike for providing such delectable bagel sandwiches as the Eggs Melissa (bagel of your choice, egg, cheese), the Vegetarian Bagel delight (bagel of your choice, veggie cream cheese, muenster cheese, and tomato), and the Pizza Bagel (bagel of your choice, pizza sauce, cheese), they also offer a wide variety of other munchie busting goodies.
Jenny Jones, no, not the daytime talkshow host, in fact a Cornell junior and Collegetown Bagel employee, actually prefers the reverse chocolate chip cookies, a non-bagel treat, to munch on while she works, while frequent patron Jamie Sloyer ’05 chooses the Blueberry muffin to quickly grab on her way to class.
Ask any CTB frequenter and they will tell you that the while the food is great, the friendly employees and welcoming atmosphere are also a large part of the College- town Bagels experience. “Half the time when I go there it’s to talk to the cool people that work there,” said Aaron Schriftman ’04. In fact, many of the employees find it just as pleasant to work with one another. Robin Turner, day shift assistant manager enjoys that she is able to, “crank the tunes, wear [her] tiedye and cut jokes,” with her fellow employees.
Cornell alumnus David Rubenstein ’03 reveals that a favorite Cornell pasttime of his was sitting in the outside seating area of Collegetown Bagels, ordering a pitcher of Sangria with his friends, and watching students who actually went to class that day walk back to their apartments and houses. And, while the weather lately has been pretty grim, the time for said seating area to be utilized once again (weather permissive of course) is getting nearer with each April snow flake that touches the Ithaca soil.
With a list of bagels including the jalepeno, chocolate chip, and cheddar cheese flavors, its wide bagel variety is yet another CTB key quality that keeps the customers walking into its welcoming walls.
In addition to the dessert and bagel variety, is an extensive and creatively named array of drinks ranging from warm coffee for the late night studier, to beer which Turner mentions, begins being served bright and early at 8 A.M. for those drunken buffoons who didn’t quite yet find their beds yet from the previous night. Jones too mentions the drunken students that she finds quite humorous to serve during her post last bar call shift.
With a prime location as the closest Collegetown vendor to Cornell’s campus, and a wide variety ranging from bagels to Jelly Belly’s Collegetown Bagels will be feeding Cornell students, teachers and families for years to come.