Ess-a-Bagel
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$ - inexpensive
American, Jewish (Eastern European)
bagel shop w/ vegan cream cheese
Ess-a-Bagel is a very popular bagel shop in Murray Hill that often has a line out the door on weekend mornings. They offer all the typical bagels (plain, raisin, everything, whole wheat, garlic, poppy, pumpernickle, salt, etc.), and offer various vegan cream cheeses: plain (tofu), tofu scallion, tofu vegetable, tofu sundried-tomato. Beware of the tofu lox, which is non-dairy, but contains lox (fish), in case you had never heard of it.
There is seating for about 10-12 people, but the tables fill up quickly on the weekend.
6 train to 23rd and walk eat to 1st Ave or L train to 1st Ave and walk north to 22nd.
Added by Cass Danger on Oct 14 (updated Oct 14)
I was super glad to be able to find a place with so many tofu cream cheeses (although I was a bit dismayed to see the tofu-fish spread) so I didn't mind waiting 10 minutes in line for a bagel.
I decided on the pumpernickle bagel with tofu sundried-tomato spread since I've never seen that vegan cream cheese flavor elsewhere. The bagel was good, but I was disappointed that they didn't toast the bagel (maybe they are too busy). Since the bagel wasn't warm, my cream cheese didn't melt at all, which I really like. Also, I thought the cream cheese had a very strong basil or oregano flavor that was a bit too strong.
Although I wasn't super happy with my bagel, I sampled my friend's everything bagel with scallion tofu cream cheese (which was warm for some reason) and really enjoyed it.