I dined with two family members at Flakowitz Bagel Inn for
lunch on a Sunday afternoon in late December 2018. I had eaten at Flakowitz
previously with my family members who live in the area (it’s one of their
favorite breakfast spots), but I never wrote a review before. Flakowitz is open
daily for breakfast and lunch.
The Boca Raton venue opened in 1992 in a stand-alone
building in the parking lot of a strip mall. (Other locations are in Boyton
Beach and Wellington.) Although the restaurant has a good amount of cozy
seating (a few stools at the tiny counter, lots of tables, and some booths and
half-booths), the restaurant often gets filled to capacity, with customers waiting
outdoors for a table. You can also purchase take-away from both inside the
restaurant (they have some glass deli cases filled with great-looking savory
and sweet treats) or from a walk-up to-go window in the parking lot. An
interesting large painted mural on one wall of the dining room serves as the
opposite focal point from the deli cases.
Although the restaurant’s name includes the word “Bagel”, it
serves much more than that: lots of American diner-style comfort food, some
with a Jewish slant (including whitefish, knishes, matzo ball soup). As guests
peruse the large menu, servers deliver complimentary marble pound cake squares
to munch on. My companions ordered breakfast, but I tried the pastrami on rye
sandwich, which is served with a cole slaw and a starchy side (I chose the
potato pancakes, served with applesauce and sour cream). Although there was
mustard on the table, I prefer mayonnaise on my pastrami (horror!), but our
waitress never returned before I finished my sandwich, so I had to make do with
the yellow condiment instead.
Although I’m not a breakfast fan, I do like good Jewish deli,
and since Katz’s (in NYC) isn’t possible when I’m visiting family in FL, I’ll
have to make do with Boca Raton’s Flakowitz Bagel Inn.
