Mystery Diner in Joliet: Great American Bagel goes green for St. Patrick’s

If you and your family like bagels, buy a corporate party pack from Great American Bagel in Joliet.

We ordered a pack on a recent weekend for breakfast. It consists of 26 gourmet bagels and four, half-pound containers of cream cheese, a very easy way to try different taste combinations. Cream cheese-wise, we picked apple cinnamon, vanilla, strawberry and plain.

Apple cinnamon cream cheese: This was my first time trying the flavor. It was brimming with cinnamon and pieces of apple. Not super sweet, it was more tangy and tart.

Vanilla cream cheese: My go-to cream cheese for most bagels as it pairs nicely with most flavors, especially if you want something a little sweeter than the plain.

Strawberry cream cheese: I love strawberry cream cheese with a blueberry bagel. Try it; you might, too.

Other cream cheese choices included chocolate chip, cucumber, pineapple walnut, jalapeño cheddar, scallion, vegetable and walnut raisin.

For bagels, we ordered some family favorites: plain, egg and poppyseed (one family member claimed all the poppyseed). But we also tried some other varieties. Here are my thoughts on some of them.

Cinnamon raisin: This is one of those bagels I actually prefer to eat with peanut butter. The bagel is chock-full of cinnamon and raisins. Toasting the bagel makes the raisins nice and warm.

Strawberry: Its bright pink color stood out against the other bagels in the box (not a bad thing). Its flavor tasted natural, and the bagel was delicious topped with strawberry cream cheese.

Blueberry: The texture was soft, and the bagel was full of mini blueberries so you got bits of blueberries in every bite. It toasted nicely, too.

Chocolate chip: This was stuffed full of dark chocolate chips. It wasn’t an overly sweet bagel, so it paired well with the vanilla cream cheese.

Cinnamon crunch (specialty bagel): This cinnamon swirl bagel was topped with sugar crystals and cinnamon. The toppings melted when I heated it, making it taste like a cinnamon roll but without the gooey mess.

Blueberry crunch (specialty bagel): This was similar to the blueberry bagel but with a sugar crystal topping.

We also ordered two bagels that weren’t included in the corporate party pack.

Supreme Sunrise: You get the bagel of your choice (I picked a plain bagel, toasted) packed with sausage, egg, bacon and plenty of cheese. It makes a filling, on-the-go sandwich. Everything was seasoned to perfection. The bagel came cut in half for ease of eating, but you could easily make two meals out of it.

Cinnamon Delight Stick Bagel (cinnamon bagel stick with frosting): This is a fun and unique way to eat a bagel. Shaped long instead of round, it was topped with generous amounts of vanilla frosting.

Leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, Great American Bagel, whose menu extends to salads, soups and sandwiches, will sell green bagels and green bagels with Irish cheddar cheese through March 17.

• The Mystery Diner is an employee at Shaw Media. The diner’s identity is not revealed to restaurant staff when ordering or picking up the food. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a story.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Great American Bagel

WHERE: 1101 Essington Road, Joliet

WHEN: 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday; 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; and 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

INFORMATION: 815-744-9630, facebook.com/gabjoliet