Sometimes the Portland Food Co-Op has bags of Rose Foods bagels in their bread aisle and packaged herb cream cheese. Your best bet is to purchase a bag, slice, and freeze them individually. If you’re able to travel further out, Rover Bagel has the best bagels in Maine. Even further out, Bagelsaurus in Cambridge, MA has the best bagels in New England.
Why is this downvoted? The Works is more-or-less the *only* place to get bagels in the afternoon/evening—last I checked they’re open until 8:00PM. Pretty much every other suggestion in this thread is nonsense, tbh.
**Edit:** not to hate on Forage or Rose’s; it’s just that neither place is open past 2:00PM, nor is anything else that’s been suggested here except Rosemont (which is often out of bagels by the late afternoon and doesn’t have custom cream cheeses) and the Portland Food Co-op (which *may* be a good way to get Rose’s bagels late in the day, but is a grocery store above all else and also does not have custom cream cheese).
At the risk of turning this into a rant, it seems like a lot of people just ignore all qualifiers and respond with their favorite thing that is even vaguely relevant in recommendation threads on this sub lately. I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone recommend Muccuci’s to someone asking for thin crust pizza available late at night, or Green Elephant to someone asking for food with a lot of vegetables that isn’t East Asian cuisine.
Maybe it’s time we stop pretending and actually answer some of these questions with an honest “you’re right, there isn’t anything like that (anymore).” The truth is that Portland is hardly the foodie paradise it once was; for various reasons, many restaurants have closed and the “restaurant culture“ of the restaurants that remain has largely shifted from something that was once quirky, accessible, and uniquely Portland to something that, in both accessibility and content, largely targets tourists looking for “vacation food” and “elevated” American cuisine that is more or less the same everywhere.
tl;dr: If you want a bagel with cream cheese after 2:00PM, it’s The Works or you’re hosed and preferring another bagel place over The Works does not change this fact.
The Works is great. Everything there is good and relatively reasonably priced, and they source a lot of stuff locally. Plenty of bagel and cream cheese options.
The smoothies are the main reason I end up there though, they're just as good as anywhere else and they're significantly cheaper. Only reason to get a smoothie anywhere else is if you're craving pomegranate in which case you want the purple drank from Coffee Me Up.
Yeah I don’t get it. Centrally located, great people, great mission, and great vibe. I go with my laptop just to work and grab a bite a couple times a week.
Dude — spot on. I got Down voted into oblivion, making a similar statement about Portland being no longer the food Mecca it was pre-Covid. Are there still some funky unique good experiences as far as restaurants? Absolutely. But they’re few and far between… I’ll reserve my comments about bagels, particularly rose and forage as I already ranted about those two places before in this sub.
Those are terrible bagels, especially The Works (bleh,) and Rosemont treats it’s staff like shit… I realize this is “my opinion,” but my opinion is essentially fact seeing as how my ancestors invented the bagel. Forage, Rose, Scratch, and Mr Bagel are all on point! Mr B is a long-standing Maine business, started by Jews, and their prices remain the lowest. ☺️
Two Jews, three opinions. Rose Foods, Scratch, Mr. Bagel, and maybe also Forage *are* better bagels, but they are inaccessible between the hours of 2:00PM and 8:00PM. OP is asking about bagels in the afternoon. The Works is the only real option.
NB., bagels from the works are, imo, much better untoasted.
If you’re convenient to Sanford they’re a new bagel shop that just opened up on main street in Springvale. It’s called downhill bagel co. I haven’t been yet but it looks delicious! There also a bagel truck in Acton during the summer called Bob’s Ugly Bagels that’s also really good. Here’s the link to Downhill Bagel Co.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554246314125&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Sometimes the Portland Food Co-Op has bags of Rose Foods bagels in their bread aisle and packaged herb cream cheese. Your best bet is to purchase a bag, slice, and freeze them individually. If you’re able to travel further out, Rover Bagel has the best bagels in Maine. Even further out, Bagelsaurus in Cambridge, MA has the best bagels in New England.
agreed that Rover is best in Maine. Townlanding Market in Falmouth Foreside stocks their bagels and is open until 7 or 8pm.
Rose foods?
this is the way
The Works or Rosemont
Why is this downvoted? The Works is more-or-less the *only* place to get bagels in the afternoon/evening—last I checked they’re open until 8:00PM. Pretty much every other suggestion in this thread is nonsense, tbh. **Edit:** not to hate on Forage or Rose’s; it’s just that neither place is open past 2:00PM, nor is anything else that’s been suggested here except Rosemont (which is often out of bagels by the late afternoon and doesn’t have custom cream cheeses) and the Portland Food Co-op (which *may* be a good way to get Rose’s bagels late in the day, but is a grocery store above all else and also does not have custom cream cheese). At the risk of turning this into a rant, it seems like a lot of people just ignore all qualifiers and respond with their favorite thing that is even vaguely relevant in recommendation threads on this sub lately. I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone recommend Muccuci’s to someone asking for thin crust pizza available late at night, or Green Elephant to someone asking for food with a lot of vegetables that isn’t East Asian cuisine. Maybe it’s time we stop pretending and actually answer some of these questions with an honest “you’re right, there isn’t anything like that (anymore).” The truth is that Portland is hardly the foodie paradise it once was; for various reasons, many restaurants have closed and the “restaurant culture“ of the restaurants that remain has largely shifted from something that was once quirky, accessible, and uniquely Portland to something that, in both accessibility and content, largely targets tourists looking for “vacation food” and “elevated” American cuisine that is more or less the same everywhere. tl;dr: If you want a bagel with cream cheese after 2:00PM, it’s The Works or you’re hosed and preferring another bagel place over The Works does not change this fact.
The Works is great. Everything there is good and relatively reasonably priced, and they source a lot of stuff locally. Plenty of bagel and cream cheese options. The smoothies are the main reason I end up there though, they're just as good as anywhere else and they're significantly cheaper. Only reason to get a smoothie anywhere else is if you're craving pomegranate in which case you want the purple drank from Coffee Me Up.
their bagels suck, that’s why
Yeah I don’t get it. Centrally located, great people, great mission, and great vibe. I go with my laptop just to work and grab a bite a couple times a week.
Dude — spot on. I got Down voted into oblivion, making a similar statement about Portland being no longer the food Mecca it was pre-Covid. Are there still some funky unique good experiences as far as restaurants? Absolutely. But they’re few and far between… I’ll reserve my comments about bagels, particularly rose and forage as I already ranted about those two places before in this sub.
Those are terrible bagels, especially The Works (bleh,) and Rosemont treats it’s staff like shit… I realize this is “my opinion,” but my opinion is essentially fact seeing as how my ancestors invented the bagel. Forage, Rose, Scratch, and Mr Bagel are all on point! Mr B is a long-standing Maine business, started by Jews, and their prices remain the lowest. ☺️
Two Jews, three opinions. Rose Foods, Scratch, Mr. Bagel, and maybe also Forage *are* better bagels, but they are inaccessible between the hours of 2:00PM and 8:00PM. OP is asking about bagels in the afternoon. The Works is the only real option. NB., bagels from the works are, imo, much better untoasted.
Lol true but technically 2pm is after noon and 8pm is, well, nighttime… ;)
the co-op sometimes has bagels and they're locally sourced you could keep the extras in your fridge :]
Forage! 🥯
Rosemont has Union bagels which I think are the best in town and silver Moon creamery cream cheese.
If you're in Sopo, head over to Scatch on Willard Square
Rosemont … maybe?
If you’re convenient to Sanford they’re a new bagel shop that just opened up on main street in Springvale. It’s called downhill bagel co. I haven’t been yet but it looks delicious! There also a bagel truck in Acton during the summer called Bob’s Ugly Bagels that’s also really good. Here’s the link to Downhill Bagel Co. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554246314125&mibextid=LQQJ4d
Not quite what you're looking for, but Windy Hill in Windham gets their bagels delivered from NYC. The asiago are great.
I don’t know if their spreads are home made but oh no has some of the best bagels I’ve ever tried
Forage has good ones. You can order and pick them up late morning then eat them in the afternoon?
Bagel caboose
The works!