Second Helpings: Bagels to Beignets to Donuts

Hot Jumbo Bagels

Mon-Fri, 6:30am-1pm; Sat-Sun, 7:30am-12:30pm

Hot Jumbo Bagels has staying power. Emerging victorious from the Great Austin Bagel Wars of the early Nineties, HJB has been serving the same classic East Coast-style boiled bagels from the same funky Fifth Street location since 1979. The 27 flavors of bagels (including such interesting choices as milk chocolate, tomato Florentine, and peanut butter) are kosher-approved. Bagel sandwiches and breakfast tacos are also available.

Einstein Bros Bagels

2601 S. I-35, Round Rock, 238-9888 Mon-Fri, 6am-6pm; Sat-Sun, 7am-4pm

Those Einstein Bros, Melvyn and Elmo, are busy -- not only running bagel shops all over Austin, but all over the country, too. These clean, efficient, and service-oriented establishments offer 21 flavors of steamed bagels (softer than the more traditional boiled style), 12 varieties of schmears, a host of sandwiches and egg breakfasts served on bagels, challah, or sourdough baguettes, and salads, soups, and rollups. The NY lox and bagel with cream cheese, chopped onion, capers, and a slice of tomato is very nicely done.

The Bagelry

Mon-Fri, 7am-5pm; Sat, 7am-2pm; Sun, 8am-2pm

The Bagelry is a locally owned chain-ette that has supplied steamed bagels from the shopping centers of West Austin since 1993. In addition to the daily bagel specials (including Hawaiian pineapple, pesto, and jalapeño flavors), muffins, cookies, brownies, and breads, they have recently introduced a line of bagel deli sandwiches that feature Boar's Head cold cuts. For a hearty portable breakfast, try the Baco (rhymes with taco) -- egg, ham, and cheese baked in a thick tube of bagel dough.

Crescent City Beignets (Photo By John Anderson)

Crescent City Beignets

Lunch, 11am-2pm; Dinner, 6pm-9pm

A bit cheaper and a lot less muggy than a sojourn in New Orleans, a quick jaunt to Crescent City Beignets in near West Austin addresses that classic Big Easy culinary craving -- chicory coffee and hot beignets. These are the real deal: fluffy squares of crisply fried dough, smothered in powdered sugar, meant to be consumed immediately. Don't expect to breeze right in and out -- even on Sunday mornings when the place is packed, a single busy guy both rolls out the dough and mans the deep-fryer, painstakingly making these babies to order. In addition to beignets, there is a menu of Louisiana-style blue plate specials (jambalayas, gumbos, étouffées, red beans and rice) to eat in or take out.

Ken's Doughnuts and Pastries

Daily, 24 hours

Fortunately for UT denizens, there is a doughnut fix handily within shouting distance of campus, and it is available when they need it, which is to say, all the time. Ken's physical plant is unassuming, to say the least, but it houses a wide selection of high-quality doughnut-shop fare, including several flavors of cake and yeast doughnuts, éclairs, those jelly- and cream-filled favorites, bismarcks, and of course, doughnut holes.

Mrs. Johnson's Bakery

An Austin institution since 1948, Mrs. Johnson's must have passed millions of hot fresh doughnuts out the little drive-in window to generations of early-morning commuters, after-church crowds, and famished students who, er, need to run out for something sweet in the middle of the night. In addition to the classic glazed doughnuts, there are apple fritters, cinnamon rolls and twists, cookies, brownies, and sausage kolaches. You can also pick up your dunk of choice, cold milk or hot coffee. Currently, Mrs. Johnson's is open only 'til noon every day.

Lone Star Bakery

In every Austin high tech establishment I've ever worked (more than a few), there is always some kind soul -- some benevolent Round Rock resident -- who takes pity on the rest of us and regularly schleps the renowned Round Rock Doughnuts into the office for happy group consumption. I have a vision of these soft, warm, baby-chick-yellow clouds of pastry wafting out over the city each morning; it might not be far from the truth, considering that loyal customers buy over 500 dozen a day, beginning at 4am. I understand that the bakery's cookies, cakes, kolaches, and rolls are quite good too, but I've never been able to get past those lovely yellow doughnuts long enough to try them.