Cheap Eats: Bagels and other bargains at Barry

Matzo ball soup with hearty noodles and chunks of chicken at Barry Bagels.

THE BLADE/MARY BILYEU
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Egg and cheddar cheese Eggel at Barry Bagels.

It’s time, once again, for our favorite weekly feature: Cheap Eats, when we go bargain hunting on a $5 food budget. Today, we’re at local favorite Barry Bagels, which offers bagels, of course, and other notable noshes at many locations around town.

Area native Barry Greenblatt, one of the great mensches (a kind, generous man), founded the successful chain 45 years ago with a mission to feed the Toledo area by serving some Jewish comfort food classics. One of those is matzo ball soup, a bowlful of which costs $3.99. If you say “yes” when the server asks if you’d like noodles  — and, frankly, who would say no? — then it becomes mishmash soup with a little of everything, including chicken and carrots.

Matzo ball soup is just one of the frugal comfort foods you’ll find at Barry Bagels.

The traditional bagel with a schmear costs $2.85; flavored cream cheese instead of plain adds 10 cents. For $3.95, you can get a hearty Eggel with both meat and cheese; an even more substantial Farmers Eggel, with peppers, tomato, and onion in addition to the standard ingredients, only costs $4.05. A Bagel Dog comes in just under the limit at $4.99. You can even have a bagel pizza for $3.25.

And for dessert or a sweet snack, don’t forget the inimitable New York-style black-and-white cookie for $2.09.

For cheap eats combined with local love, head to Barry Bagels to find good food at a great price.

Barry Bagels, multiple locations, barrybagels.com.

Contact Mary Bilyeu at mbilyeu@theblade.com, and follow her at facebook.com/thebladefoodpage.