Tasty bagels and more, in the heart of Quincy

On a recent Tuesday evening, the new cafe in Quincy Center was mostly empty. One woman in her 30s sat on the black couches by the front window, sipping coffee and tapping away at her keyboard; another 30-something man wearing large puffy headphones sat at a table toward the back of the cafe, staring at his laptop monitor.

The menu is built around New York-style bagels, which are baked fresh daily in Pembroke and come in 27 varieties, running the gamut from standard flavors like blueberry, cinnamon-raisin, and onion to slightly more exotic ones like pumpkin, sunflower, spinoccoli, and French toast.

Bagels served “as is’’ cost $1.05 each; a half-dozen cost $5.50; and a baker’s dozen costs $10. They offer all the usual toppings: butter, hummus, peanut butter, jelly, and smoked salmon, as well as a dozen different flavors of cream cheese.

The menu features an extensive line of sandwiches. For breakfast, you can get an egg sandwich on a bagel, English muffin or croissant for $2 (or $2.79 if you add cheese, $3.79 if you add bacon, ham or sausage).

On my recent visit, I ordered the egg, goat cheese and spinach on a multigrain bagel ($4.79). It proved to be a delicious combination: the goat cheese was smooth and creamy, the egg was cooked perfectly, and the bagel was warm and toasted just right. It made for a fine sandwich.

My only wish was that there was more stuff in the middle; after all, bagels being what they are — big, dense pieces of bread — it’s easy for the stuff in the middle to be overwhelmed and suffocated by all that bread. I ended up taking one half of the bagel off the sandwich and saving it for later.