By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Bagels will soon make a comeback to Upper Manhattan as the owner of Mike’s Bagels, the bagel shop that was shuttered after a fire in late November, prepares to reopen next week.
For more than two months owner Mike Nikolaj has been working with a crew to repair the small shop that sits on a busy stretch of Broadway, between 168th and 169th streets, near Columbia Presbyterian hospital.
The store was closed after a Nov. 22 electrical fire burned down the seating area of the store at 4003 Broadway and caused water and smoke damage through the entire kitchen.
Nikolaj said he received a call at his home from the workers at the pizza restaurant next door letting him know his shop of 15 years was ablaze.
"There are no words to describe how I felt," Nikolaj said of finding his store burned out when he arrived at the scene. "Devastated, I was devastated."
For many the closure of the bagel shop — very popular to residents as well as nearby New York-Presbyterian Hospital employees and Columbia University medical and public health students nearby —meant drastically cutting carbs for months.
The closest bagel shop is more than three miles north in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, or about the same distance going south, in Morningside Heights.
"I ate there everyday before work," hospital employee Maria Delgado, 33, said. "Maybe it was a good thing for my waistline, but it wasn’t good for my taste buds."
Nikolaj has been making the New York staple in variations in-house, including sesame, poppy, cinnamon raisin, garlic, pumpernickel, salt and egg, for 15 years, developing a loyal following.
One local parenting email list has been in a flurry with parents trying to find out when the store would reopen.
For one Washington Heights resident the closure has meant too many Saturday mornings walking the dog without an everything bagel topped with vegetable cream cheese and onions.
"Believe me, I wasn’t the only one who missed the bagels," dog owner Angel Murray said, pointing to his Chihuahua, named "Hottie."
