For all manner of bagel creations—savory, sweet, simple to sandwiches, many of the menu items named in honor of classic films—stop by Boro Bagel.

Located on Murfreesboro’s busy Memorial Boulevard, the local bagel shop and deli stocks various flavors of bagels and cream cheeses. These lead to a plethora of different delicious combinations, such as a chocolate chip bagel with strawberry cream cheese, a jalapeño bagel with bacon scallion cream cheese, an everything bagel with blueberry cream cheese or a plain bagel with chocolate chip cream cheese.

“I had the asiago jalapeño bagel with chive cream cheese, and my friend had the cinnamon bagel with cinnamon cream cheese,” reported Lynda Andrea after a visit to Boro Bagel. “The bagel was just the right texture—a slight crunch on the outside with that beautiful, soft, dense texture on the inside. They also put a lot of cream cheese on the bagel, which was awesome.”

“After eating at Boro Bagel, you develop a deep longing for the bread and cream cheese that once grazed your taste buds,” the pleased customer posted following the meal.

There’s also pumpernickel (rye), cinnamon raisin, blueberry, chocolate chip and onion bagels, and olive or maple cinnamon cream cheese, among other choices.

“They have a great selection of cream cheese,” another diner said.

In addition to the cream cheese varieties, the shop has about whatever else you may like on a bagel: egg, salami, tuna salad, peanut butter and jelly, chicken, avocado or even a burger.

Boro Bagel stocks a selection of Boar’s Head meats and cheeses.

The “Lox”ness on an onion bagel

The “Lox”ness Monster is the eatery’s take on a classic, with thin slices of smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomatoes, red onion and capers on the customer’s choice of bagel.

The very thinly shaved bits of red onion, along with the capers (the pickled, unopened flower buds of the caper bush), give it great, but not overwhelming flavor.

“So happy to have found a lox bagel in Murfreesboro,” Emily Tansey said.

The Mad Max consists of a fresh-pressed burger with house-made pimento cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato on a bagel, while The Godfather includes pastrami, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers and Italian dressing.

All-American Burger on a poppy seed bagel, hold the vegetables

Then there’s the pork roll (a.k.a. Taylor ham), a New Jersey delicacy with a fried bologna-like product, the Taylor ham, along with American cheese, fried egg, salt, pepper and ketchup.

Boro Bagel’s interpretation of a Reuben—My Cousin Vinny—has Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and thousand island dressing along with a choice of corned beef, pastrami or turkey.

“The Vinny was good, a really great flavor,” reported Hayley Craig. “I really enjoyed the everything bagel; it had a wonderful texture.”

Other diners have said they also really enjoy the everything bagel, topped with oats along with poppy seeds and sesame seeds.

The 90210, a club-sandwich on the everything bagel

The club was a very tall sandwich; that was about the only complaint one diner had about this lunch option on a bagel, that it was a little hard to wield.

The shop is quite generous with the cream cheese, as well. So much so, some even say they scrape some of the cream cheese off, but those who appreciate a thick schmear of cream cheese have found their place in Murfreesboro.

Boro Bagel opens at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays, and can be very busy in the mornings, according to staff; they say the customer base is roughly equally split between those who quickly grab a bagel and take it to-go and those who dine in, perhaps leisurely sipping coffee, getting work done, or chatting with a friend or conducting a work meeting in the sunny, comfortable dining room.

“I find it hard to find a good breakfast sandwich, but Boro Bagels has one. I ordered a bacon and cheese on toasted Asiago with lettuce and tomato and it is delicious,” another customer, Dana Croy, posted in a review. “The bacon is solid and cooked well, not limp small slices you get some places. The veggies were fresh.”

Customers can place orders on the website, borobagelshop.com.

And pizza bagels are on the horizon for Boro Bagel, along with bagel dogs and more veggie options.

Stop in each day and grab a bag of “yesterday’s bagels” for $5 for a half dozen of those baked only one day ago. But get there early, the word is spreading on those.

Another popular house specialty is the French Connection, a sort of cinnamon toast created with a French toast bagel—an egg bagel with cinnamon and maple syrup flavors—rolled in cinnamon sugar and toasted under the broiler.

“I will drive 20 minutes one way across town to get a French Connection bagel with honey cinnamon cream cheese,” said Naum Pasca. “It’s perfection.”

Others like this sweet creation with the shop’s honey butter.

One customer said the bagel spot felt like “a real slice of New York City,” while another diner quite familiar with the bagels of NYC, Benjamin, said of those found at the Murfreesboro restaurant that “the chewiness is just perfect. While I got several varieties, the jalapeño cheddar bagel is my favorite with just the perfect amount of heat.”

The place seems extremely clean and, to accompany the movie title-inspired themes of the bagel sandwiches, the restaurant contains various fun movie posters as bagel parodies—“Herrrre’s bagels” from The Shining, The Lord of the Rounds featuring Gollum with a bagel (“my precious”), and so on.

As far as critiques, some say they found the bagels tough, or didn’t care for the coffee.

Others said the eatery seemed to have big city prices to go along with its New York vibe.

But many view Boro Bagel as a fine spot to obtain a quick delicatessen lunch or a snack, or to grab bagels, cream cheese spreads, tuna salad or potato salad to go, and appreciate the creative bagel creations, from savory items to desserts.

“My spinach parmesan bagel was perfect and loaded full of cream cheese!” said Lisa Molina.

Boro Bagel
1520 Memorial Blvd., Ste. 101
Mon.–Fri.: 6:30 a.m.–2 p.m.; Sat.–Sun.: 7 a.m.–2 p.m.
615-624-6206
Bagel with any flavor cream cheese: $4.78;
Burger on a bagel with choice of cheese, three toppings and condiments: $11.59;
The Godfather (bagel with pastrami, salami, provolone, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, Italian dressing): $10.99;
Potato salad: $2.19;
Baker’s dozen bagels: $21.99;
“Lox”ness Monster (with smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomatoes, red onion and capers): $12.99
borobagelshop.com