Tradition and innovation meet at bakery’s new East Side site

RESTAURANT REVIEW

One person’s “sticking to tradition” is another person’s “stalled progress.” The latest iteration of local icon Block’s Bagels, Bakery and Deli mines a rare middle ground: It’s a restaurant where tradition is staunchly honored and gradually built upon.

This year, Block’s is marking a half-century of producing credible boiledand-baked New York-style bagels (plus other deli delicacies). Rather than standing pat, the moderately modernized new Block’s, run by 31-year-old Jeremy Fox, is moving the tradition-rich brand forward.

Fox, who got his foodbusiness start with his Short North Bagel Deli food cart, is a longtime associate of Block’s co-owners Harold and Steve Block. Upon opening the retooled version of Block’s in the Bexley Centre strip mall four months ago, Fox began offering the company’s classics — which are still available at its flagship shop near Reynoldsburg — along with a few newly minted items.

Another shrewd business move: the new restaurant, which effectively replaces a shuttered Block’s in the same general area, is appreciably closer to the firm’s strong customer base in Bexley.

This more user-friendly Block’s is roomy, bright and tidy. Its long-and-narrow space is outfitted with white walls, a white ceiling, simple wooden tables, TVs and photographs alluding to vintage delis. Subway tiles gleam behind the counter where orders are placed. A tiny patio is outside.

Breakfast, which is offered all day, is a strength. One of my favorite morning meals here is the corned beef and two eggs ($7.45), which comes with a great house bagel.

Following a server’s recommendations, I ordered the high-quality corned beef mixed with the scrambled eggs and had my justcrisp, perfectly chewy, whole-wheat everything bagel topped with spicy, first-rate jalapeno cream cheese (about a dozen cream cheeses are available). Add a large iced coffee ($2.25) prepared with locally roasted beans from One Line Coffee and you’ve got a breakfast of champions.

I enjoyed the “all the way” lox sandwich ($8) at least as much. Good-tasting, nottoo-salty cured salmon — I call it “bacon of the sea” — is accompanied by its classic partners of capers, red onion, tomato and cream cheese. About two-dozen bagel varieties are offered to encase the delicious filling, but for this combo, I suggest the poppy seed or wholewheat sesame-seed option.

For a side, you can go with a potato knish ($3) equal in quality to the type purchased from New York street carts. The matzo-ball soup ($4.25) stars an impressively supple matzo ball that far outshines an oddly light broth in need of more chicken character.

Among the 15 “specialty sandwiches,” the “Two Scoops” ($6.65) showcases terrific, meaty-yet-fluffy,

mayo-restrained house chicken salad.

The “Good Ole Goodale” ($7) is a combo that Fox brought from his food-cart operation. It’s a messy but big and irresistible sandwich of exemplary deli turkey, cream cheese, melted colby, avocado, honey mustard and lettuce all piled high onto a bagel. The sandwich is steamed for a softer, easierto-chew texture.

Two other new items might strike deli purists as heretical, but I liked them: Reuben balls, ($6.50) which resemble fried sauerkraut balls improved by diced corned beef, and French-toast bites

($5), a generous collection of not-too-sweet, snack-sized puffs made of fried house challah nubs decorated with icing, cinnamon and a little powdered sugar.

“Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as — as a fiddler on the roof!” is a title-identifying line from an icon of American musical theater that, like Block’s, premiered about 50 years ago. Because (as I was informed) 80 percent of the menu here is still traditional Block’s fare, I’d describe such a metaphorical musician as being steadily perched, but not overly complacent, atop this newest Block’s.