A&W root beer floats. Dense, chewy bagels baked until golden and coated with warm peanut butter, cream cheese or melted butter. Have your attention? Good. It’s time to Feel More.
Hidden, much like Tristan’s CalMex Restaurant and Bar, in a maze of secluded alleyways dotted with local clothing boutiques, Japanese cafes and residential buildings, Feel More Coffee & Bagels isn’t a place you stumble upon – it’s very much a planned destination. So what’s the incentive? That calming, sunny sensation of walking into a bagel shop and inhaling the familiar aroma of onions, sesame seeds and yeast while squinting at an overhead chalkboard to make your order.
Eddy Lau, the passionate Hong Kong native behind Feel More, understands this: he lived in Vancouver, Canada, for seven years and fell in love with the round, doughy breakfast rolls so many can’t live without. This propelled him to set up a shop in Guangzhou, where bagels are difficult to come by.
“Right now, we make a few dozen from scratch every day with this little oven,” explains Lau, motioning to a cooker about the size of a microwave. “It’s not very big, so we hope to expand to a larger kitchen in the next few months.”
Given the limited resources at his disposal, it’s amazing how popular Lau’s little shop has become in only two months. The menu is simple but classic, with plain, sesame, honey, whole-wheat, cranberry, cinnamon raisin and sea salt bagels on offer (RMB11-13), as well as regular, blueberry, peanut butter, strawberry, raspberry and chocolate cream cheese (RMB4-6).
Though soft on the inside and slightly crispy around the edges, the bagels aren’t quite as dense and squishy as those back home. All things considering, however (like the fact that Lau is dealing with different climate conditions, water and ingredients), they come pretty damn close.
A range of bagel sandwiches, including the BLT (RMB27), smoked salmon (RMB37), tuna melt (RMB27) and beef pastrami (RMB37), can be tweaked according to customers’ preferences, but Lau has done a sound job with the recipes.
Stuffed with fresh dill, cream cheese and salmon (from the same source that supplies The Westin Guangzhou and Mandarin Oriental Guangzhou), the smoked salmon sandwich is a harmonious blend of freshness and flavor in each bite.
Lau is in the process of connecting with Tall Timbers, a Guangzhou-based coffee roasting company owned by two guys from Seattle, to sell fresh beans at his shop. In the meantime, a combination of Taiwanese beans is used to craft balanced brews of espresso (RMB13-15), lattes and cappuccinos (RMB25). Soothing cocoa blends like the hot chocolate and Bailey’s (RMB33) and refreshing classics like the root beer float (RMB28) encapsulate the homey, nostalgic impression Feel More is going for.
Bagel orders by the dozen must be made two days in advance (at least until Lau finds a larger oven). But given that Feel More is the only spot in Guangzhou to reconnect with the best breakfast food on earth, who are we to complain?
Price: RMB50
Who’s going: New Yorkers, brunch crowds
Good for: bagels with cream cheese, BLTs, Kettle chips
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