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If you’ve been paying attention to Modern Bread and Bagel lately, you already know the drill: the beloved kosher and gluten-free bagel shop with multiple NYC locations drops a new special menu item every month and, by now, anticipating what comes next has become something of a ritual. Last month’s top-notch French toast bagel set the bar high. This month, the shop is following it up with something that feels tailor-made for the season.
Meet the Greenlight: an open-faced bagel sandwich layered with ramp cream cheese, chive, sesame salt and cucumber slices. It’s visually striking—the kind of thing you’ll want to photograph and post on Instagram before eating—and it could not be more perfectly timed for May. Ramps, for the uninitiated, are wild onions with a garlicky, slightly pungent bite that appear for just three to four weeks out of the entire year. Modern Bread and Bagel made sure to flag that short window on Instagram when announcing the new item and, honestly, the urgency is warranted.
The sandwich runs $16, which is a perfectly reasonable ask for lunch in New York City, especially when you factor in the quality of ingredients and the very limited availability of the star of the show.
As usual, you get to choose your own bagel base: plain, everything, sesame, cinnamon raisin and even the shop’s vegan superseed bagel.
Modern Bread and Bagel is also selling the ramp cream cheese on its own. So if the open face sandwich leaves you begging for more, you can just stock up and carry that garlicky, herby goodness into the rest of the summer.
