During my brief stint living in New York, I made it my mission one Sunday morning to get a famous H&H bagel. It was chewy, it was covered in sesame and poppy seeds, it was slathered with too much creme cheese. So basically it was perfection. I ate half that sucker on a park bench across the street, feeling like Meg Ryan living on the Upper West Side in You’ve Got Mail.

The great thing about good food is it takes you back to other good meals. And that’s just what my breakfast two weekends ago at The General Muir did.

I claimed a seat at the bar where I had bottomless coffee and a hard time turning down a bagel. No lox or capers for me, please. Just an everything bagel and plain cream cheese. Finally, here was a bagel down South that tasted like its Big Apple (but now closed) counterpart.

I really loved the sleek subway tile and the modern take on a Jewish deli. I half expected it to look like Katz’s–the deli, you’ll recall, from another Meg Ryan movie, When Harry Met Sally. But The General Muir was more ornate than old-world in decor.

My waiter didn’t have to twist my arm very hard for me to order a cream cheese danish after I had devoured half my bagel. You don’t say no at a place that makes their bagels fresh daily and cures their pastrami in house.