Jim and Laura Butterworth opened their bagel place two years ago, and by now it has the air of a bed and breakfast without the bed - or, as Mr. Butterworth puts it, a "neighborhood bar without the fights."
David's Bagels, the third link in a chain that began in New City, N.Y., is a kaffeeklatsch kind of place, where people stand in line for bagels and coffee, then retire to a table in the front for a long morning's schmooze.
Regulars have become so devoted to David's that they are known to pack dozens of bagels in airtight bags and ship them to vacation homes in the South. Or to call ahead to find out if a particular favorite - the dense, moist, somewhat oily carrot muffins, for instance, or the jalapeno-and-cheddar bagels - is available that day. (The muffins usually are; the jalapeno-cheddar, only rarely.) Lines can be long, but they move quickly, and the customers are as companionable as the mostly young staff.
Mr. Butterworth's first career was in landscaping, but what he cultivated was a passion for bagels.
"I could eat a ton of them," he says.
There is nothing secretive or particularly painstaking about his craft, just long hours - the Butterworths begin their workday at 4 A.M. - and fresh ingredients. The bagels are chewy but not hard, generous but not puffy, always fresh, and very fairly priced for this up-market town: 40 cents each, $4.80 for a baker's dozen.
My own favorite is the nutty, honey-scented whole-wheat-sesame, but I could eat a ton of the jalapeno-cheddar. If it happened to be available.DAVID CORCORAN.
David's Bagels III, 50 Bi-State Plaza, Old Tappan, (201) 666-8111. Hours: 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. weekdays, to 3 P.M. Saturdays and Sundays.