I know what you're thinking. Bagels in North Carolina?! I thought the same thing. That's why when I found out there wasn't just any bagel shop right outside my beach house neighborhood (shoutout Whalehead) but one that carried pork roll, I knew I had to investigate. One of the best decisions we made on our trip was renting a golf cart for the week. How convenient! (Except when I accidentally took the wrong cart from the grocery store and spent 40 minutes riding around the neighborhood trying to track down the correct one. Apparently, golf cart keys are universal. Shoutout to the family of four that also didn't realize that we had switched carts at the Food Lion.) Anyway, with the cart (who wants to drive an actual car around at the beach?), the bagel shop was a quick three-minute scoot down the street and after an absurd "Jersey Shore" themed party by our pool the night before, I knew the crew would need some bagels in their lives. Turns out this is the only place to get a bagel in Corolla and with hundreds of Tri-State families in town this place has no choice but to make a killing slinging bagels. I'm not sure if it was the residual effect of the Vodka Red Bulls the night before but I was more than pleasantly surprised.
Bread Rating: 6.8/10 (Pretty decent bagels with some good crisp on them.)
Pork Roll: 6.2/10 (Two thin slices slightly underheated. I get it's precious cargo so they need to preserve it when they get their shipments and with such foreign meat on the griddle of an unaware North Carolina college student, I'll let it slide.)
Egg Rating: 7.7/10 (Fresh eggs, perfectly seasoned, still a little skimped.)
Cheese Rating: 8.1/10 (White American cheese FTW, melted into the egg. *Chef's kiss*)
Sandwich Composition: 7.5/10 (Correct SPK ratio, I'm starting to think they imported these sandwich makers from the northeast for the summer. Firing up the conspiracy machine.)
Overall: 7.3/10 (This got the job done, great work all around by the questionably fake North Carolina natives.)
Price: $6
BUT WAIT THERE WAS MORE PORK ROLL ON THIS TRIP
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Do you really think that a group of people from New Jersey would go away for an entire week on foreign soil (anything outside NJ is considered foreign) and not bring an entire tube of pork roll? Of course not! Aside from investigating the above PEC, I ate pork roll almost every single morning, embarrassingly, by the handful. But I just needed to share this burger with all of you. Perfectly curated and grilled by my buddy Matt (who wanted to avenge his 2nd place PEC finish from Lake Placid) and boy did he ever knock this one out of the park. I'm not completely surprised that my friend, who once served up goat cheese sliders at a fantasy football draft in college and put a deli slicer as his lone contribution to his wedding registry, killed it with this burger. I'm not sure why more places don't offer this kind of burger (other than trying to keep heart disease off our streets) but if I'm Shake Shack I'm including it in all locations and spreading the good name of pork roll. (Don't worry Matty, if Shake Shack does this without giving you a cut, I'll cease and desist them so quick.)
Grilled bun: check
Two grilled beef patties: check
With white American cheese in between two thick cuts of pork roll: check, check, check.
What a perfect way to end a perfect week in OBX. Until next time...
Lighthouse Bagels is located at 807 Ocean Trail, Corolla, NC 27927
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