Mr. J’s Bagels: A Harrisonburg staple. I’ve been familiar with the menu since I was pretty little, as my dad and his friends have sat in the shop every Friday morning for the past 15 years to catch up and have a coffee or bagel. In high school, a couple friends and I came every Sunday morning before going to church for our own little tradition. My order of choice is an egg-everything bagel with cream cheese and a small coffee (tip: with bottomless refills)…$4.08, it used to be $3.71 until they moved to organic, a worthwhile change for a 37 cent change in my breakfast every other week. All that said, I realized this past week that through all my run-ins with Mr. J’s, I had never so much as tried one of their muffins. Conveniently placed under a glass cover in the counter by the register, I saw them every time but never ceded to my curiosity. That changed today when I made up for the years of wondering and walked out with one of every flavor.
Mr J’s always carries their usual suspects of blueberry cheesecake, apple-cinnamon crumb, chocolate chip, and orange juice muffins, and in honor of the current season, they currently include pumpkin chocolate and pumpkin cheesecake in their lineup. Mouth watering with the anticipation built up over a decade, I sat down at my dining room table for the sampling.
The OJ muffin caught my attention early due to its brightly-colored frosting and so became the first contender. The sliver I carefully removed from the muffin retained a perfect wedge-shape. The immediate sensation I felt when taking the first bite was of a moist, buttery texture. The cake was light, but not dry, and the frosting was thick, but not gummy. The citrus flavor from the cake came near the end and lingered, while the frosting was sharp and hit quick before dissipating into sugary mist.
Next up, the apple-cinnamon crumb and chocolate chip varieties. I mention these together, because while both are delicious muffins, they didn’t surprise me with anything and were pretty all-around normal muffins. Both reminded me of various coffee cakes from church fellowship meals of my childhood; although for those who might share these memories, the muffins fall on the upper end of the quality spectrum. The apple-cinnamon muffin reminded me of the apple fritters I would always order from the Johnny Appleseed restaurant in New Market long ago before it closed down.
The pumpkin chocolate muffin was exciting in that I expected the actual cake part of the muffin to be chocolate and the frosting to be pumpkin, but there was actually a little of both pumpkin and chocolate in the cake and frosting. However, this muffin was pretty dry and did not cut apart well. Chocolate cake in my opinion should be about as moist as the wrapper can contain, and this one did not quite satisfy that request.
Finally, the blueberry cheesecake and pumpkin cheesecake muffins. I may be entering this discussion already holding a bias, because I am a massive cheesecake fan, but these two also receive the highest marks because of a little surprise they bring to the table. Upon cutting open these two muffins, I opened the gates to a sizeable pocket of cheesecake filling in the middle! Both the blueberry and pumpkin were moist and held wonderful texture, and the cheesecake filling was still warm from baking earlier that morning. The filling was smooth and tangy, although managed to retain its shape when one of the muffin’s sides was cut away.
Mr. J’s deserves its legacy as a renowned valley breakfast bakery and is capable of producing a lot more than just bagels. If you find yourself at the counter of this fine establishment with an egg everything bagel with cream cheese on the way and are handed back $2.19 in change, I think you know what you need to do.
