Bagel Talk is in the West Grove Mall outside the “gates” of Ocean Grove. All photos by Paul Goldfinger. Blogfinger.net
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA. posted July 26, 2025.
Friday, July 25, 2025. : It was about 9 am at Bagel Talk across from the entrance to OG. Usually I am there earlier, but when I walked in it was modestly crowded. I was waiting for my order of an “everything” bagel, scooped and toasted, with butter. The workers there know me, so they say, “The regular?” But I am a little insecure about their inquiry, so I recite my order anyhow.
As I stood around waiting for my order, I did some people-watching and I fill my 16 oz insulated coffee cup with “house blend.” I enjoy studying the demographics of mini-cultures.
Just then a man rushes in through the front door and yells, “Fire! There is smoke on your roof! ”
Everyone looked at him, but they all were frozen in place. He looked around, incredulous, and shouted louder: “Fire; smoke on the roof.”
The crowd began to shuffle nervously and then a cloud of smoke appeared at the front window. There was no smoke in the shop.
With that, a rush out of the store began. It was quick but orderly. A woman near me said to her friend, “What about my food?”
I decided to leave, and as I exited I looked up and saw the smoke on the roof. No question: There may be no visible flame, but there is a fire!
Someone shouted, “It’s the laundry–next door.”
I rushed to my car and drove out without my bagel which probably wouldn’t need a toaster. I headed for International Bagel in Bradley Beach, but it was an indecipherable incoherent, chaotic crowded mess. My advice: Never go there.
As I drove back to the Grove I passed the West Grove Mall, the location of Bagel Talk. There were fire engines and police cars lined up in front of the bagel place and the laundromat—with lights blinking, but no sirens—-there were more sirens at the OG July 5 parade.
This morning the bagel staffers told me that the fire was in a dryer next door and that they were busy toasting bagels within an hour.
This was almost as exciting as when I, playing center-forward for the Rutherford High soccer team, chased a fast moving bouncing ball and blew a goal as it bounced off my chest and into the waiting arms of the goalie who scooped it up about one second before I arrived.
Life is full of close calls, and sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. And sometimes you remember and sometimes you forget.
I was happy to see that Bagel Talk was up and running this morning..
But that day at RHS, I had a close call, and I can still hear the groan emanating from our bench. Lucky there were no cheerleaders—they only came to football games.
POINTER SISTERS: “Fire”
