Hot Chocolate Soup? Yes, And Bagels Too

Restaurant review The Bagel & Chocolate Soup Co., 11606 98th Ave. N.E., Kirkland (actually in Juanita), phone: 823-5404, fax: 823-2025. Open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Personal checks and bankcards accepted. Call ahead or fax for take-out orders.

Maybe it's the weather, or the time of year, or the lure of the unknown, but I warmed to the exotic promise of chocolate soup.

I'm not the only one. Since the treat became available in September 1993, Juanita diners can't get enough of it. As part of the bargain, they discovered New York-style bagels, great food and an ambiance Martha Stewart would be proud of.

Appearances count at The Bagel & Chocolate Soup Co. So do names.

Marie Mahan, who owns the restaurant with former Seahawks quarterback Kelly Stouffer, employs religious terms to discuss her restaurant.

She describes the visions that led her to buy a old, brick-building block including a liquor store on 98th Avenue. Mahan saw how it should be decorated, and put in a fireplace, wingback chairs, and books and games for extra coziness. Then came the name.

"I knew it had to be chocolate soup; I just didn't have a recipe," Mahan recalled. "So I prayed. And the recipe came - just like that, on the same day."

Well. No one can fault her enthusiasm, and the name has lived up to its expectations. Mahan reports that diners take it to go, and want it for catered parties.

Served with whipped cream and a piece of Belgian chocolate, the decadent soup ($3.50 bowl) tastes like a warm, creamy Fudgcicle. (You can also try it cold.)

Bagels, too, are divine at The Bagel & Chocolate Soup Co. The menu describes their legendary origin as a baker's gift to the king of Poland. Bagels even help promote sleep if eaten before bedtime by producing serotonin, the brain chemical responsible for slumber, the menu claims.

"I knew there really weren't any gourmet bagels around," Mahan said. "I knew you could give people a real, gourmet quality bagel with a special ambiance and do pretty well."

Mahan's staff apprenticed at a bagel school in New York City, and two bagel experts monitored them for a week back in Juanita. The result is a fresh, soft bagel with a golden skin you can peel like an orange. "It's really an art," Mahan said.

How this works on a sandwich helps explain why Mahan thinks she'll be opening up two more restaurants next year. Inside these pliant, fresh bagels, deli mainstays such as New York corned beef, pastrami and chicken salad seem strangely elegant when served on white doilies. Ranging from $3.95 for a three-cheese sandwich to $5.35 for Kelly's Reuben, the meals come with lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes and onions.

The restaurant offers specialty bagels, including pumpkin, peanut butter and banana walnut (65 cents each), plus all the regulars, like onion, cinnamon raisin and herb (55 cents each) and specialty cream cheese to go. Also try breakfast during morning hours, including bagel scramble ($1.75) and bagel cheese Canadian bacon scramble ($2.95).

But it's the atmosphere as much as the food that makes this restaurant a real treat. Power diners swing deals on wooden tables underneath original art work. Lone diners slip off their shoes and curl up near the fireplace with their books. And an occasional chess or backgammon group reserves a table for a long, cozy afternoon.

"People," Mahan said, "kind of forget they're here."