It's the great bagel giveaway

WOULD YOU GET UP AT 5AM AND QUEUE FOR A BAGEL?

- By WILLIAM TELFORD

Early birds queue pre-dawn outside Harman Bagels, in Stonehouse, for free bagels given out to mark National Bagel Day

(William Telford)

PLYMOUTH bagel lovers queued in Stonehouse from predawn last week to bag their favourite ringed bread rolls, with some coming from as far as Eggbuckland, Beacon Park... and even the South Pole.

Well, almost. Claire Thomas was back in her home city after a month working as a nurse on an Antarctic research station where it was actually warmer than Plymouth but didn't have bagels.

So she hotfooted it down to Harman Bagels, near the entrance to the Royal William Yard, to grab a couple of free bagels, as the business celebrated National Bagel Day by handing out 1,000 of the treats to hungry Plymothians.

"It was the first thing I wanted to do when I got home," she said, as she tucked into a bagel sandwich filled with kimchi cream cheese another Harman Bagel first to celebrate the bagel's special day.

"That's how good they are," she added. "We had no bagels in the Antarctic."

She said her stint on the Rothera research station had left her pining for a ringed bread roll and was delighted to learn that from 7.30am last Thursday Harman Bagels was handing out free bagels, two per customer, on a first-come-first-served basis.