Sausage, Egg and Pepper Jack on Everything Bagel

In the decade I’ve been living in D.C., I’ve never found a bagel breakfast sandwich better than one you actually have to leave the city to get. The Bagel Place in College Park is right off of the UMD campus, so you may have to dodge a Terp or two, but it’s worth it: the bagels are among the best in the area and make the perfect breakfast sandwich foundation. If you’re smart enough to build properly on that foundation, you’ll order an everything bagel with sausage, egg, and pepper jack. Any great sandwich is all about balance. Here, your egg is scrambled, so it serves mostly as a base for texture. The key is that the sausage, the pepper jack, and the everything bagel are the perfectly matched flavor trio. American or Swiss cheese would get lost in the mix. A jalapeño bagel would overpower the whole sandwich. If you’re going to go to the trouble of searching out a great bagel, you might as well get the sandwich right.