New York Bakery Boys (https://www.nybakeryboys.com/) is connected to a New York bakery called Bakery Boys of New York. (Whew!) They sell fresh bagels (some of the best bagels I’ve had in the Orlando area), sandwiches, cookies, and pastries out of two locations in Oviedo and Celebration. The prepackaged cookies are labeled from the Bakery Boys of New York facility in New York, but the other baked goods seem to be baked in-house.
I visited the Oviedo location for the first time last year and ordered two sandwiches, so I got four meals out of them. Okay, three. These were hearty heroes on thick semolina bread with sesame seeds.
The first one was that New York bodega classic that has become a lot more popular and trendy in recent years, the 104th Street chopped cheese. A chopped cheese is the extroverted love child of a burger and a Philly cheesesteak, with burgers cooked on a flattop grill, then chopped up, as opposed to thinly sliced steak. Cheese is added so it melts, along with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, and ketchup. It’s a very satisfying sub… sorry, HERO.
You can see how thick the semolina hero rolls are in this cross-section! This was a hit. I had a very different chopped cheese a few years back at Ray’s Deli and More, the closest thing Orlando has to an NY borough bodega, where they pressed the entire sandwich on the flattop grill like a Cuban sandwich. I’d say both are valid, but I don’t pretend to know which presentation is more “authentic.”
I also ordered the Italian special, because come on, bro. I love Italian subs/hoagies/heroes, so how could I not? The New York Bakery Boys make theirs with ham, salami, pepperoni, prosciutto, provolone cheese, roasted red peppers, and “Boar’s Head Deli Mix,” which is a special sandwich dressing (or sandwich lubricant, if you will) made of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, herbs, and spices. This was another tasty sandwich, but I found myself missing lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. One reason I love Italian subs so much is because I like to top them with a whole damn salad so I can pretend I’m eating semi-healthy and absolve myself of a bit of guilt. Plus, all those fresh vegetables add so many more flavors and textures and add a lightness to what feels like a heavier sandwich without them.
On my second visit, I bought a half dozen bagels to go with some nova salmon, cream cheese, fresh tomatoes, and red onions I pickled myself. I got three everything bagels, one egg everything bagel, one pumpernickel bagel, and one blueberry bagel that my wife requested, but it went stale before she ever got around to it. I tried slicing it a few days later, but by then, it was hard as a rock, and I cut my thumb kind of badly. Oh well, nobody’s fault but my own.
All the other bagels were delicious. They were fresh, fluffy, and still warm when I first brought them home, and I made wonderful sandwiches with them. I wish New York Bakery Boys had bialys when I went there, because I surely would have gotten a couple. They may make them and were just out at the time.
I should note that New York Bakery Boys also offers several breakfast sandwiches, not just heroes. You can get nova and cream cheese there, or your typical bacon/sausage/ham with egg and cheese, or even “The Great Jersey Debate,” a sandwich with Taylor ham, also known as pork roll. Sandwiches come on your choice of bagel, a kaiser roll (this is the bodega way), or a hero roll or wrap for a small upcharge.
Since my wife was with me, she got a big black and white cookie, another New Yawk classic that she always loves. Those cookies are always cake-like, with the slightest hint of lemon under the heavy frosting that reminds us, “We’re not so different, you and I.” 
And she got a container of really tasty cannoli cookies with the same cake-like consistency, light frosting, and slight lemon and anise flavors. I liked that all the cookies were soft, because I don’t like hard, crunchy, crumbly cookies.
As far as I’m concerned, there can never be enough good places for sandwiches, bagels, and baked goods, so I’m glad New York Bakery Boys exists, as a bit of a hidden treasure in Oviedo (and not even that far from D’Amico and Sons Italian Market and Bakery, which is a real treasure in the Oviedo Mall). One of these days I’ll finally get around to reviewing Cavallari Gourmet too. The address of New York Bakery Boys is 2960 W State Rd 426, Oviedo, FL 32765, and there is another location at 603 Market Street in Celebration. (Celebration, which is a planned suburban community that is part of Disney World, is a weird, weird place, by the way.)
You may notice that Gideon’s Bakehouse has a creepy/kooky/mysterious/spooky aesthetic, kind of like Tim Burton-meets-Edward Gorey. They include trading cards of all these cutesy, creepy, Funko Pop-looking characters that people probably go crazy collecting, even though I’ve never paid close attention to them. Apparently the Disney Springs location has even more of a Victorian haunted house mise en scène going on, but I’ll leave that to the tourists and local Disney adults. 
Anyway, this was one of my favorites: a buttery vanilla bean cookie filled with cinnamon streusel (the website said “Strudel,” but I’m guessing they meant streusel, since I’ve baked coffee cake from scratch) and topped with “Homemade Double Baked Butter Crumbs.” Good lord, it was good. But seriously, with any of these, you can easily cut them into quarters, and even a quarter is plenty. Luckily, all these cookies freeze and thaw very well.
The Saboscrivner 