Two dozen people were already crammed into the front entrance of the Bagel Café & Deli in Burlington by the time outgoing mayor Miro Weinberger arrived one morning last week.

He was 10 minutes late, as he was for most meetings, but those waiting didn't mind. They greeted the mayor with applause when he opened the door to the North Avenue café.

"Glad to see all the regulars here!" Weinberger said, settling into the room's only empty chair. Above him, a large banner proclaimed, "Thank you Miro!"

Weinberger had occupied that very seat, at the first table on the right, nearly every Wednesday morning for more than a decade. Nicknamed "the Bagel," the weekly coffee chats were an open invitation for residents to discuss, and often complain about, the issues of the day. Weinberger estimated he held more than 500 of these get-togethers during his 12 years in office.

But that morning's event — Weinberger's last before he left office on April 1 — was different. Instead of peppering him with policy questions, people shared thanks and memories, each story a window into some of Weinberger's proudest moments, zoning reforms and development projects among them. In a week full of goodbyes, the final Bagel was one of the mayor's more personal send-offs.

"This feels like a fitting part of the final week ... to hear from folks what this event has meant to them," Weinberger told Seven Days. "I'm very grateful. It all feels to me right now that this incredible, 12-year journey is ending the right way."

Weinberger became a café mainstay even before he took office. As a candidate in 2011, Weinberger, a developer and political newcomer, started holding court at coffee shops across the city, including at the bagel café, a popular stop in a voting district with reliably high turnout. He was up against three experienced candidates in that year's Democratic caucus, and he needed to get out the vote.

Weinberger won. He thinks the Bagel helped.

After that, he rarely missed the event, even during the pandemic, when the weekly meetings were held on Zoom. If you clicked on the website of the mayor's office, his official greeting was an invitation to the Bagel.

The mayoralty and the Bagel were so inextricably linked that this year's Democratic contender, City Councilor Joan Shannon (South District), emulated the meet and greets during her run, even sitting at Weinberger's table. (The strategy wasn't as effective for Shannon: She won the New North End but lost the race to Progressive Emma Mulvaney-Stanak.)

In years past, Weinberger brought his young daughters, who would balance on his knee as he talked with constituents. Every week, he ordered the same thing — sunflower seed bagel, butter, tomato — and would fill a notebook with feedback from residents, making a to-do list to take with him to city hall.

Despite spending more than a decade in office, Weinberger is still not the most polished public speaker. He can trip over his words and go off on tangents. But last week, he seemed entirely comfortable, speaking as if he were sitting in his living room. Instead of his regular suit, he wore a casual blue button-up shirt, sleeves rolled, with a black vest.

He gave shout-outs to some of the people who'd come to wish him well — three city councilors, his first campaign manager, the owner of his CrossFit gym. All the while, customers streamed in, weaving through the crowd and dodging star-shaped Mylar balloons to get their morning coffee.

"Thank you all for being here and being part of this for so long," Weinberger said to the crowd. "It's quite touching to see so many [of you] here today."

Before the applause quieted, Elmwood Avenue resident David Call jumped in to thank Weinberger for helping create the temporary "shelter pod" community for homeless people on his street. Jim Carrier then stood and presented Weinberger with a signed copy of his latest electric bill, which set Carrier back 13 cents. He attributed the low cost, in part, to energy incentives Weinberger had championed as mayor.

Carrier, who has solar panels at his New North End home, had one last question for the mayor: Would he get a rebate when the sky went dark during the April 8 eclipse?

"You'll have to talk to Emma about that," Weinberger said of his successor, laughing. "She's in charge of the eclipse."

Rick Sharp, who helped establish Waterfront Park, gave Weinberger kudos for his wholesale revamp of the Burlington bike path, a yearslong endeavor the mayor called "the biggest parks project in the history of the city."

Weinberger was an unrelenting housing advocate, Sharp said, reflecting on the opposition the mayor faced in 2015 when he proposed allowing residential development in parts of the South End. Weinberger dropped the plan after backlash from the area's artists, who protested with politically charged artwork.

"Remember that year at Art Hop, where we had papier-mâché effigies?" Weinberger asked. An artist had portrayed the mayor as a larger-than-life puppet master, controlling the strings attached to his staffers' limbs from a perch on the ArtsRiot rooftop.

"But you stuck with it through all that," Sharp said, referring to Weinberger's successful push last summer to rezone other South End areas for housing. "Now the entire city's come around."

After a few more toasts, Call, the Elmwood Avenue resident, wrangled everyone into taking a group picture. Jordan Redell, Weinberger's chief of staff, had to climb atop a chair in order to squeeze everyone into the frame.

Residents mingled with politicos past and present. Christopher-Aaron Felker, chair of the Burlington GOP and a Bagel regular, presented Weinberger with a set of cuff links from his own collection, explaining that a former Republican senator from Maryland once commissioned them to thank his colleagues. The mayor was touched but had to turn Felker down, saying that, as an elected official, he couldn't accept valuable gifts. Felker said he'd try again the following week, once Weinberger had left office.

Lorre Tucker, for one, said she hates to see Weinberger go. As she zipped her coat to face the springtime rain, she reflected on how he had kick-started the long-stalled CityPlace Burlington development and Champlain Parkway — projects that Tucker said will transform the city for the better.

"Somehow, he slowly made it work," Tucker said. "He's been the right person at the right time."

As the gathering wound down, café owner Peter Bahrenburg helped Redell remove the banner from the window and neatly roll it up. On the table nearby lay Weinberger's spiral notebook. For the first time, his to-do list was empty.