10/7/2016
The ‘Bodega’ Goes Beyond the Corner Grocery Store - WSJ
This copy is for your personal, non­commercial use only. To order presentation­ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit
http://www.djreprints.com.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the­bodega­goes­beyond­the­corner­grocery­store­1475832602
U.S. | NEW YORK | METRO MONEY
‘
’
The Bodega Goes Beyond the Corner
Grocery Store
From fashion labels to pizzerias, businesses all over New York are borrowing the name
bodega
Bodega Pizza, which opened this summer in Washington Heights, serves wood­fired pies and is decked out to look like the
bodegas of the owner’s youth. PHOTO: STEVE REMICH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By ANNE KADET
Oct. 7, 2016 5:30 a.m. ET
Bodegas are hot.
Yes, the humble corner stores, with their grouchy cats and reams of toilet paper, are fast
replacing the taxi and the bagel as a symbol of New York authenticity, lending urban
credibility to any endeavor.
There’s Bodega, the clothing line, and Bodega, an art gallery on the Lower East Side. Not
to mention the Bodega, a wine bar in Bushwick, and Bodega Pale Ale, a craft beer only
distributed in New York.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bodega-goes-beyond-the-corner-grocery-store-1475832602?tesla=y
1/5
10/7/2016
The ‘Bodega’ Goes Beyond the Corner Grocery Store - WSJ
Bodega 88, a sports bar, opened in
MORE METRO MONEY
Ringing Up Customers the Old­Fashioned Way Oct. 1, 2016
August on the Upper West Side, in a
former bodega.
Rockaways Block Has Seen Better Days Sept. 23, 2016
“We had tons of names. That was the
Living It Up at 100 Years Old Sept. 16, 2016
silly one, but for some reason, that’s the
one everybody loved,” says Joe Del
Monte, director of operations at its
parent company, Main Street Restaurant Partners.
Like its namesake, Bodega 88 aims to attract patrons from all walks of life, he says.
Bodega Magazine, “your literary corner store,” is an online monthly whose founders met
while studying creative writing at New York University.
Managing editor Cat Richardson says each issue provides a quick, accessible hit of
contemporary fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, with a few surprises thrown in.
“It has everything you need, like toilet paper, and then something unexpected,” she says.
Ms. Richardson doesn’t worry that bodegas are exclusive to New York. “I think most
people have watched enough ‘Law & Order’ that they are at least vaguely familiar with
the term,” she says.
Mark Littman, founder of Bodega Studios, a video-production agency with offices in
Chelsea and San Francisco, says the outfit’s name is a nod to its New York roots and
personalized service. “You can get anything you want, any time you want, from a
bodega,” he says.
These references work but feel imperfect. To my mind, a bodega is a very specific kind of
corner grocery.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bodega-goes-beyond-the-corner-grocery-store-1475832602?tesla=y
2/5
10/7/2016
The ‘Bodega’ Goes Beyond the Corner Grocery Store - WSJ
Bodega American Pale Ale from Third Rail Beer PHOTO: KAITLYN HAUBRICH
When I accidentally started smoking again last year, for example, I didn’t buy my
Marlboros from the local deli. I walked 10 extra blocks to the bodega, where the winking
counterman slipped me 50-cent loosies in a brown paper bag.
A proper bodega features a faded awning advertising EBT, hot sandwiches and cold beer.
It sells $1 coffee, cheap Honey Buns wrapped in cellophane and Jarritos soda. The guys
outside are playing dominoes.
“They’re a little dingy, but in a comforting way,” says Queens native Kate Haubrich, who
co-founded Third Rail Beer.
The brewery’s citrusy Bodega Pale Ale has been a hit at local beer festivals, where people
get excited just by the name, says Ms. Haubrich. New Yorkers feel great affection for the
bodega, and for good reason.
“In a bodega, you won’t be judged,” she says. “I can go to a bodega in my pajamas, looking
not cute at all, and it’s fine. If I go to the deli, maybe I should put my mascara on first.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bodega-goes-beyond-the-corner-grocery-store-1475832602?tesla=y
3/5
10/7/2016
The ‘Bodega’ Goes Beyond the Corner Grocery Store - WSJ
Perhaps this view is outdated.
“Before, when you say ‘bodega,’ it was a place of crime, not everything legitimate,” says
Zulay Mateo, executive director of the Bodega Association of the United States. “We
have worked very hard in the last decade or so to associate the name bodega with
community and a positive family image.”
With wealthier people moving to bodega-heavy neighborhoods, the stores are offering
more upscale brands, she says. “It’s more mainstream than it used to be.”
I’m not sure I like this trend. So I was delighted to visit Bodega Pizza in Washington
Heights, with its hard-core retro-bodega theme.
Candles fill the windows at Bodega Pizza. PHOTO: STEVE REMICH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Co-founder
Jose Morales,
who grew up in
the
neighborhood
working in his
father’s
bodega,
remembers
corner stores
where
everyone
gathered to
drink and play
the Dominican
lottery.
Between
paychecks,
families bought
groceries on
credit, running
a tab recorded
on the back on
a cigarette
carton.
Bodega Pizza’s graffiti­covered bathroom PHOTO: STEVE REMICH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“I wanted to
pay homage to the New York I grew up in,” he says.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bodega-goes-beyond-the-corner-grocery-store-1475832602?tesla=y
4/5
10/7/2016
The ‘Bodega’ Goes Beyond the Corner Grocery Store - WSJ
The facade of his pizzeria, which opened this summer with partner Angely Herrera, is a
yellow metal awning featuring a traditional bodega’s red lettering and flashing bulbs.
The front windows are stacked with green tins of Keebler Export Sodas Crackers, pillar
candles and faded Brillo boxes. “Hispanic households do a lot of unnecessary cleaning,”
Mr. Morales says.
Inside, there’s a quarter-fed arcade game featuring Pac-Man, Centipede and Donkey
Kong. Not to mention a graffiti-covered restroom.
While Mr. Morales’s pizzas are selling well, some older folks in the neighborhood get
confused and try to buy the detergent in the window.
Mr. Morales, an agreeable man, says he’ll soon offer groceries along with the pizza. “You
can eat a nice pie, have a beer and go home with some soap, cereal and toilet paper,” he
says.
As for all the newcomers hopping on the bodega bandwagon?
“Just do your homework,” Mr. Morales says. “If you know the history of it, more power
to you.”
Write to Anne Kadet at [email protected]
Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non­commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For
non­personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1­800­843­0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bodega-goes-beyond-the-corner-grocery-store-1475832602?tesla=y
5/5