Bodegas
3mon 8d ago by piefed.world/u/The_Picard_Maneuver in curatedtumblr@sh.itjust.works from media.piefed.world
NYC here.
If someone asked the average New Yorker what a bodega was, the most probable answer is "What are you, stupid?"
Not me, because I would be mugging you.
Wow! NYC!
MA TAKE A PICTURE I'M GETTING MUGGED BY THE CITY ITSELF :D
You her mother? Give me some money or your next.
My next what?
You care about spelling?
It's gone from a mugging to grievous bodily harm!
Don't make me use my accent on you!
Cannibalism???
I talked to a new yorker once but it was actually a man sized rat.
After I uncovered their ruse they scuttled away but not before grabbing a nearby busker and whisked them away to behind a dumpster.
The real magic is I can walk to several open bodegas almost any time of day or night.
Just like a corner store!
It depends where you live. Most places in the US you can't (safely) walk to anywhere, and many places aren't open 24/7.
A bodega is a gas station without the gas
So a corner store?
Or even a bodega
So synonyms?
True, they're a lot like Seven Eleven.
I experienced that first hand. Colleagues going to their cars to drive 200m down the road to park again and then walk 100m back on themselves to a deli.
It’s baffling how something as simple as a corner shop that can be walked to is a novelty yet here in Europe, it’s the norm everywhere.
I think back in the day there was a dispute about whether there should be corner stores everywhere. Some disagreed, were put on boats, and sent across the ocean.
You're right, but that's equivalent to saying that most places don't have corner stores. It being walkable is a prerequisite.
And they're just little shops, no corporate bullshit.
new yorkers think having an american, chinese, indian, italian, and mexican restaurant to choose from makes them unique. im not even kidding i saw a new yorker tweet that those choices can only be found in new york city
Lol, maybe if it was 1980.
Lol, the old “American food is the best because we have every kind of cuisine”. Oh sweety, that’s just every city now.
They also think they have the best of all of the above, they do not. I was there last month the pizza was ass I've had better from just about every other state I've been to, and they have fuck all for good soul food. Ask a New Yorker for some grits, biscuits and gravy, fried spaghetti, porkchop sandwiches, or collards and watch their fucking head spin. Then ask about barbecue, and when they answer, ask what style that barbecue is and the head twists right off because half of them don't know Memphis style from Western NC style if they even knew there were different styles at all.
Then they move anywhere and get pissed off that other places aren't the exact same as NYC, go the fuck back then idiot!
I’m just going to say it: NY style slice pizza is shit. And the thing is New Yorkers know it too. That’s why they fold the slices in half to eat it, they want it to be over as quickly as possible.
Tbh NY "style" pizza is fine, even great from some places, but it is better outside of NYC than inside. They're not even best at their own style.
So you couldn't find soul food in New York, and we're supposed to take you seriously?
Hey I don't live there, I ask where to go and I'm told "Idk we have a Popeyes." If you come to my city and ask for good Italian I'm not gonna send you to fucking Domino's (even though Domino's is legit better than the last slice I had in NYC, thing had dough made of drywall.)
Do you have clue how many pizza joints are in New York City? For an idea, at night, look at the sky. But not in New York City.
I've been to enough of them.
they actually have new york barbecue, but its so sad and pathetic youd mistake it for pig feed
my dude i live in california our barbecue is grilled.
the grass can always be browner
Now that I've never heard of, so I assume you're correct lol.
In fairness to them… BBQ comes from Virginia. But we didn't really develop our own unique style, so it sort of faded out somewhat. We have BBQ here and it's usually NC or some other style (I think generally sort-of-TX more than anything, but NOT quite TX). We have some good places and some meh places.
It sucks that we don't have VA style BBQ, but............ eh. I'll take good food whatever the source. :)
Always cute to watch Americans argue about good food 😶🌫️
I'm a food enthusiast, personally. I love the fusion of cuisines. For example, many European cuisines were able to do amazing things with tomatoes and potatoes. And one of my favorite dishes involves Japanese curry, which went from India to England to Japan.
We have so many tasty food options these days, and it's because you can get so many more ingredients all over, and people share ideas and "steal" ideas and make them their own and make them better. :)
Oh my god, I'm from central North Carolina, we call New Yorkers "halfbacks" because they move to Florida, hate it there, so they move halfway back, to North Carolina. And then you get "where I'm from, we..."
I have now decided to no longer tolerate that behavior in my presence. Next time I hear a fookin noo yoaka start a sentence about where he's from, I'm taking hostages.
Tell 'em to keep going!
"Where I'm from we-"
"I don't fucking care. Go back if it's so great. Now."
If they wanted it to be a little similar but cheaper they should have moved to fucking NJ.
I grew up in Florida (sorry about us clogging up your mountain towns in the Fall). I share the rage. That accent actually triggers me.
I had a coworker years ago that was from Miami originally. I still remember the bumper sticker on his car that read "Miami. Flee it like a native"
I was back in Florida a couple years back. I'd been away about five years (I now live in Hawai'i) and had to go to Miami for a day. The overwhelming feeling I got while driving in Florida was that everyone wanted to be somewhere else lol
Even if you do manage to find good pizza in nyc the prices are beyond absurd for what you get. I feel like NJ (I live in south and work in central) tends have more consistent quality pizza for much cheaper, although I must admit it's been a while since I spent anytime in NYC so my info maybe a little out of date.
I have never tried Chicago or Detroit or any of those styles although I'd be interested if anyone knows anywhere in those parts of Jersey that are good at them.
I will also say that the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers I know talk about the almost omnipresent rudeness like it's a positive thing? Always has baffled me.
Even if you do manage to find good pizza in nyc the prices are beyond absurd for what you get.
I mean most places raised the price from $1 to $1.50 for a plain slice but I wouldn't call that absurd.
A big slice with toppings is ~$5 by me, which seems reasonable for what's essentially a meal.
Tbf I wouldn't want most of that soul food anywhere. Biscuits and gravy is good, the rest... Not my style. Unsurprised there isn't a bevy in NYC.
"Ayy if NYC doesn't have it, fuggheddabbouttid."
-I'm walkin' ova heah.
Southern food sucks. I fucking said it.
Bless your heart.
Swap Indian for Thai and you just described the food options in my Redneck SoCal city.
Redneck SoCal
Can I guess? Can DM confirm if you'd prefer lmao..
I'm in a small town in southern North Carolina. I've got all that plus 2 Peruvian, and 2 Thai, within a 5 minute drive.
Plus you guys get Cook Out!
Never got the hype. It's like a backyard burger at best.
It's cheap which is nice but.. That's about it. IMHO.
Fair and I don't disagree. Hush puppies are pretty good and when you're road-tripping, it's a nice option to have. My wife went to Wake Forest and introduced me to Cook Out. I'd seen the billboards over the years and never paid it much attention. When I was in grad-school in Northern Virginia, I would drive down to South Florida regularly and Cook Out was great for that run. Better than most fast food on the way (unless I was willing to actually stop for a bit, then I'd hit up Waffle House)
Can definitely respect waffle house. All star special ftw
We might be neighbors; is one of them a Thai Orchid in the building that used to be the old Pizza Hut, next door to the ABC store in the building that used to be the new Pizza Hut?
That doesn't sound familiar, sorry. It's good to know that other small towns down here have just as much variety though!
But this is just on one block.
here bodegă means a cheap, low-quality and often run-down bar/pub, I think that's close to its original meaning - wine cellar/warehouse. How did USA go from that to corner shop, I wonder
How did USA go from that to corner shop
The used a brimful of asha.
On the 45?
Everyone needs a bosom for a pillow!
Iirc, is from Dominican's immigrants on New York
Now I'm not from NY and I agree that it's mostly a corner shop, the only connection to that that I can think of is that usually bodegas will have a kind of deli section where you can buy prepared foods. Usually sandwiches, sometimes things like tacos or rice plates.
I think new yorkers don't get that that's common across corner stores around the US.
So, a corner store?
Yep, that's what I said.
You tried making the distinction between a corner store and a bodega. Yet both of them have a deli section.
They are just synonyms, aren't they?
No, I tried making the connection between an American bodega and it's origin as a dive bar/pub. I then said it's the same with many corner stores in the US. Re-read the post.
That's what the shops are.
So after reading through all the valuable comments here it seems like a bodega is a way to say you live in New York while trying to not seem like you're bragging about it but you actually try to brag about it
As someone who used to travel to NYC a lot, bodegas are a marvel because the supermarkets are crazy expensive. I still can't believe millions of people live like that.
It's all about the relationship you cultivate with the owners and operators of the bodega.
Soooo, same as any corner store?
Depends on the locale, but I believe so.
Where I grew up the market had been cornered, so to speak, by a small city level chain. 26 stores for a proper city and it's ~6 suburbs.
You got the good food, and some extras like fresh donuts and ice cream from their bakery and creamery, but the staff were almost exclusively university kids with weird schedules you would never see more than a few times.
It was weird for a minute when I lived near a corner store where the owner also was just at the register and talked to people. (To be fair, he was also a university student, he just wanted to let the family manage the family business while he became a pathologist of all things. )
And their Bodega cat.
The most important part of the Bodega!!!
Yep. It’s simple and human. That’s it. That’s the magic.
These comments are so weird. I only found out what a bodega was recently, so I've added it to my brain as "corner shop". I didn't even know they were peculiar to a specific area until this post.
So they're corner shops. Everything people comment about them being different still comes under the umbrella of "corner shop". It's weird to see people yapping about how they're different and then giving reasons that... still mean corner shop.
Diaclamer: never been to new york or any store that called itself a bodega.
I think its similar to "all bodegas are corner shops but not all corner shops are bodegas". They have unique features that group them closer to eachother than to most other corner stores. But they are still a corner store.
All poodles are dogs but some people just prefer poodles.
Then explain what makes them different from corner shops. Because so far, every characteristic is just a characteristic of a corner shop.
It is like claiming there are a species of poodle that are different from poodles.
The big things are the deli counter and vibe of the place. Things aren't necessarily super over priced like chain convenient stores. They also often also tailor to more specific customers. There is one near me that has shelves of Indian products while another just a block away carries Polish products.
Ah, I see. America has invented "shops".
Vibes
I've always called them "convenience stores", but, yeah, same thing. I once worked with a woman who took me to this place on our break which she introduced by saying "Okay, I'm not trying to be racist, but I honestly don't know what else to call this place. It's a chink shop." So, I'm wondering what this store is going to be like. We walk in, and...it's a fuckin' convenience store. Which happened to be run by Asians.
Americans have so little culture for themselves they have to make even something as common and ubiquitous as a corner shop, all about them.
All this yapping and not a single one of you geniuses figured out the real difference of a bodega. You can get loosies. Single cigarettes and buy beer in single cans/past legal hours.
So what you’re missing is that the defining features of a bodega aren’t offered to foreigners like you because you aren’t part of the culture.
I can do that in my local corner shop.
You ain't special.
Keep your bodegas. Ain't none of you guys can beat our local gas station/post office//DMV/liquor store/UPS pickup point. We don't even need a special name for it. It's just The Store. Sure it's not within walking distance. But then not even the neighbors are either.
You can fill up your car, get your mail, buy new tabs for that car/boat/UTV/truck or get a fishing/hunting license, buy a 12 pack of beer, send a fax to your parole officer, and buy a gallon of milk with a frozen pizza to either cook there or take it home. It also has 2 tables and 5 chairs to relax at, (no purchase necessary). I know people who do all of that in one visit.
I didn't grow up quite that rural, but close enough that this comment is making me nostalgic.
The only one of these I’m familiar with was deep in the North woods of Wisconsin, but it really was the do-everything infrastructure of the town. IIRC also had propane, ice, fishing stuff, automotive basics, local community bulletin boards, a few old arcade cabinets, and although inside seemed bigger than outside it was only as big as a medium-sized deli in NY.
I've got one of those within throwing distance of my job, it fuckin' rules
And I thought the gas station/courthouse I saw was wild.
Yeah, they didn't go quite that far.
That sounds like a Party Store combined with a really nice gas station.
I'm from Chicago and I've never been to NYC. From what I've heard about bodegas however, the difference seems to be that a bodega requires a cat.
Now try asking the Québécois about dépanneurs
Nothing special about them. It's just a different name for a regular convenience store.
Huh, I guess you're right actually. I'm in Québec often and I always thought a dépanneur was specifically a convenience store that sold alcohol but it seems like it does refer to any convenience store
Growing up in Ontario in the 80s and 90s, the fact that you could buy beer and wine at a dépanneur was revolutionary. Can't get that at Mac's Milk!
Haha I grew up on the border of Ontario and Québec (ON side) and we'd make trips over to the small town dep on the Quebec side to buy alcohol when we were 18.
Also re: Mac's Milk, I'm still mad its not called that anymore
That's just a convenience store, in French.
What I know from continental French that sounds like a repair shop
That would require me to go to quebec and defile my tongue with french.
Don't worry, it's not really French
This is just new yorkers being new yorkers - a city full of Emperor's New Clothes.
Speaking of which, did you know in NYC it’s legal for a woman to be topless anywhere a man can be? That’s why we walk around naked all the time. Sorry carry on.
Yeah but Columbus Ohio is the same. In Washington you can be full on naked as long as it's not sexual. Topless legal cities are a minority, but they're not nearly as rare as people think
lol yeah not so uncommon anymore, just the only immaletyoufinish segue I could think of at the time
What's disappointing is that bodegas are as close to a "third space" as you're likely to get. It's not a place you're meant to hang out, there isn't even seating, and you are supposed to buy something. And yet, there's a hint at some kind of community.
UK, Ireland and Australia have a slight improvement on that with pubs. They're also commercial establishments, but culturally it's more of a community thing. It's also not just about alcohol. You can get a hot meal too. Even if someone isn't going out to hang out with friends down at the pub, it's often perfectly normal to go there and eat alone while reading a book. Even that is a bit of a community activity, because you'll see some of the same faces and exchange greetings or at least waves or nods.
Places with serious winters (and I'm including NYC in that), really should have third spaces that are not for profit and designed for various kinds of hanging out: board games, indoor sports, gaming, cooking. That just doesn't seem to be a common thing in the English speaking world, at least for adults.
Til https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
In sociology, the third place refers to the social surroundings that are separate from the two usual social environments of home ("first place") and workplace ("second place"). Examples of third places include churches, cafes, bars, clubs, libraries, gyms, bookstores, hackerspaces, stoops, parks, and theaters, among others.
The real beauty of the pub/local/neighborhood bar is that is is local and in your neighborhood! You can walk there and walk back after and nobody gets a dui
A difference between the two (at least from what I've seen) is that if you go to a bar, you're going to drink. Whereas a pub always has drinks, but that's not always the reason to go.
They got beer and chips, and snacks in $1 bags. They also have a sweet Tortie guarding the place. That's the real reason to visit.
yeah i was going to ask about the cats
Sweet? Tortie? Concurrently?
Sure, I've known lots of sweet Torties.
Fortunate! I have only met spicy ones, true to the stereotype.
They tend to be VERY smart, and independent, so you have to treat them like equals. They don't tolerate human bullshit.
bodegon deez nuts
How bazaar
OK, but couldn't you wait for 20 more notes to appear before taking the screenshot?
A small shop? What's an incredible concept. Who would have thunk it?
America truly is the land of innovation.
Bodega is spanish for bottega
See?! Way too convenient!
Nah clearly it’s because Americans are pieces of uncultured swine shit.
One of the main things I miss from the UK is the cornershops - generally run by an Asian family and you can find almost anything a human could possibly want to buy in there with “multipack, not for individual sale” writ on the side.
Australia used to have milk bars, which were basically the same thing, but they’ve all been closed down or gentrified into delis and brunch cafes.
ACAB
Get your hands off my furry porn, copper
You got a loicense for that pornography mate?
stabs you with a furry knife
nooooooo nicky flowers my beloved!
Not New York but "Topeka Bodega" is a common "practice sentence" in phonics and oratory and I think its a more mellifluous phrase than "cellar door."
"Topeka Bodega" is quite pleasing to say. I've just said it like five times and my wife was like, "What the hell are you going on about now, dear?"
I've heard some bodegas have cats
Huh, I've always assumed that a bodega is a shop akin to those Japanese 7-11 stores. Like the kinda store that you see in those CCTV recordings of horses breaking through automatic store doors.
Wait till I tell Americans that small discount supermarkets exist within walking distance in Denmark.
Wait until they find out Denmark is filled with Danish people.
Good god, no!
wait, you mean like people made out of pastries, or . . . ?
No, it's even worse
Pastries made out of people?
Nyc is one of the few cities that you can walk in though
Kamelåsa
Well, that's different than a Bodega. You see, the bodega is only stocked with inventory the owners purchased at a retail grocery store down the road, so the markup is like paying a convenience surcharge. No discounts.
spreads cheeks to identify self as not a cop to purchase illegal weed
Black ass!!
A bodega is a corner store owned by the guy behind the counter.
Most corner stores in most places these days are run by regional managers of franchisees who hire Clerky The Clowns to work the counter and have to keep producing numbers for corporate.
As a New Yorker... I mean yeah what did you expect? The only real difference is that bodegas typically serve a wide variety of hot foods that are actually good. Other than that its just a small store, many other places have them.
I’m from Texas and I know what a bodegas is. It’s like a gas station with no gas and hot food that depending on the place can either be great or give you ecoli. It’s a gamble.
Also black people and kids get yelled at for any small movement.
So they're pretty much a Casey's gas station?
Minus the gas, smaller, and more common.
So, like a corner store?
Yeah pretty much, if you want to see something that truly makes NYC stand out look at the subway system not the bodegas.
That's not true. A bodega is a corner store with a plexiglass container for staff because they're in a shithole.
Yeah but if you show them your ass they might sell you some weed
Black ass!
Ok but conbis are actually pretty great. That or I just like beer and onigiri with a short walk
I love a good conbi crawl getting shit faced through Japan.
Will I wake up in a completely different city? Maybe, because Japan is insanely safe and public transport is perhaps too convenient
I eat conbini sandos all the time, chasing the high of a decent sandwich but only feeling their echoes as a couple of thin slices of ham whisper across my tongue.
I should just stick to rice balls
My fren really got into those sandwiches a while back. I don't get it. They are crazy expensive compared with the onigiris and other things and don't look that convincing to me. Maybe worth a try some day
They're shit. People here have no idea why tourists are obsessed with the 7/11 egg sandos.
I should say that as an American, I don't often have access to rice balls and they're just a bit too inconvenient to make myself. But also yeah, convenience store sandwiches are infamously mediocre here unless you go somewhere like sheetz or wawa (two Pennsylvania based convenience store chains notorious for actually having good food). I did find that breakfast sandwiches were fine before I became a pescatarian, but it's hard to screw up a frozen sausage and egg croissant.
The other big thing about Japanese conbis was that I didn't feel like I was getting absolutely cheated on price. Where I grew up you only eat at a convenience store because you're on the road and in a rush.
Wawa food quality has steadily gone down over the years, while the prices have skyrocketed.
I was surprised at both the selection of stuff at a conbini and how they were literally everywhere when I was visiting Japan. Good stuff. Best I got back at home is a single gas station convenience store in walking distance.
I need to check out 7/11 in the US now that I live somewhere they are and know that they're owned by the Japanese branch of the company now. But also, convenience stores in the US are typically just not worth the effort imo. They're more expensive than grocery stores by quite a bit, the pre made food sucks, and they're less likely to be within walking distance than a grocery store in a lot of places.
I ain't explaining shit. It's a bodega, fuck you. Have a nice day.
Hey man, sometimes they have cats
I'm originally from South Jersey. I grew up in a small city where everywhere was a family owned, Corner Store. Or just the "Store". We didn't call it anything different. I don't know where "Bodega" came from.
1846, "wine shop," from Mexican Spanish, from Spanish bodega "a wine shop; wine-cellar," from Latin apotheca, from Greek apothēkē "depot, store" (see apothecary). Since 1970s in American English it has come to mean "corner convenience store or grocery," especially in a Spanish-speaking community, but in New York City and some other places used generically. Also a doublet of boutique. Italian cognate bottega entered English c. 1900 as "artist's workshop or studio," especially in Italy.
Well I knew it was possibly from Spanish origin at least. Especially in NY. That makes sense. However, the city I grew up in NJ has a Spanish Majority Population, mostly from Purto Rico I believe.But then again I haven't lived there in almost 20 years, and I only speak English so what do I know? heh
North Jersey probably has bodegas given how close it is to NYC (both location and culture). South Jersey, on the other hand, might as well be an entirely different state than the north. So it makes sense that you wouldn't use the word.
Corner stores in NYC have some advantages, competition. If
In the burbs and rural areas, the stores are spread out, and if you have a shitty store a couple miles closer than a decent store, they can just produce the cheapest crap and sell it to you for exorbatent prices.
New Yorkers are ok with walking a few blocks. So if your corner shop can't complete another one 2 minutes away will draw away their customers.
Even corner shops in Baltimore and DC are pretty anemic comparatively, but they tend to have more actual restaurants peppered about.
My understanding is that at least one type of bodega is known for taking a relatively short list of ingredients and making a wide variety of food out of them.
We've got a couple of places like that down here in Hampton Roads - the Sun and Moon deli, for example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nALYSXamP-ksJG9N1C2qjB59ytRqYb56/view(menu)
I love that mix of stuff of which some of it seemingly is random, but it really does re-use a lot of the same stuff.
The lamb over rice is just fantastic. Everything we've had has been. Not on that menu, but they have a Jamaican meat patty and it's clear it's made homemade in-house. It's so tasty.
I know both of these placs down here in Newport News are separate, but both run by folks from Yemen. Well, I don't know what's up there, but I 100% approve of Yemini-run bodegas down here. They're delightful! :)
If that’s the definition, every taqueria is also a bodega.
We had one of these by Granville island here in Van BC. Homeade soups, sandwiches, burgers, meat pies, pastries. You name it, she had it and it was cheap and pretty darn good. Raising rent prices chased them out and nothing has been able to replace it...
Ah, that sucks. Because that place sounds like it was frickin' awesome.
I thought a Bodega offered breakfast and lunch sandwiches while corner stores outside of NYC don't offer breakfast items as part of their deli menu.
Philly here. Some corner stores do have breakfast stuff, some dont. Do with that what you will.
This is exciting news.
Philly here
Gotta get that porkroll, egg and cheese sandwich... A friend from that area introduced it to me years ago while I was visiting, and I was sold. So good.
Thats pretty funny, it is definitely a thing I see but almost never order! Pork roll seems either Canadian or, for whatever reason, New Jersey to me. Not that its a bad choice, im just a sausage main.
Well it shouldn't seem Canadian, that would be weird lol
I am probably just misrembering the movie, but the John Candy movie "Canadian Bacon" , dont they talk about how Americans use the term Canadian bacon when talking about pork rolls?
Ohhhh no, porkroll is it's own regional thing that's unique to, I believe, Southeast PA and NJ.
Usually you'll see Taylor brand. You might also hear people in North Jersey call it Taylor Ham, but that's dumb lol.
You are correct that Canadian bacon exists, and it's way different than the bacon in the US, but porkroll is its own thing. I'm honestly not sure why it's so regional because it's so good on a breakfast sandwich.
Here's more info:
Shit in parts of the South the best fried chicken in town is (well, Aunt Mary Sue's, but the best fried chicken sold in town is) at the literal Circle K. There's other restaurants but Josie at the K has that shit on lock, breakfast lunch and dinner.
I learned from the movie Half Baked. https://youtu.be/KIncGi-Ne2Q
A shame Dave Chapelle turned out to be a terrible person who only cared about his rights specifically.
In Denmark 'bodegas' are essentially pubs that might serve food, but very often are just for downing pints.
I'd be blissed-out to have a bodega near where I live. It's over a mile - with nothing else in it- to the nearest gas station. And NYC has 13,000 of them!
As for the byatch that lives to create posts that piss people off? Honey, you may reap all u sow ten times over!
They're a psyop set up by Big Feline.
Taiwanese laughs in local 7-11 or FamilyMart
It's not just a corner store, it's a corner store with a cat
Bottega Is Italian for shop/boutique Just a small buissnes selling stuff Is a bottega. Maybe they even reapair the kind of stuff they sell. Usually It Is oercives as and old Word so a shop that want to gibe annold time vibe Will have name Antica bottega (ancient bodega) or bottega del gusto ( bodega of the taste). Anyhow fuck usa