Loving the Bodega Downstairs

Here in the rural, small town midwest we have the Farm Fresh “milk store” just 4 blocks away. They do not serve hot food but most of milk is sold in redeemable glass bottles and they sell local eggs, local area bacon, local pastries, a little bit of produce, the local and St. Louis newspapers, and lots of little things a neighbor needs in a hurry. Milk from a glass bottle tastes much better than milk from a plastic or paper carton! I see people there that I just don’t get a chance to hang out and kibbitz with anyplace else. I am thankful for this.

Living above a bodega is a great opportunity to interact with the city's mice and roaches.

Why is the dog being held outside of the 3rd story window???

Indian (I get...India) and Jewish (where? Jewish is a religion, not a country)

After living in Menlo Park, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I was able to walk to stores and restaurants, I knew when I moved to Houston, Texas, that I would need to recreate that convenience and sense of community if I could. Houston is huge and sprawls for 555 square miles but the city has neighborhoods and I was able to find an affordable apartment. I am lucky to be able to walk to two grocery stores, a coffee shop, some retail shops and restaurants (that is, when I can withstand the deadly humidity!). Never would have thought of Houston as being walkable!

"Loving the Bodega"...is one of the best feature articles I've had the pleasure of enjoying in the revamped RE section of the NYT. One feels the charm and quirky extended family vibe among the neighbors and proprietors. Thank you for illustrating the best of our human diversity in the Big Apple!

Having been able to live in Chelsea (W21 between 6th and 7th) for 2 weeks in 2015, I could immediately empathise with the comments about neighbourhood community. That always reduces "NYC" to a livable city.

Somewhat similar to my finding out that the Afghan owner of a restaurant way up on 9th Avenue had a girlfriend who was helping to enrol Manhattan specialists to provide tele-medicine services to Afghanistan.

I would just hope the bodegas' pest control was regular and thorough.

When I went to grad school, I was of course broke, sharing a tiny apartment in a tenement on Bleecker St. There was a tiny bodega round the block, things stacked on top of things with hardly any space to maneuver. Also they cooked hot food everyday, packed in bento boxes. I'd have lunch there and buy another bento box for dinner at home. I went there so frequently that they'd even give me a little stool to sit on to enjoy lunch and they always had bento boxes for me. The bodega in NYC is about feeling a sense of belonging and community and it's not something that I'm taking for granted as being an inevitable feature of urban society.

The WNYC on line pictures of bodega cats is a very pleasant follow up to this article.
http://www.wnyc.org/series/bodega-cats-their-own-words

Please tell Mr. Martinez that he's going to give his dog high cholesterol and pancreatitis by feeding it an egg with ketchup every day.

It was so pleasant to read such as nice story about community and humanity. I was truly heartened. So you can imagine my disillusionment and confusion when a friend of mine, an immigration attorney, informed me that the Indian staff working in one of the stores on "work visas" were possibly committing fraud. There are no work visas to work in a shop.

I don't miss the bodegas. I found them to be high priced, frequently crowded and the isles very narrow so I was constantly negotiating space with other people (just like the rest of NYC). Perhaps I am an anomaly, but I can't say I really had a connection with any of the bodega owners/workers. I would wait in line like everyone else, pay and move on. I didn't like having to go to 2-3 places to get everything that I needed. I could never get everything at the local grocery store that hadn't been renovated since the 80s (this was in the Heights), hence I had to walk to the bodega on 181st then haul all the stuff back home. (I tried Fresh Direct a few times to avoid this shlepping but it didn't work for me.) Occasionally a bodega came in handy and saved the day but for the most part I looked at them as overpriced neighborhood stores to be avoided if possible.

Fortunately, I drive to the grocery store now. For the first 6 months I did this, I felt like it was a gift - an entitlement of sorts. No more hauling stuff from the grocery store, bodega, or anywhere else. Now it seems normal to me, but for the first 6 months I was in heaven.

To each his own. The dude in Greenpoint uses his bodega as his kitchen. I get that.

Non-stop roaches and rats...every New Yorkers knows not to live above - or even near - a store that sells food.

Tyson, the chihuahua, is adorable!

Fascinating article - it makes me want to live in New York. We have similar-ish shops in England of course, but where I anyway there isn't a community feeling associated with them and their hours are not helpful for some of the situations described above.

Anyway, thankyou for this article. A nice portrait of an area. Read like a travel piece.

I don't get the attitude. Nice NYC story. Community is where you connect. This is just one of many possible connection options. It makes me miss NY all the more and get back there.

I am confused, why are the Greenpoint bodega employees here on work visas? Shortage of qualified labor to make the coffee and handle the cash register?

There is no mention of the cats that reside in the bodegas! (They play an important role in clearing out the mice that enter the establishments.) Shame on the writer!

I lived above a bodega in San Francisco's Western Addition for over 10 years, at the corner of Baker and Fulton. The couple who ran the business, the Kim's, handled all the rent and utilities for the building of 6 tenants. At the time, I found my apartment because of a small hand-lettered sign next to their cash register -- there was no Craigslist in the late eighties. The neighborhood has of course changed, the building was turned into condos and the bodega is a sit-down restaurant with plate glass windows overlooking the beautiful magnolia trees that ringed the property.

How is it that 2 bodega employees were able to get *work* visas? They are supposed to be for highly skilled people who can fill positions for which there are no native born candidates.

When I lived in Bushwick there was Lou and Angelos Italian Grocery. You could get a loaf of Italian bread, some pepperoni or mortadella and a piece of tongue stinging provolone cheese and make a sandwich or they'd make it for you. White Rose caned goods and the essentials. Two blocks away was Wessels German delicatessen. Fresh potato salad, Braunsweiger on rye with mustard and thin sliced onion. On Fridays Frikadellen or cod fish cakes.
No Bodegas.

Its great living on top of a bodega! Especially if you like high prices and cockroaches!

NYT--Why are you writing about things most of the world has taken for granted for centuries in their urban societies? If anything, the article reconfirms how ridiculously pricey NYC has become. I understand the insular-looking articles that editors want to churn out that continue myth building and pride for NYC, but please put things in perspective. I like the NYT but come on, use some broader comparison.

As a girl living alone, the 24 hour bodega on my corner is convenient, but also a safety measure. I have definitely ducked in there late at night in instances where I did not feel totally secure. I'm always grateful that it's there.

The reporter interviewed customers in depth but only talked to one bodega owner (about the strike, which was important). What do the bodega owners/workers have to say about being so intrinsic to their communities? Half the article is missing.

I lived down the street from the franklin corner store in 2002 (15 years ago!) and it was a solid spot with great sandwiches then as now!

It sounds so Italian! This what happens to me here in Milan, in the area where I live...the coffee shop, the bakery and even the small market. It is a great feeling.

I remember living beside a bodega when I resided in Williamsburg before it became "Williamsburg." My neighbors were mostly Hasidic Jews and Puerto Rican. The bodega employees always had the most delicious fried toast that I would dip into the coffee that I put there. I had a toaster and a coffee maker, but still purchased my coffee and toast from the bodega because it added continuity to my life at an uncertain time. My employer had laid us off and I was between jobs. I'd eventually get a better job and moved to Manhattan where I found another store I'd frequent. There's no place like New York.

I love my local Bodega - like some in the article I find myself praising it's name when I need to rush out at an odd hour for that missing item for Dinner.

I live in Park Slope and it's been really disheartening to see all the Bodegas and little shops continue to get replaced by Real Estate offices and Eye Care Repair stores. The Bodegas really are a part of the neighborhood and I hope people continue to support them.

I thought I was going to read an article about the benefits of living above a bodega but it was actually an advertisement for the subjects' companies and employers complete with links.