Bodega Poll

liftandcut · May 2006

Jeez, I guess you guys just don't get it. It's like I'm trying to tell Columbus not to call them "Indians."

alafairnadia · May 2006

liftandcut wrote: Jeez, I guess you guys just don't get it. It's like I'm trying to tell Columbus not to call them "Indians."

actually, I'm completely confused. I have no idea what this discussion is about. maybe you should offer your clear definitions for various terms and then other folks can either agree or disagree? so far I'm reading a lot about Koreans, fresh fruit, and sandwiches. it's not making any sense.

(and none of them is a wine cellar. I think I'll just start using the word bodega correctly. I'm off to my favorite bodega - grand plaza!)

idlewild · May 2006

liftandcut wrote: Ok, guys, let's get the terminology right first. The stores you have been mentioning are not necessarily bodegas. Yelison is a Bodega because it is owned, or was owned, by Dominicans. Yelison is actually not the technical name of that store anymore, as the family that owned it sold it to the new owners about two years ago. The previous owners named it Yelison in honor of their eldest son. Other Latino-owned stores are also called Bodegas. The stores on the two corners of Washington and St. Johns are not Bodegas. They are "Muslim stores." However, my friends and I usually refer to the smaller one as "Muhammad's," or sometimes, "Abdullah's." I call the renovated one "Sal's," and more recently it has aquired the tag of "corner store."

I have to agree with lift. Being a native Brooklynite going to a bodega has always meant going to a mini-grocery store owned and run by Puerto Ricans or Dominicans. They had everything from Hansel and Gretel cold cuts to dry baccalla to beer and loose tootsie rolls and the gambit of Wise and Bon Ton ptotato chips and a ton of Goya products that could choke King Kong. They also had/have that unique bodega smell. If you go into the bodega on the corner of Sterling ad Underhill you will know what I am talking about. When going to any other store we would either call it by the name of the store/deli or by the ethnicity such as "I'm going to get some Ben and Jerry's at the Korean's". The only non latin owned store I ever considered a bodega was the Hatian owned store on Vanderbilt between Park and Prospect. That was a great store. I was sorry to see them go.

escap · May 2006

bodega's have the yellow awning. end of story. the beer, cigs, chips, and middle eastern OR hispanic owners all follow from there, but it's the awning that is the centerpiece. and you can't forget those mesmerizing blinking lights around the awning either.

liftandcut · May 2006

A stimulating thread.

sweet tea · May 2006

liftandcut wrote:

Absurd. Why can't you accept that "bodega" refers to a specific kind of store? How can you debate that fact that the word "bodega" has a specific cultural denotation? How about admitting first that before this thread was started, perhaps you did not know that the word "bodega"refers to a specific kind of store?

i'll admit that i didn't know YOUR definition of a bodega. in fact, i still don't. i'm clear on escap and candicissima's definitions. but you've said that a bodega is a store in a latino neighborhood and that a bodega is a store owned by dominicans (unless is was owned by dominicans and then was sold? i'm a little unclear on the yellison amendment). is this a latino neighborhood? by many standards, not particularly. or you could say that this neighborhood is no more latino than many others. so, if a bodega is a store in a latino neighborhood, then it seems to follow that either all of the store-lets here are or none of them are, and if it's all of them, then most of the stores in the city would count. you can see my confusion.

so, i would like to know: what will i see/hear/smell/buy/whatever in a bodega but not in some other kind of store.

or is all of this just determined by your personal feeling, case by case, as i am beginning to suspect?

will · June 2006

I agree that the bodega next to the Bergen Bagel is the best in the area. I am a little put off by the "what makes a bodega" discussion.

stacey · June 2006

Growing up the Cuban woman who babysat most of the kids on the block called the corner store (which was owned by a Puerto Rican family) the bodega. Myself and all my friends grew up calling that store (and all the local stores) bodegas. Most of these stores were owned by spanish speaking persons (i.e., Puerto Rican, Dominican, etc.)
What I think has happened is bodega has become a general and/or urban term when referring to the corner/local candy/grocery store.
I think in the mid to late 80's many asian people opened grocery stores which had more of a selection especially fruits, veggies and flowers and we tended to call these stores the Korean grocers (I know it is not PC and some are not only owned by Korean people) but it is a term that has stuck. So sometimes I want to go to the bodega to get my cold cuts, some toilet paper and bread and sometimes I want to go to the Korean grocer to get some fruits and veggies.

carnivore · June 2006

stacey wrote: Growing up the Cuban woman who babysat most of the kids on the block called the corner store (which was owned by a Puerto Rican family) the bodega. Myself and all my friends grew up calling that store (and all the local stores) bodegas. Most of these stores were owned by spanish speaking persons (i.e., Puerto Rican, Dominican, etc.)
What I think has happened is bodega has become a general and/or urban term when referring to the corner/local candy/grocery store.
I think in the mid to late 80's many asian people opened grocery stores which had more of a selection especially fruits, veggies and flowers and we tended to call these stores the Korean grocers (I know it is not PC and some are not only owned by Korean people) but it is a term that has stuck. So sometimes I want to go to the bodega to get my cold cuts, some toilet paper and bread and sometimes I want to go to the Korean grocer to get some fruits and veggies.

Exactly!

doctorj · June 2006

Will wrote: I am a little put off by the "what makes a bodega" discussion.

Google tells me:

Spanish:
A wine estate, wine cellar, wine tavern or wine store.
(from Latin apothēca, storehouse, which became apocethary which is a pharmacy)

English:
1. A small grocery store, sometimes combined with a wineshop, in certain Hispanic communities.
2. A warehouse for the storage of wine.

So in common American English usage, we've mostly lost the wine.
In some European languages, they got the bodega directly from the Spanish, but lost the store, so 'bodega' means a small local bar.
In my native vocabulary, the word is unknown.

Bodega Poll

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