- 17 hours ago
Bodegas are one of New York City's oldest and largest neighborhood institutions, with more than 10,000 spread across the city's five boroughs.
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00:00This century-old factory runs 24-7,
00:04supplying bread for hundreds of New York City's corner store delis.
00:10We're going to chop cheese on here.
00:11Everything on it, I got you, bro.
00:1350% of your sandwich is your bread.
00:16If you don't have good bread, might as well just close up.
00:19But these corner store delis, commonly called bodegas,
00:23are under growing pressure.
00:26Deli's a home away from home, literally.
00:28I spent so many hours just in my deli
00:30when I'm mad at my parents or something.
00:33Retail rents in parts of the city have surged since 2019,
00:37pushing some bodega owners to raise prices.
00:41The people who, unfortunately, feel the brunt of it
00:44are the people who can't afford it,
00:45people who've lived in these communities.
00:47Competition is also fierce.
00:49Some neighborhoods have 23 bodegas for every supermarket.
00:53You can't be doing the same thing as everybody else
00:55and thinking you're going to make a buck.
00:57You've got to be born for this.
00:58You've got to be bred for this.
00:59It's like a 42-inch screen live TV for me every day.
01:03You've got your common crooks that are trying to steal
01:04while they're talking to you.
01:06Now, Mayor Zoram Mamdani is pushing to open
01:08city-run grocery stores,
01:10which could put more pressure on bodegas.
01:13You're talking about a way of life
01:14that the city-run markets may actually impact.
01:17So how does one bakery supply so many bodegas?
01:21And with rent soaring and rivals on every block,
01:25what does it take for a corner store to survive?
01:31La Nicosia's has been slinging out its famous Italian breads
01:35for over 100 years.
01:38Joseph and his brother took over the bakery
01:41from their dad in 2016.
01:43He actually didn't want us in the business.
01:45I think he realized that, like,
01:48I had a passion for what I was doing.
01:50All of their bread starts here in the flour room.
01:53Every week, 50,000 pounds arrive by truck,
01:56funneled into a steel silo.
01:59So if you hear up here, it's empty.
02:02But as I come down here, the sound changes.
02:06We have flour to about right here.
02:10Next, it's pumped upstairs and added to the dough
02:13for 100 kinds of bread.
02:15They still follow the method their great-grandfather
02:18brought with him from Sicily.
02:20Long fermentation, a lot of water.
02:23When it's ready, it makes a certain sound
02:25or it has a certain smoothness to it.
02:27This machine stamps the signature star pattern
02:31onto the bakery's most popular roll
02:33with corner store delis, the Kaiser roll.
02:36People that think of bacon, egg, and cheese
02:38and they think of a Kaiser roll.
02:41If you go to other states,
02:43they don't have bread like that.
02:45After shaping, rising, and baking,
02:50the rolls are trucked over to customers
02:52from Michelin star restaurants to corner store delis.
02:58Without people like them, a bakery like mine
03:01would never get to where it got.
03:07Zoom Zoom Deli in the Bronx
03:08is one of La Nicosia's top customers,
03:11ordering up to 2,000 rolls a week.
03:1450% of your sandwich is your bread.
03:17If you don't have good bread,
03:18might as well just close up.
03:21Muhammad Albarati and his family
03:22opened the business in 2017.
03:24What's up, buddy?
03:25Let me get a chopped cheese on here over here.
03:27Everything on it, I got you, bro.
03:28Thank you, bro.
03:31It's a walking city, right?
03:33Let me get a bacon and a good cheese
03:34as you're running out of the bodega deli
03:36trying to catch your train.
03:39Fire.
03:40Seasoned well, super cheesy,
03:43this chopped cheese on point.
03:46Kel Murphy has been going to corner stores
03:48since he was a kid.
03:50The Queen's native grew up
03:51working in his parents' bodega.
03:53My parents actually met in a bodega.
03:55My uncles would joke I was born in,
03:57you know, my parents' bodega.
03:59Even joke that I was conceived in the bodega.
04:01Today, Kel helps beverage brands
04:03break into New York City retailers,
04:05including bodegas.
04:07Space is finite.
04:08Their margins are super thin,
04:10so you have to give them
04:12the ultimate deal, right?
04:13You're going to make a good sales margin
04:15because I'm going to give you
04:16X amount of cases free.
04:17We don't have big box stores
04:18like Walmart or too many Targets,
04:20so, you know,
04:21if you're selling well in the bodega,
04:23you can sell well in a supermarket.
04:24Most New York delis
04:26are independently owned,
04:27so Kel has to go door to door.
04:29Bodega deli owners
04:30always going to listen
04:31to what their customer wants.
04:32He also started learning Arabic
04:34because roughly half of the city's
04:36corner stores are owned by Yemenis.
04:39But Kel doesn't consider
04:40all-corner stores bodegas.
04:42If the person behind the register
04:44is not Puerto Rican or Dominican,
04:46chances are it's not a bodega.
04:50Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants
04:52started opening bodegas
04:53in the 1920s.
04:55The name comes from the Spanish word
04:57for wine cellar or warehouse.
05:00It has become part of
05:01the Latino experience in the U.S.
05:03It was a place where you
05:04could get the pastelitos.
05:06Juan Carlos Polanco
05:07is an attorney who grew up in the Bronx.
05:09Many of his clients are bodega owners,
05:12also known as bodegueros.
05:14There's a 100% chance
05:16that that bodeguero knows your name,
05:19knows your first girlfriend,
05:20knows your parents,
05:21knows what school you're in.
05:23By 1970, New York City
05:25had over 7,000 bodegas
05:27and the largest Puerto Rican population
05:30in the mainland U.S.
05:32Immigrants from the Dominican Republic
05:34began opening them too.
05:36Many operated in neighborhoods
05:38where supermarkets
05:39were few and far between.
05:41People in that community
05:42that they're serving
05:42are in high net worth.
05:45Perhaps they were concerned
05:46about crime in the community.
05:48Bodega owners took the risk.
05:50Others would never even think
05:52about investing.
05:52More than 1 million New Yorkers
05:55live in food deserts,
05:56neighborhoods with limited access
05:58to full-service grocery stores,
06:00according to the city.
06:02Mayor Zoram Mamdani
06:03has proposed a $70 million plan
06:06to build five city-run markets,
06:08which could operate rent-and-tax-free
06:10to help keep prices low.
06:14But many of these food deserts
06:16are already home
06:17to dozens of bodegas.
06:19They challenge anyone
06:20to go to bodega.
06:21You will see produce.
06:22These small mom-and-pop bodegas,
06:25they were operating
06:26on very small margins.
06:27And now you are going to put
06:29a city-run market
06:31that will be directly in competition
06:34with that mom-and-pop.
06:36The city says the markets
06:38would make nutritious food
06:39more accessible.
06:43For Latin bodega owners,
06:45the pressure isn't new.
06:46Many, like Kel's parents,
06:48have already sold their businesses.
06:50To the next immigrant class
06:52who is not afraid of hard work
06:54and not afraid to, you know,
06:57chase that American dream.
06:58My dad grinded and busted his ass
07:00in the bodega.
07:01My mom grinded and busted
07:02in her ass.
07:03Her kids can do other things.
07:05I always say,
07:06la bodega sells dreams, right?
07:08So we can chase ours.
07:10But some owners,
07:12like Francisco Suriel,
07:13are keeping the Latin bodega alive.
07:16It's a dying breed.
07:17I'm not going to allow it.
07:18Five miles.
07:19I'm probably the only
07:19Spanish store around here.
07:21Why is it a dying breed?
07:22You've got to be born for this.
07:23You've got to be bred for this.
07:24He purchased Hollis Flavors
07:26in 2007.
07:28My family's always been in the bodega.
07:29We've been in stores since, like, 1984.
07:33I was born and raised in stores.
07:35It's a show every day.
07:36It's like a 42-inch screen
07:38live TV for me every day.
07:40You've got your common crooks
07:41that are trying to steal
07:42while they're talking to you.
07:43One piece?
07:44I've thought about selling
07:45a million times.
07:47I mean, it's like,
07:48what the hell would I do after?
07:50I'm like, nah, nah.
07:51I'm good.
07:52You know,
07:52what's going on?
07:57For the new wave of bodega owners,
07:59beating the competition
08:00often starts behind the grill.
08:03You can easily film yourself
08:04making some, you know,
08:05crazy sandwich, right?
08:07And then it just goes viral.
08:09Everyone wants to try it.
08:10Ayo, chef!
08:11What can I get for you, kid?
08:12Let me get a Wagyu chopped cheese
08:13on my big, dealer-sized pita bread.
08:15I call it the Bodega Culinary Explosion.
08:18Joshua Datt is second-generation
08:21Guyanese-American
08:22and opened Datt's Deli in 2022.
08:25He created a viral sandwich
08:27that transformed the business overnight,
08:29and it now brings in 75% of its revenue.
08:33So when I first got the deli,
08:35everyone's like,
08:36yo, you're getting a deli
08:37and you're gonna sell Caribbean food.
08:38There's Caribbean food everywhere
08:39and there's delis everywhere.
08:41You're double-smacking yourself.
08:42I'm like, no, I'm not
08:44because I'm gonna do it different.
08:45I was only making $200, $300 a day at first.
08:48So I kept making different things
08:49and nothing is hitting, though.
08:51One night I was just hungry
08:52and I loved cheese in my beef patties.
08:55My dad used all the cheese
08:56for the mac and cheese that day
08:57to sell in the store.
08:58I was upset.
08:59So I said, you know what?
09:00It has cheese in the mac and cheese.
09:02I'm gonna throw it inside the beef patty.
09:03I cut it open and I looked at it.
09:05I looked at my baby sister.
09:07I said, yo, Jenny, we're going viral.
09:09This is it.
09:09She said, nobody's gonna eat a beef patty
09:12with macaroni and cheese, Joshua.
09:13I said, Jenny, post this on Instagram right now.
09:16The next morning,
09:18I have two people that come into the store.
09:20Hey, are you guys the place that sells?
09:22They show me the beef patty with macaroni and cheese.
09:24I started shaking.
09:25I didn't even know what to sell it for.
09:26I was like, yeah, I got you.
09:29Soon after, Joshua began paying influencers
09:32up to $800 to stop by and try the sandwich.
09:36Lines grew out the door
09:38and people from all over the world came to try it.
09:41Within a month of the sandwich going viral,
09:43Joshua's family quit their jobs to help run the shop.
09:47Good job, girl.
09:49You know, you work hard your whole life, right?
09:51Why not work hard for yourself?
09:53Why not make sure that he wins?
09:56It was days of me and my brother.
09:58We falling asleep in the kitchen, waking up.
10:00My brother's still in the kitchen sleeping.
10:01I'm here serving customers.
10:03He started cooking up variations of the mac patty,
10:06adding oxtail gravy or curry goat.
10:09Thank God for the mac patty,
10:11because if I didn't have it,
10:12I probably would have closed down in a year or two, you know?
10:14But the price of oxtail keeps going up,
10:17so Joshua started charging $6 more for each mac patty.
10:21He makes about $2 per sandwich,
10:24so staying afloat depends on volume.
10:26On a good day, he can sell 600 of them.
10:36Damn.
10:39The hype is real.
10:40Oxtail hitting, ain't it?
10:43People are very serious about their oxtail.
10:47They're serious about their mac and cheese.
10:49Hell, even their beef patty.
10:50And this joint all comes together
10:52in a symphony of flavors.
10:55It's decadent.
10:57This is just a sandwich that I literally crave.
11:00Like, I'm going out of my way to get that sandwich.
11:02Thanks to the mac patty,
11:04Datz is now licensed as a restaurant.
11:06But Josh will always keep Deli in the name.
11:09It's not going to just become Datz.
11:10It's always going to be Datz Deli.
11:12It's my roots.
11:13Despite rising costs and growing competition,
11:16New York City corner stores
11:18and the suppliers that keep them stocked
11:20are hanging on.
11:22A deli close to its community
11:23is always going to win over anything else.
11:26And in New York, people love their blocks,
11:28their neighborhoods.
11:29When you think of New York,
11:30you think of bodega.
11:31You think of pizza.
11:32You think of bread.
11:33You think of, you know,
11:35hard rolls and bagels.
11:37So the bodega is like the quintessential go-to.
11:41Bodegas have become universal.
11:43Bodega owners have opened up social media accounts
11:45and are speaking directly to
11:47everyone who's watching their videos
11:48and letting them know
11:50this is, you know, a bodega sandwich.
11:52This is a bodega cat.
11:54It's never been as big as it is today.
11:57Bodegas have become such a core part of New York life
11:59that you might just find a local celebrity
12:01outside of one.
12:09J. Cole is on his tour
12:11for the fall off
12:12making random stops
12:14selling CDs.
12:16J. Cole would always come to this deli
12:18to get sandwiches.
12:20So anytime he's in Queens,
12:21he always comes to 179 Deli.
12:24You're welcome.
12:25I'm happy.
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