Bondi Bodega

New York City’s bodegas are more than just delis. They’re coffee shops, community hubs, late-night snack spots, and neighborhood landmarks. A place to grab a morning egg and cheese, pick up a bottle of wine, or satisfy a midnight craving—but more than that, they shape the identity of a place. Bodegas turn strangers into familiar faces, sidewalks into meeting points, and everyday moments into something bigger. They are the heartbeat of a neighborhood.

When I first moved to New York, I housesat for a photographer friend who left for an eight-week job in Paris while hunting for as place of my own. He lived in Bed-Stuy—an area hadn't visited on previous stays in the city. Raw, electric, and somewhat intimidating at first, with police stationed on most street corners from dusk to late night just keeping watch. Locals called me 'Snowflake' when I walked the streets, but after the initial adjustments, it didn't feel unsafe. The neighborhood had a rhythm, a pulse, and at the center of it all was local corner store- the bodega.

More than a convenience store, the local bodega was a cultural institution—a place where neighbours became friends, where conversations spilled onto the sidewalk, music played and you felt part of something just by being there.

Years later, living by the ocean in Bondi, I felt that same community spirit. Here, the bodegas are cafés, street benches, the rocks and the beach. Life happens outside. Faces become familiar. Community thrives in the open air. Hanging out is an art form.

Bondi Bodega is a photography project capturing this energy—the people, the places, the unspoken connections that make Bondi feel like home for so many people from all over the world. A city by the sea, its own kind of bodega.