For two years I leased an old grocery store in Bushwick and operated the wildest speakeasy music venue in Brooklyn. Four nights a week we hosted live bands on the street level and DJs in the basement, catering to an extreme NYC youth culture.

People called it Bodega.

Working with Ed Zipco, Steve Roberts, Eric Morrell and others, I developed the Bodega from an empty shell into a profitable music venue. I booked performers, facilitated the events and staff, as well as managed all marketing and promotions for the venue.

Throughout the year we hosted events with numerous partners including CMJ Music Festival, BAM Sounds Like Brooklyn Festival, Capcom with Street Fighter IV, MyOpenBar.com and numerous independent production companies.

The Village Voice:

“It’s an all-purpose arts venue,” Chief founder and editor Andy P. Smith says of the bi-level space, which is actually hidden behind a bodega storefront. “Art exhibits, basement dance parties, all-night rock shows, etc.”

New York Magazine:

“Carved out of the bombed-out interior of an old Bushwick bodega (the exterior signage still touts the El Elevado Deli Corp.), this decrepit-on-purpose tiny music venue is all exposed pipes, slapdash ceiling paint, and caked sweat. The main room is on the ground-level floor, a surprisingly well lit space where large-scale doodles of thunder bolts and Japanese-monster-movie robots deck the white walls. The bands play on the floor in the back, with rambunctious crowds usually spilling into the night’s acts. Downstairs is the expansive, grody basement, the type of place that would be good for stashing bodies if it weren’t already overrun with Brooklynites sucking down $3 Buds.”

Impose Magazine:

“It was hard to get a decent picture of either Ninjasonik or the Death Set because the half of the room closest to the stage was a riptide whirlpool of moshing, and the stage itself was mostly taken up by hot chicks.”

The Village Voice:

“Whatever you did on Wednesday night probably wasn’t as raucous as Spank Rock’s “secret” set with Japanther at Bushwick space Bodega. Highlights included the crowd-surfing lady with a Budweiser leotard and polka-dotted high heels, Japanther’s shirtless drummer, and Naeem Juwan in a tie.”

A short list of musicians who performed at Bodega…

The Death Set
Japanther
Future Islands
Spank Rock
Ninjasonik
Adventure
Danger
DJ Dirty Finger
Cerebral Ballzy
Thriller
Pregnant
Mr. Andersonic
DJ Morsey
Fiasco
USA Is A Monster
Juiceboxxx
The Hood Gang
Smarts
Lionshare
The So So Glos
Boogie Boarder
Famous Friends
and so many more!

Thank you all.