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“Come try our plant-based bodega staples!” declare A-frame chalkboard signs on New York City’s sidewalk. Last summer on a visit to NYC, I noticed this phenomenon of seemingly oxymoronic foods peddled outside of the delis typical to the corners of city blocks. Plant-based bacon, egg, and cheese? New York’s delis are not known for having fine vegan options, at least generally speaking. So, those signs stayed in my mind as I returned to Oberlin College for the academic year. When I later mentioned the memory of the vegan bacon, egg and cheeses to my Brooklynite roommate, Charlotte, and a friend, Z, who hails from the borough of Queens, I did not expect the fiery reaction that I got. I find it funny, and kind of fitting, that I – a San Franciscan vegetarian proponent of slow-fashion and student of Food Studies – had my first real fight with my roommate was not a trivial spat concerning real or figurative dirty laundry, but a discourse on the morality of vegan-ifying a working-class mainstay meal so significant to New Yorkers.
The idea of plant-based bodega options – the bacon, egg, and cheeses (shortened to B-E-Cs from here on) and chopped cheeses that I, an outsider, understand as New York staples and cultural mainstays – was fantastically exciting to me. I interviewed eleven native New Yorkers for their takes on bodega culture, gentrification, sustainability, and the vegan B-E-C.
The Plant-based B-E-C?
“Umaro Bacon, Zero Egg, Vertage American Cheddar, and WayFare Butter on a roll.”2 This is the product offered by Plantega, a company based in New York City, with direct partnerships with bodegas New York City. Founder, Nil Zacharias, describes Plantega as, “a plant-based deli in-store model… offer[ing] a turn-key solution that empowers bodegas and delis to sell plant-based menus.”3 The vegan B-E-C is only one of the ‘bodega classic’ options provided to bodegas by Plantega, which trains and outfits partnered delis.
Bodegas and Delis
Every single one of my interviewees had a deli, or synonymously, a bodega, that they felt was theirs. The prevalence of bodegas in New York City is outstanding, with a number estimating their existence in the thousands.4 To my interviewees, they were deeply instilled with a sense of community. Consider that in most neighborhoods, there are one or two delis per block. Charlotte reminisces that, as a child growing up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the corner deli was the only place that she and her neighborhood pal could go unmonitored. “The people at the deli would keep an eye on the kids on the block… we’d play hide and seek and they’d let us hide behind the counter, y’know, from our friends.”5 The deli may be the original ‘third place,’ a hospitality concept yearned for by big brand chain ‘bodegas’ like Starbucks, existing as a spot of community for its customers, who almost universally live within a block or two of the store. For communities of color in the city, this community hub is of outsized importance. It is not just that bodegas are culturally significant; they tend to the welfare of the community. In tandem with the persistent impact of historical segregation, public and private disinvestment into low-income neighborhoods and communities where Black and Brown New Yorkers live has created spatial and political isolation. In a practice called grocery redlining, businesses like chain grocery stores do not cater to communities with an equal nature, creating a hierarchy of space. People and communities that are not, “defined as financially, culturally, and socially profitable… have limited access to community resources, such as free community events, safe parks, and libraries,” increasing the significance of bodegas.6 Z remarks to me how delis are places where mutual aid takes place. Bodega owners may often work outside of the system to provide lacking community support. Charlotte and her friends got candy for a reduced price as neighborhood kids.7 Others may receive workaround solutions to make SNAP food benefits effective for their families. In Rachael’s neighborhood of Crown Heights, bodegas were often the bridge between Trinidadian Brooklynites and their Orthodox Jewish Eastern European neighbors.8 Bodegas not only support communities, but unite them.
“No two B-E-Cs are the same,” Olivia says, “the B-E-C from your deli is non-negotiable.” The bodega guy is a person who will remember your name – and your order – which was the case for Olivia and her coffee with hazelnut creamer and an egg-and-cheese sandwich.9 For customers with unofficial ‘regulars’ status, physical proximity and familiarity to a deli often give these third spaces a sense of home away from home. “I’ll sob when the deli on my block closes down,” Danny tells me wistfully, “I love that man, I love buying bananas from him.”10 Danny is right to consider the potentially impending demise of their deli. Their high school deli, iconic to the neighborhood, was forced to close a few years back due to the rising prices in its rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. It is not alone.
Gentrification
In Rachael’s senior year of high school, a Simply Cranberry Cocktail juice was $1. Now, when she returns home, it is $1.50.11 While Brooklyn’s prices are measurably lower than those in the borough of Manhattan, the Brooklyn residents I interviewed (Olivia, Cece, Charlotte, Danny, and Rachael) consistently emphasized the prevalence of gentrification in their neighborhoods. “Anyone in New York can see the impact of gentrification during our lifetime.”12 Gentrification, the process in which increases in rent work to displace low-income residents, renters, and business owners, directly contributes to the disappearance of delis. Bodegas or other “small basic goods stores” are replaced by “designer products and leisure consumption” at a higher price point.13 This is also the greatest concern of those I interviewed about the vegan B-E-C. Charlotte and Olivia, both from Park Slope, call their neighborhood an outwardly expanding nucleus of gentrification,14 and “the butt of any gentrification joke.”15 Across neighborhoods, gentrification works to destabilize the community networks nurtured by delis; however, it also disproportionately affects communities of color. Conducting interviews at a predominantly white institution means that my conversations about the vegan B-E-Cs were disproportionately with white New Yorkers. In the Heights, the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, represents the experiences of the Latinx Washington Heights community. In the musical, “the informal ‘grandmother’ of the barrio, Abuela Claudia… serves to build community with fellow barrio residents. Gentrification, however, slowly strips Abuela Claudia of those ties as long-term friends and neighbors are driven out because of skyrocketing rents.”16 Outside of fictional narratives, this remains true. An interviewee shared with me how their historically Hispanic neighborhood became whiter and more gentrified, and they saw, “stupid bars pop up to replace wonderful places.” They also expressed that even as they had seen their own father pushed out from his studio in a “formerly sketchy area,” they knew that as a white family moving into their neighborhood, they represented the gentrifier.17 The fears of gentrification voiced by interviewees are not just a reluctance to shell out a few more cents per B-E-C sandwich, but a distressed response to disintegrating community networks.
“Fuck gentrification,” says Danny, “dollar slice who?”18 With the prices of gentrification, the simple act of feeding oneself on a waged-labor paycheck to sustain the strenuous labor often required of blue collar work becomes more difficult. Is there a point to adding vegan B-E-Cs to a bodega menu if the only customers who are capable of purchasing it are white and middle-class? Having shiny, new places does not have to be a bad thing, Charlotte admits, “unless they are pushing out people who have been there longer.”19 Ideally, Plantega’s “turn-key” model supports POC-owned, family-owned small independent stores in resisting gentrification. By installing a fully finalized, ready to operate products into bodegas, their model should assist the continued survival of these stores, rather than replacing them with chains.
Just as it could work to aid struggling deli owners, Plantega’s strategic use of preexistent bodega-centric community networks could, however, be labeled culturally predatory. In an interview with Grubstreet, founder Zacharias called bodegas, “‘the last places’ people would expect to find anything described as ‘plant-based.’ This, he realized, was an opportunity to… launch a company that capitalizes on the connection customers have to their bodega guys.”20 It could be argued that the existence of Plantega encourages gentrification by incentivizing the influx of more affluent residents in search of plant-based options like the vegan B-E-C. If that is the case, at least their money goes towards independent businesses, rather than Whole Foods, right? Capital takes many forms, including that of intellect, culture, and finance. Gentrification causes clashes in all of these forms of capital, when alternate existences of capital interact. There’s not necessarily anything inherently wrong with new residents moving in, but when their financial capital is used exclusively to fund businesses and communities that adhere to their preferred definition of intellectual and cultural capital, newcomers become gentrifiers.
Veganism, Sustainability, and Whiteness
The effect of eating plant-based, whether that be vegetarian or full-on vegan, has an overwhelmingly positive impact on the environment. A 2023 study showed that plant-based diets create 75% less heat-trapping gas, 75% less water pollution, and use 75 percent less land compared to meat-eating diets.22 But who has the liberty to not only care about the environment, but make changes in their lives to better it? Charlotte tells me about her experiences in high school, remembering the guilt she felt at not having the “bandwidth” to be as actively (and publicly) involved in New York’s Youth Climate Movement as some of her more affluent peers. “Sustainability has a class barrier,” said she, “the discussion of sustainability as a personal responsibility is problematic because of its inaccessibility.”23
Many interviewees also noted the whiteness they found definitive of vegan spaces. Product photos on Plantega’s site and signage universally feature the hand of a white model, signaling the (un)intended audience for their products. (See above product image.) This brand of white veganism is definitely pervasive, but it is misleading. Veganism is actually rising among Americans of color, with polls showing that 8% of Black Americans eat vegan diets, with other groups of color following at rising rates.24 Plantega’s goal to increase access to plant-based foods can be effective for communities of color trying to eat more plant-based foods, but access can only be partially achieved by removing physical barriers. The vegan B-E-C is only effective when it is financially accessible, too, increasingly difficult in an increasingly expensive, gentrifying city. At a price point ranging between $8 to $12.75, quite a bit heftier than the $4 cost of a regular B-E-C recalled by some of my Brooklyn-based interviewees, I am not convinced that Plantega is increasing access to vegan food from an economic perspective.
Olivia, a resident of gentrified Park Slope, guessed that the first place that delis serving vegan B-E-Cs would pop up would be in her neighborhood. It is interesting, then, to note that Park Slope represents an area in NYC that has no Plantega-partnered bodegas as of the time of publication. Perhaps the team at Plantega, which notably is staffed predominantly by people of color, has steered clear of the neighborhood, aware of the reputation that Park Slope has been branded with as a gentrified neighborhood. Still, it’s curious that their advertising is ostensibly marketed to those who look like the residents of that neighborhood.
Why a Vegan B-E-C?
“To the vegans: it’s just not for you. Not even a single one of those ingredients is vegan!”26 When I told Ruby, another friend from New York about the vegan B-E-C, this was her response. She has a point. The title elements of the sandwich are all animal products, so why choose this meal to turn vegan? The answer comes obviously from the ease with which I was able to find New Yorkers interested in discussing the B-E-C and their nostalgia for the sandwich. Lea tells me that she feels embarrassed to admit that she is not too big of a fan of the B-E-C.27 Olivia called her first B-E-C “life changing” – “It’s a complete breakfast in one sandwich, there’s nothing like it.”28 The ingredients of the sandwich are complete, but also lacking. Eggs and dairy products are subsidized in bodegas, American cheese is a product of industrialization. The B-E-C became a mainstay because of its sustenance, but also its relative accessibility for those who are food-insecure. This was and is especially true for communities of color, specifically Latinx communities.29 Still, the B-E-C is valorized in New York City, an important part of each of my interviewees’ New York experiences. Therefore, it makes sense to maintain this sense of cultural continuity with such a meaningful dish. But does it have to be all vegan? Olivia, Maya, LJ, and others told me familiarly of egg-and-cheese sandwiches and Turkey B-E-C orders. Z suggested other, naturally vegan, options in their dominantly Muslim, Halal-following neighborhood of Astoria, Queens. “I’m just not looking for imitation meat.” Their fear of plant-based B-E-Cs brought in from an outsider outweighs the value that an option clearly marked as meat-free might have for those keeping Halal.30 On the other hand, many vegans expressed fears that products not clearly marked as vegan may not be entirely plant-based. The availability of the vegan B-E-C can also be helpful for those exploring veganism but trying to keep their routine, quick bodega snack. It can also, and is intended to, provide those who might be trepidatious about vegan foods with a recognizable option. Vegan versions of the sandwich are generally healthier for their consumer, and the environment. Plantega stays fairly apolitical about the subject of sustainability on their website and in their branding, only citing that “plant-based eating is healthier for you and the planet,” and that, “plant-based is the future.”31 There are a myriad of positives to the existence and availability of the plant-based B-E-C, in theory. It is the way that the sandwich is offered and distributed that may be more problematic.
Would You Eat It?
I received a pretty even yes-no split to my question of, “would you try a plant-based bacon-egg-and-cheese?” Danny told me they would try it if provided for free, or maybe to support their personal deli-guy, if he were the one offering it.32 In this way, Danny acknowledges the price point barrier to vegan and sustainable lifestyles while upholding the network of their bodega’s community – with their relationships and their dollars. On the other hand, Z emphatically expressed that would never buy the vegan B-E-C, finding it disgusting from a “moral” standpoint. “Honestly, I’d be surprised if anyone was interested or excited about eating it.”33 They appear to be wrong, however. They are contrasted by many excited interviewees, including Maya and Rachael, who were both psyched by the idea- with the caveat that it should be offered for a reasonable price. It is difficult to find unbiased reviews for the products offered by Plantega, but via the company’s tagged ‘mentions’ on Instagram, I got a sense of the real customer base and reviews of the products. Myriad vegan lifestyle micro-influencers post their reviews of the plant-based bodega classics, describing them with fairly universal good reviews. Roberto “Berto” Clemente, a Black runner and vegan influencer goes so far as to describe his vegan chopped cheese as “crack” in one video.34 Having never tried one of Plantega’s B-E-C’s, citing the flavor of the product as an element up for debate has been difficult. However, according to research across the internet, as far as greasy bodega fare goes, the plant-based sandwich is not bad. I will definitely try it next time I’m in New York City, but I do not know how regularly Plantega-partnered bodegas would receive me as a customer. Like Z, I prefer natural ingredients and do not actively seek fake meat products, so while I am excited to return to New York City and finally sample this snack that has been so controversial in my life, I will probably stick with my tofu and beans. There is no obvious answer to the question of whether the vegan B-E-C is good or bad. It is up to the consumers to decide if Plantega will have a place to stay in New York City, and I can only hope that if it does, it fulfills the positive possibilities it may have. To be frank, I’m not their customer base – while New Yorkers haggle over bodega classics, I’ll stay put on the West Coast with my California burrito. I wonder where those beans are sourced…
Lily Hessekiel is a second-year student at Oberlin College studying Food Studies and History, originally from San Francisco. She is a fan of breakfast sandwiches and California burritos, but not gentrification.
Footnotes:
- “bodega style bacon egg and cheese” foodimade.com/recipe/bac… | Flickr1,024 × 678 ↩︎
- “Menu.” Plantega. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://eatplantega.com/menu.
↩︎ - Rosini-Gentile, Jennifer. “Plantega Fonder Nil Zacharias is Making Greenpoint
Even Greener, One ‘Chopped Cheese’ At a Time.” Greenpointers (North
Brooklyn, New York, NY), 2023. Accessed March 21, 2024.
https://greenpointers.com/2023/09/20/
plantega-founder-nil-zacharias-is-making-greenpoint-even-greener-one-chopped-chee
se-at-a-time/.
↩︎ - “Origen” [Origin]. United Bodegas of America. Accessed March 21, 2024.
https://unitedbodegasofamerica.net/nuestra-historia/.
↩︎ - Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Cázares, Gabriela. “Resisting Gentrification in Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In the Heights’ and Ernesto Quiñonez’s ‘Bodega Dreams.’” American Studies 56, no. 2 (2017): 89–107. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44982476.
↩︎ - Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Kelly, Rachael. Videoconference interview by the author. Oberlin, OH and New
York, NY. March 14, 2024.
↩︎ - Wohlgemuth, Olivia. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 18, 2024.
↩︎ - Folger-Walls, Danny. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 14, 2024.
↩︎ - Kelly, Rachael. Videoconference interview by the author. Oberlin, OH and New
York, NY. March 14, 2024
↩︎ - Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Urban Space and Representation, edited by Maria Balshaw, and Liam Kennedy, Pluto Press, 1999. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/oberlin/detail.action?docID=3386049.
Created from Oberlin on 2024-03-21 21:04:43.
↩︎ - Wohlgemuth, Olivia. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 18, 2024.
↩︎ - Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Cázares, Gabriela. “Resisting Gentrification in Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In the Heights’ and Ernesto Quiñonez’s ‘Bodega Dreams.’” American Studies 56, no. 2 (2017): 89–107. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44982476. ↩︎
- Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 14, 2024.
↩︎ - Folger-Walls, Danny. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 14, 2024.
↩︎ - Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Crowley, Chris. “The Company That Veganizes Bodega Favorites, at Your Favorite Bodega.” Grubstreet (blog). Entry posted January 2, 2024. Accessed March 22, 2024. https://www.grubstreet.com/2024/01/plantega-vegan-bodega-favorites.html. ↩︎
- Photo of a Plantega plant-based sandwich. Photograph. Plantega.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f5fb0cb0f34ac137ab63ca4/
24bc1f6c-c7b2-4c64-9d04-7159ac6dd033/05+-+cheeseburger+-+0303.jpg?format=1500w.
↩︎ - Scarborough, P., Clark, M., Cobiac, L. et al. Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts. Nat Food 4, 565–574 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00795-w
↩︎ - Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Pew Research Center, December, 2016, “The New Food Fights: U.S. Public Divides Over Food Science”
↩︎ - Sableman, Paul. Halal Deli. Photograph. Flickr. September 3, 2016. Accessed May
9, 2024. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pasa/29385932176.
↩︎ - Kopel, Ruby. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 5, 2024.
↩︎ - Crowley, Lea. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
↩︎ - Wohlgemuth, Olivia. Interview by the author. March 18, 2024.
↩︎ - Lee Ann Epstein, Mexican-Origin Foods, Foodways, and Social Movements: Decolonial Perspectives (2017), 112.
↩︎ - Fluger, Z. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 9, 2024.
↩︎ - “FAQs.” Plantega. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://eatplantega.com/faq.
↩︎ - Folger-Walls, Danny. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 14, 2024.
↩︎ - Fluger, Z. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 9, 2024.
↩︎ - “A medium long run and a vegan chopped cheese. No complaints.” Reel video.
Instagram. Posted by Whatsgoodberto, March 2024. Accessed May 16, 2024.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C41BWVVOIvS/.
↩︎
Bibliography
Crowley, Chris. “The Company That Veganizes Bodega Favorites, at Your Favorite Bodega.” Grubstreet (blog). Entry posted January 2, 2024. Accessed March 22, 2024. https://www.grubstreet.com/2024/01/plantega-vegan-bodega-favorites.html.
“FAQs.” Plantega. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://eatplantega.com/faq
Folger-Walls, Danny. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 14, 2024.
Haggerty, Charlotte. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 17, 2024.
Katch, LJ. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 11, 2024.
Kelly, Rachael. Videoconference interview by the author. Oberlin, OH and New York, NY. March 14, 2024.
Levanon, Maya. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 11, 2024.
“A medium long run and a vegan chopped cheese. No complaints.” Reel video. Instagram. Posted by Whatsgoodberto, March 2024. Accessed May 16, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C41BWVVOIvS/.
“Menu.” Plantega. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://eatplantega.com/menu.
“Origen” [Origin]. United Bodegas of America. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://unitedbodegasofamerica.net/nuestra-historia/.
Photo of a Plantega plant-based sandwich. Photograph. Plantega. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f5fb0cb0f34ac137ab63ca4/24bc1f6c-c7b2-4c64-9d04-7159ac6dd033/05+-+cheeseburger+-+0303.jpg?format=1500w.
Rosini-Gentile, Jennifer. “Plantega Fonder Nil Zacharias is Making Greenpoint Even Greener, One ‘Chopped Cheese’ At a Time.” Greenpointers (North Brooklyn, New York, NY), 2023. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://greenpointers.com/2023/09/20/plantega-founder-nil-zacharias-is-making-greenpoint-even-greener-one-chopped-cheese-at-a-time/.
Sableman, Paul. Halal Deli. Photograph. Flickr. September 3, 2016. Accessed May 9, 2024. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pasa/29385932176.
Wohlgemuth, Olivia. Interview by the author. Oberlin, OH. March 18, 2024.
