Bodega Deli

Bodega Deli is the 2020 brainchild that came about in the depths of the Covid-19 lockdown. I was living and cooking in New York City for three years when Coronavirus hit and very reluctantly decided to come back home. After quarantining in South Australia (home) I finally came back to Melbourne (home since 2009), just in time for the second wave lockdown.

I’d worked in lots of cafes and restaurants around Melbourne including Movida, Wide Open Road and Sevens Seeds. I opened my own cafe, Tomboy back in 2012. In New York I worked at Mission Chinese Food and Robertas Pizza. Used to working 70+hrs a week, this lockdown downtime was driving me crazy. The hospitality scene was looking grim, and with very few places open because of social distancing, I decided to finally do something I’d always wanted to do - start my own product line.

Mainly focusing on spicy goodies (my real love) and specialty pantry items, I began experimenting. In my second pair of iso trackies soon my home was filled with the aromas of chilli and bubbling hot oil, and so Bodega Deli was born.

I’m morphing together my time and skills learnt in NYC and Melbourne to create delicious staples for your fridge and pantry. So let’s do it, together. Let’s get a little saucy.