Bodega Week Is Coming and We Need Your Help

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Next week, for five full action packed days, the editorial teams of Racked, Eater, and Curbed New York will celebrate something that is near and dear to the heart of every New Yorker—the New York City bodega. Uniquely a New York product, the bodega is a convenience store, a sandwich shop, sometimes a taqueria or a backroom gambling den, it's a grocer, a cigarette and lotto vendor, and invariably a neighborhood hangout for a cast of characters. Bodegas thrive in every neighborhood, stay open through every storm (think about what was open during Hurricane Irene), and if you're lucky, they'll even deliver that bacon, egg, and cheese for free.

We have a host of fun features planned, but it wouldn't be a proper theme week without reader input. We ask you now and over the next week to write in with a) nominations for the best bodega in the city (provide address and reasons for nomination), b) crazy bodega stories or bodega secrets, and c) pictures of the weirdest products you've found in a bodega. We'll also be exploring the world of bodega cats, so photos and stories are always appreciated. And if you've got a favorite magazine stand (the kind that stocks Vogues from around the world), please let us know your recommendations! Stay tuned, Bodega Week is just seven days away.