Bocaditos Colombianos is located at 520 Market Street, two blocks from Ferry Street, but those two blocks define a different Ironbound. Walking from Penn Station towards Bocaditos along Market there is no sign of the hustle and bustle, visual overstimulation, music, and crowded walkways that one encounters on Ferry. A transit landscape of parking lots and auto parts and gas stations gradually morphs into two and three-story multi-use buildings with brick and vinyl facades. Most were built during the closing decades of the 19th century and have yet to be renovated by the developers that are altering the built environment in other parts of the neighborhood. Walking along Market, glimpses of the Passaic River between the buildings give way to foreboding plots of abandoned land that — given the neighborhood’s grisly industrial history of toxic spills, leaks and dumping — suggest brownfields awaiting remediation.
Bocaditos’ bright red, yellow and blue sign announces its Colombian fare. Photo credit: Unless otherwise noted, this and all other photographs on this page were taken by Anthony Alvarez.
Here, along this urban periphery, some of the newest immigrant arrivals are staking their claim. Bocaditos Colombianos inhabits the first floor of a nondescript building behind a simple facade. The exterior signage and color scheme announce the Colombian origin of the food within.
Like its exterior, the interior of the Bocaditos Colombianos is humble and simple. Tables are mainly set up on the right, with refrigerators and shelves on the left providing easy access for picking up a drink or pre-made bites. This practical arrangement also creates a central open corridor for quick and uninterrupted access to the counter. At the counter, food is on display behind the glass, and customers can select among the variety of dishes offered that day, from Calentado to Bandeja paisa and Empanadas, to Ajiaco and Changua.
efficiency over style
If this is your first time trying Colombian food, or if you do not know anything about Colombian food, you'll have a difficult time choosing your dish at Bocaditos. This is a restaurant for regulars. There is no menu, just photos of dishes on the wall and the food on display behind the counter. All customers, regardless of whether they are dining in or eating out, must proceed to the counter and in conversation with the cashier select the different components of their meal.
For regulars, Bocaditos is the first stop on their way to work. On a morning visit, we caught a glimpse of this landscape: Latin music, a Colombian channel on the TV, and people stopping by for a quick breakfast. Two young men are sitting on their own, eating their food while occasionally glancing at the TV or gazing outside through the window. On the table closest to the counter, a middle-aged man is sitting with his young companion. The young man is busy with his food, while the older guy entertains himself with the TV, occasionally sipping his coffee. Perhaps returning from his shift at work, his face looks tired and sleepy. A middle-aged woman arrives to pick up some food.
a personal touch
Sonia Aragon opens the doors at 5:15 am, when her blue-collar clientele begins to arrive to pick up breakfast on their way to work. A middle-aged Colombian immigrant, Sonia is the owner, manager, and cook. She is all over the place, preparing food in the kitchen, assisting customers behind the counter, on the phone arranging delivery of her supplies. Bocaditos is the fruit of the last three years of her life since purchasing the business with her Ecuadorian ex-husband.
In Colombia, Sonia grew up with “an inclination towards the kitchen.” She had uncles who were chefs and other family members who worked in restaurant kitchens. She studied hospitality and tourism through the Colombian National Training Service (SENA), where she honed her skills in making traditional Colombian dishes, “ancestral things passed on from our grandparents.”
While the small eatery is what sustains Sonia’s life in the United States, and the restaurant has a steady stream of regulars at peak hours, her operating margin is tight. Bocaditos is all consuming for Sonia and her customers are the ones who put food on her table. She knows her regulars by name and even has affectionate nicknames for some of them. This personal connection is not lost on her primarily Latinx customers. They tell her that she reminds them of their mother, grandma, sister, or neighbor. She told us that when her customers come to Bocadito they tell her, “I feel that I am at home. I am at my Mom’s or my grandma’s. So I give them hugs when I feel like because we learn to give love. We are very expressive.”
“Since we all are here in a country of immigrants you find a lot of customers that are alone in this country, missing their families, their parents. I tend to try to fill that emotional void in each and every one of my customers.”
What we saw and heard in Bocaditos reinforced Sonia’s assessment that Bocaditos connects her customers to their roots. The walls are covered with pictures of Colombian dishes, reproductions of paintings by Colombia’s most famous artist, images of Colombian architecture, and objects made by indigenous communities in Colombia that proudly represent the restaurant’s association with Colombia and Colombian culture. The connection is further established by the familiar sonic landscape provided by Latin music and Colombian TV; the diasporic sound of home for Colombians in the region.
At Bocaditos Colombianos, everything revolves around the Spanish language. Since the majority of customers are Spanish-speaking, all the signs are also written in Spanish. Sonia is much more comfortable in Spanish than English, and preferred to talk to us in Spanish. Sonia’s part-time staff — Miguel, the Puerto Rican cook, and Nancy, an Ecuadorian woman who often assists Sonia in the afternoon — are also Spanish speakers.
Talking with Sonia, the bond and connection she has with her customers is immediately apparent. However, her words are also filled with regret. She laments the decision to leave her job at the Brazilian Embassy in Bogota to immigrate to the United States and subject herself to the undignified treatment she feels she received upon entering this country. She shared her experience that “when someone arrives in this country what you are in your land does not serve of anything.”
“When someone arrives in this country, what you are in your land does not serve of anything”
She also expressed dissatisfaction with the location of her eatery, which, in her opinion, damages her business. Only a short few blocks from Ferry Street, its vibrant commercial landscape does nothing for Sonia’s restaurant. When the subject came up, Sonia lamented the presence of homeless people, drug addicts, and the violence she had witnessed in the area. None of these experiences were mentioned by any of the restaurant owners along Ferry Street.
Although Bocaditos is more about quick, affordable dining than a sit-down or night out experience, the intimate size of the restaurant and Sonia’s personal interactions with her customers combine with the recognizable food, music, and TV programs to make it a familiar place for local immigrants from multiple South American and Central American countries. As such, Bocaditos serves a multinational, working class, Latin immigrant community that has been the fastest growing demographic in Ironbound for the past decade.
If Ferry Street is the neighborhood’s public face and primary destination, Market Street is one of the neighborhood’s many peripheral frontiers, places where immigrant entrepreneurs like Sonia Aragón scramble at the margins to run businesses and nourish communities.