At Bodega Nights, Bushwick’s Club Corridor Finally Gets a Grown-Up Dinner Option

By Scott Lynch

Bodega Nights is located at 425 Troutman Street, between Wyckoff and St.  Nicholas Avenues, and is currently open on Wednesday through Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight     

Zoe Clifton and David Wilson didn’t plan on all this happening so fast. The couple had only been running their first business, the tiny, “working glass wine bar” Babysips on the Lower East Side, for less than a year when their buddy Matt Etchemendy alerted them to an amazing space right next door to the Bushwick branch of his Ace’s Pizza empire.

“Our goal was always to open another place at some point,” Clifton told Brooklyn Magazine. “Someplace bigger, with outdoor seating, but we assumed that was going to come much farther down the line. And then we saw this space and thought, Oh my god—this is everything we’ve always wanted. The high ceilings, the big windows… It felt so good.”

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

And we are so happy they did. Bodega Nights is exactly what this party zone of Bushwick needed. It’s a comfortable, totally unpretentious wine bar with a tight list of what Wilson calls “artisanal, small farmer wine; wine that’s made by a person in the fields who is passionate about what they’re doing.” Categories range from no skin to more skin to a little red to a little more red, and prices are gentle enough for you to experiment a little: $16 for a glass, lots of bottles between $60 and $80.    

Plus, the vibe at Bodega is one of easy enjoyment, communal conversation, and no gatekeeping allowed. “We love hosting. We love having people over. And wine is the elixir of community,” Wilson said. “This isn’t a bar to get wasted at. I mean, you can get a little drunk, but it’s more about meeting people and sharing wines. As we like to say, ‘The liquid shouldn’t be precious; the moment should be.'”   

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

So, yeah, precious moments sipping fun wine in a relaxed room sounds like a rad way to spend an evening, but for me, the best news about Bodega Nights is that the food here, which skews both Brazilian (Wilson lived in Rio for 17 years) and Iberian (the couple also makes wine in Catalonia), is shockingly good. Especially since, as Clifton tells it, they didn’t really plan on Bodega being a full restaurant at all. “I keep joking that we’d be talking to friends,” she said, “telling them how the concept here would be similar to Babysips, but in a much larger space, and with outdoor seating, plus a full menu… and they were like, soooo it’s not a wine bar, it’s a restaurant. Yeah. And it’s true. We accidentally opened a restaurant.” 

The chef de cuisine is Josh Zambrano, whose previous gig was slinging $250 Michelin-starred omakases over at Bar Miller in the East Village. He liked doing sushi, but missed working with fire, and Clifton and Wilson were happy to accommodate him. “He had never even tasted some of these dishes before,” said Wilson. “But when we ate his stuff, we were like, ‘Dude, how did you nail this?’ He really took it to another level.” 

Pork sausage and long hot, $20 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Charred cabbage, $20 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The housemade pork sausage, long and dense and funky as hell, comes with a lovely red roasted long hot, sweet pickled onions, and a toasted slab of also-housemade sourdough, everything slick with an herby, oily gremolata. It’s a fantastic starter, as are the wedges of charred cabbage, which arrive atop blobs of a creamy, tangy onion soubise.    

Bolinho de bacalhau (cod fritters) with fresno chili sauce, $14 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

A snacky stack of bolinho de bacalhau is an essential accompaniment to whatever else you’ve got going on, the crisp, fluffy, chunky salt cod fritters paired with a zingy Fresno chili sauce that’s so good you’ll wish you could bring a bottle of it home. 

Fish a la plancha with three sides, $34 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Two entree-sized dishes were on the menu when I went, and I continued my cod party with three gorgeous filets of cooked “a la plancha,” and served swimming in a pool of (yet another terrific) chili sauce, with well-seasoned broccoli rice, roasted cauliflower, and just the right amount of burnt Portuguese potatoes on the side. The same trio can also be paired with a steak.  

Angel food custard, $12 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

And, for god’s sake, don’t skip dessert. The angel food pudding comes in a bowl, stuffed with sweet, sticky caramelized figs, and finished with a foamy citrus sabayon and cake crumbs. It’s incredible. 

“It feels great to be here in Bushwick,” said Clifton. “Babysips was just David and I for the majority of the time, working there every day and doing everything ourselves. So to get to do something on a larger scale here with Bodega, and to have so many other people be a part of it, I feel really grateful for and proud of what we created.”