Our story
Built by a Ventura family, for the neighborhood
Tessa and Rich Bigtree created Buena Bodega as the kind of place their own family hunts down while traveling: a welcoming market where good food, coffee, soft serve, pantry finds and a glass of wine share the same room.
Tessa & Rich
From merchandising desks to the market floor
Tessa spent years in corporate merchandising and marketing, quietly sketching a neighborhood market of her own. Rich brought the brand-and-numbers brain. Parenthood shaped the rest — a place where adults can linger over natural wine while the kids push mini shopping carts.
“Friends meeting friends, kids making themselves at home, strangers turning into regulars. This is exactly what we dreamed of when we built this space.”
— Tessa, six weeks after opening
About the name
Buena, as in Buenaventura
We’re not trying to be a New York corner store — we couldn’t if we tried. Buena Bodega is our love letter to the little neighborhood markets we seek out everywhere we travel, rooted right here in Buenaventura: a modern market where you can eat well, shop curiously and stay a while. The mustachioed fellow enjoying his sardine? He gets it.
How we got here
From bare concrete to block party
2024
The idea gets serious
After years of collecting favorite markets and cafés on every trip, Tessa files the plans for a market-eatery hybrid on Main Street.
February 2025
Ventura says yes
The City approves beer and wine service alongside the market and kitchen — alcohol stays a supporting act to the food.
2025
The build-out
A bare concrete shell at Main & Pacific slowly gains its wood trusses’ glow-up: checkerboard counter, cobalt tables, tomato-red pendants and very full shelves.
December 16, 2025
Doors open
The soft launch draws a line out the door and sells the kitchen out by early afternoon. Week one feels like a block party.
January 31, 2026
The Grand Opening Shin Dig
A neighborhood party in the parking lot — live music, face painting, a six-foot Challaconda and several hundred new friends.
Today
Six months in and counting
Regulars have their orders memorized, kids have claimed the cubby, and the Social Club calendar keeps growing. This is exactly what we dreamed of.
Same room, one year apart.
What we care about
Stocked with intention, open to everyone
We go out of our way to carry women-owned, BIPOC-owned and small independent brands, source our fish from Santa Barbara Fish Market, partner with neighbors like Dune Coffee, and keep the space genuinely comfortable for kids and the grown-ups they bring along.