Another Summer in Foodie Paradise
There’s two kinds of foodies this day in age – the Instagrammer and the culinary enthusiast. However, both breeds commonly intersect, especially at New York City’s Smorgasburg, one of the biggest foodie festivals in the city. Park Slope is lucky enough to host one of its two weekly locations, and this summer has kicked off another round of good eats and photo-worthy treats.
Smorgasburg started as a spinoff of Brooklyn Flea in 2011, a similar vendor market of niche artisanal finds and locally made crafts founded by entrepreneurs Eric Demby and Jonathan Butler. This food paradise is now the largest open-air food market in America and attracts 20-30,000 people to Brooklyn every weekend, with additional locations now in Downtown Los Angeles and Osaka, Japan. Hailed by The New York Times as “The Woodstock of Eating,” you’re guaranteed to find something offbeat and unique in the mass of 100+ vendors that roll through these spots regularly, many of which are local businesses – a way to sample through what you may end up visiting after hours. Treats from Ethiopian food and locally roasted coffee to short ribs and bone marrow are just a couple of the many items available, and some places booth on a regular basis too. If you’re too full to munch on that Dough donut today, there’s a good chance they’ll be around the following week serving up the same sweet calories.
As a somewhat newcomer to New York (I’m coming up on my first year anniversary this August), I wasn’t completely sure how crowded my first visit to Prospect Park’s Smorgasburg would be. Although I’d previously attended the Downtown LA market, I had no idea what to expect from one of the original locations. How many vendors would I see? Would it be packed despite an unusually chilly summer Sunday afternoon?
Here’s the thing about food and New York though: You can’t get in the way of this essential “pairing.” Floods of people still flocked the booths with two hours left to spare in this seven-hour-long weekly affair, cold winds blowing through jean shorts and blouses on the brink of rain. A good 45 booths were still busy preparing foods like squid okonomiyaki and Indonesian coffee cocktails as people munched and Snapchatted and Instagrammed away, many of whom brought their pups along for the ride. An outdoor experience in New York is always a chance to bring a furry friend, essentially.
I decided to grab an entrée and a dessert – my poisons ended up being Mighty Quinn’s hearty and delightful short rib burger and Ube Kitchen’s vegan ube coconut custard flan. Both photogenic and delicious, I was easily stuffed within an hour.
Some things you may want to mentally prepare for upon visiting Smorgasburg are the lines. While you have a massive selection of foods to choose from, the saying is true: the longer the line is, the chance it’s much better too. At Smorgasburg, this is certainly the case. Come hungry but also ready to wait. Additionally, while many booths offer both cash and credit options, a good handful of vendors are still cash-only. While there are portable ATMs available, save yourself a few bucks worth of ATM fees and make sure it goes towards your treats instead! Lastly, these are not bodega takeaway prices. While many goods are served fast food style, you’ll still be paying close to the same amount you’d be spending at a restaurant with table service. The trade for this? Many foods are exclusively vendor/food trucks, so you won’t be able to find them anywhere else!
Happy munching, fellow foodie friends!
Katrina Yentch
Katrina Yentch is a writer, caffeine purveyor and L.A. native with a newfound addiction to New York pizza. She can be reached at kyentch@gmail.com.