A Guide to the Best New Things to Eat at Smorgasburg This Spring
Brooklyn’s venerable all-food flea market, Smorgasburg, officially kicks off its sixth spring/summer season this weekend, returning to its regular stomping grounds at East River State Park on Saturdays, and Prospect Park on Sundays. And, drawn from a pool of over 350 applicants, there will be 25 new vendors in the mix, eager to follow in the footsteps of breakout Smorg stars like People’s Pops and Mighty Quinns.
So, who, precisely, are these fledgling food artisans, and what will they be bringing to the sun-drenched Williamsburg waterfront? The answer is sandwiches, and lots of them—from regional American staples like Philly cheesesteaks and Chicago-style Italian beef, to international favorites such as spit-roasted German doner kebab, Italian tramezzini (soft crustless triangles, encasing dainty dabs of porchetta), and Argentinean choripan (chimichurri and mayo slathered sausages, deposited on club rolls).
Other variations on the bread, meat, and cheese theme include a variety of offerings from Heros and Villains, such as the towering “Black Sabich” with labne, hummus, turmeric-pickled egg and flash-fried strips of eggplant, as well as the rightly-dubbed “Lionel Messi” from Red Table Catering, featuring ricotta, creamed chard, tomato chutney, sweet onion jam and yolky soft eggs, just barely contained within the confines of housemade sourdough English muffins (here’s hoping they consider selling packs of them on the side). And then there’s Singaporean jianbing—a traditional Chinese street breakfast—comprising griddled mung bean flour crepes brushed with egg and wrapped around fillings such as honey-ginger tofu, organic lemon-soy chicken, and pasture-raised hoisin-lime beef.
Even dessert remains faithful to the through-line with Wowfulls, a holdover from Smorgasburg’s intimate winter lineup. Specializing in waffle cones crafted from sugar-dusted Hong Kong hot cakes, mounded with ice cream, drizzled with condensed milk, and crowned with mochi, mint chips, strawberries and pocky, they’ve undoubtedly produced Brooklyn’s most Instagram-worthy answer to Black Tap’s mania-inducing milkshakes. That being said, we’re sure we’ll see you at what’s bound to be Smorgasburg’s most epic line this Saturday, with our iPhone in one hand, and a fat stack of napkins in the other.
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