The corporate food festival that put Williamsburg on the map for Manhattanites will return to Brooklyn on Saturday, June 26. Following a lull in the summer of 2021, when Smorgasburg operated as a to-go only pop-up in an empty lot, 2021’s Smorgasburg will be reminiscent of years past.
“One of the many silver linings from the dark cloud of the pandemic is Smorgasburg returning to its roots as a local, community market,” Smorgasburg co-founder Eric Demby told Eater NY. Smorgasburg’s markets are now on the Lower East Side, World Trade Center, Prospect Park, Jersey City, and come late June, Marsha P Johnson State Park.
The Williamsburg Smorgasburg flagship will run every Saturday, starting on June 26, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 35 vendors, which are still being confirmed, will vend a wide variety of worldly and local fare.
Vendor applications are still open for Smorgasburg. In the coming weeks, applicants will be scheduled for outdoor tastings, for Smorgasburg to learn more about the concept and sample the food of potential new vendors. Demby also told Eater that up to half of the 90 – 100 vendors from Smorgasburg’s last full season, in 2019, are no longer involved, due to the pandemic. Now, he wants to grow Smorgasburg with small businesses owned by people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ folks.
Several at-home culinary businesses launched in Greenpoint over this past year, like Alyosha Bakery, Citlali Cocina, so it will be interesting to see which, if any, pandemic-born businesses move into Smorgasburg this summer.