Brooklyn Flea

So many vendors have gained additional attention or business from selling at the Flea, which is one our core goals as an "entrepreneurial incubator."

Elma and Brian of Blint Design hold it down every week in B2 with their beautifully crafted funky but modern jewelry, and after years of hard work they're about to set up their own brick-and-mortar shop, Baubles & Thorn. Their brownstone ground-floor spot at 111 Lafayette Ave. (at S. Oxford St.)--just down the block from the Flea--has its grand opening tomorrow (Wed.) evening at the fab new shop, 6-9p. You're all invited!

The Nightwood gals, Myriah and Nadia, have gone from fly-by-night hobbyists to kind-of-big players on the "rejuvenated" furniture scene. One day at the Flea the Matta folks cleaned out their entire booth, and you can now see their work decorating Matta's groovy Lafayette St./Soho store. So cool.

Then Design*Sponge highlighted their awesome stuff in their recent post about the Flea's upcoming Fall Furniture Festival (starting this Sunday!), curated by Greenjeans, and just last week Time Out ran this cute/hilarious story (right) following the gals as they salvaged wood from Fort Greene garbage piles. Well-deserved yo! (Nightwood is in B1 this Sunday, and in the Furniture Fest Oct. 19.)

Marisa's spanking-new whoopie pie (and more) outfit WannaHavaCookie got a visit from a producer from that arbiter of culinary taste, Rachel Ray, and wouldn't you know it, this Thursday at 10:00am, Wanna's "Baker's Choice Sampler" will be featured as the Snack of the Day on one of the most-watched food shows on TV. (Check here for local listings.) Marisa is around E5 or so every other Sunday.

If you have other Flea success stories to share, let us know!

Time Out photo credit: Jeff Gurwin

We may have to start saying za Flea from now on.

We've been talking to him about it for months now, and Dave is finally ready to go public: his Pizza Moto mobile brick-oven pizzeria will debut this Sunday at za Flea. Yes, you heard right.

We met Dave, who's a chef at Lunetta on Smith St., through Betsy and Rachel from Salvatore Bklyn Ricotta--about as awesome a reference as there is--and after he successfully tested out his insane but glorious idea at the ricotta gals' recent wedding (yay!), we knew the Flea was the next frontier.

Dave built the brick oven (right) by hand, and he'll be starting off simply with 8" traditional margherita pies (mozzarella, tomato, basil) for $8. That's it. He'll be in F2, back by the bleachers between Choice and Blue Marble.

Mangia!

Three nice vintage items to Hunt for this Sunday. Don't let a drizzle or two stop you from coming out!

For newcomers, when you find the item, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it's yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo here on the blog on Monday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday at Noon.

Happy hunting!

Clockwise from top left:

1. Pair of folding travel binoculars (open + closed). Vintage

2. Purple enamel E.T. pendant. Vintage

3. Groovy ceramic owl. Vintage

Some really great new vendors come onboard this Sunday, check 'em out. We also included a few newbies from last week, since "What's New?" got lost in the shuffle.

St. Kilda Jewelry is holding a super-special sample sale at the Flea on Sunday. Friendly Nora has been spreading the word about her beautiful "Love Ring" (above) and other lovelies, so come early for the good stuff. (Refinery 29 named it Sale of the Day this week.) B13, right in front.

We're psyched that Rick Gallagher of 280 Modern, the former stellar Lafayette St./Soho antiques shop, will be at the Flea. Rick says he'll have "books, tribal art, victoriana, ephemera, folk art, and more." Good enough for us! B8.

Also on the high-design front, the designers' reps Smallpond (i.e., top British design) will be bringing cutting-edge stuff like this magnetic calendar (right). Say hi to Paul manning their spot. E22.

A trio of fine folks from the old Chelsea fleas and the 25th St. Garage (which closes at the end of November) make their Flea debuts Sunday: Rhonda Polen and Bruce Moore (aka Going Hollywood, Mara Vernaza and Katie McDonnell. Rhonda and Bruce will have "American art pottery, glass, mid-century modern furniture, chrome (Chase, Revere), advertising pieces, fabrics, '40/'50s, Art Deco--wow! Katie and Mara specialize in high-end vintage clothing, and Mara always has great bags of all kinds. Katie and Mara are back-to-back in B20 and B23. Going Hollywood in L14.

Tahir Boutique, the groovy, affordable vintage shop on Orchard St. on the LES, is back for their second Flea Sunday, after a successful debut last weekend. Owner Arianna is well-liked (for good reason) and their wide range of clothes and accessories are, like, really hip. W46.

Young brother-and-sister duo Sara and Mark Strauss are cool. Sara makes nice handmade jewelry, while Mark designs and hand-paints awesome intricate T-shirts (right), which are really worth a look. W25.

Pals Heather and Mabel have dubbed themselves Two Closets and will bring cleaning out both this Sunday. Mostly size 2-6 clothes and accessories for the ladies--sounds like stylish stuff! E32.

Elizabeth Kenney has nice pocketbooks, jewelry, shoes and other gently used contemporary items. B11.

Team player Alexis Ching got her good karma on by following up her Week 10 Scavenger Hunt victory with the inaugural submission to our periodic "Flea Flickr" feature.

Heavy on the culinary delights (there are so many!), Alexis nails the spirit of ze Flea quite nicely we think. Especially love the cloud-writing snapshot and the huarache close-ups. She shot these on the day of the "Superstar DJ Record Fair," Sept. 14. Enjoy!

Click here to send us your pics for a future post. You can also post them on our fab new Facebook page.

Regina from Chelsea (left) scored the penny vintage earrings from Val of Blue Canary Vintage at 10:40am, and she seemed pleased as punch about it. A penny found is an accessory scored.

Val's in E12 every Sunday with awesome vintage jewelry, mostly earrings.

Check back Friday at noon for this week's items.

Following last week's blowout, we just have one special item in the Hunt this Sunday. We'll be back to a full palate for the 28th.

For newcomers, when you find the item, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it's yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo here on the blog on Monday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday at Noon.

Happy hunting!

1. Penny earrings, gold-plated, dated 1964. Vintage

Senor was out of town much of this week, apologies for the dearth of updates this week.

Just a quick note about a couple special vendors this week.

The folks who recently opened the Vespa Brooklyn shop on Park Ave. and Vanderbilt on the Navy Yard side of the BQE will be selling fuel-efficient, fun, and fabulous scooters at the Flea this Sunday, and hopefully for much of the fall. There's no doubt that gas prices have nudged more bikes, walkers, and pedicabs onto the NYC streets, and if you're gonna go gassy, a scooter is the eco-friendly way to go. Can we talk fashionable, retro, and straight-up snazzy? Yes, we can. Check out the Portofino Green LXV 150 (above). Ciao prego! W1

Back at home in BK, Daniel Sklaar's Fine + Raw Chocolate (right) is back at the Flea after a super-sunny day cut short his debut. His raw chocolate is yummy and intriguing to talk about. (Sweetie Justine's Nunu Chocolates are equally convo-worthy of course.) Fine + Raw ain't got no sugar, no dairy, no nuttin' really, just pure uncooked goodness. Taste it, you'll see. First your tastebuds take notice, then your mouth starts yappin' about it to everyone you know. E8

We've been hinting at it for weeks, but now we're ready to go public: Every Sunday in October (Oct. 5, 12, 19, 26), we're presenting the first "Fall Furniture Festival," carefully selected by the fine folks at Greenjeans. (Amy Shaw and Jae Kim from Greenjeans had a store at 7th Ave./14th St. in the Slope until this spring, and are planning a re-opening in DUMBO in early '09.)

Our pals at Design*Sponge wrote a divine post on the event this morning. Thanks gals!

The focus of the festival is furniture designed and made in Brooklyn, with a few local/regional designers as well (upstate, Vermont). Every Sunday in October, a rotating cast of 5-6 furniture designers out of a total roster of 15-20 will be highlighted in a special 20'x30' "pod" at the Flea--likely spots B7-12 off the handball wall to your right when you walk in.

If the fall fest goes well, we'll try do this twice a year. We have high hopes that special events like these will keep the Flea fresh for regulars, give never-beens a reason to come through, and of course build a little community among our borough and city's stellar creatives of all kinds.

Here's the preliminary list of designers onboard so far. And check back with us and the Greenjeans Fall Furniture Festival site for news and updates as October approaches.

4Korners

Bergman Furniture

Brave Space Design

City Joinery

Counter Evolution NYC

Jas. Becker

Mine Metal/Art

Nightwood

Nine Stories Furniture Co.

NYC Water Tower Furniture

SMC Furnishings

Standard 41

Uhuru

Clinton Hill in the house! Both of these week's Hunt victors live in the 'hood, and both young lasses were overjoyed at their finds, as evidenced by their ear-to-ear grins.

This week's winners are both avowed weekly Fleagoers, which fills Senor with pride to the point of brimming.

(No one found either of the records this week. Incroyable!)

Check back Friday at noon for this week's items.

Here are this week's winners, from left:

Caroline Bevan (left) from Clinton Hill found the vintage framed photo at 10:45am at trove, where proud Meg was joined by her Bucks County, PA, pals in their Flea debut. It happened to be Caroline's 25th birthday, what a way to enter the next quarter century. Thanks for Fleaing Caroline!

Alexis Ching (right) of Clinton Hill found the kaffiyeh-scarf-design record bracelet at 11:12am. She's joined by Monkey of WrecordsByMonkey, who melt down vintage vinyl and create all kinds of cool bracelets and accessories. Note their new cuckoo record clock in the background! The Monkeys are in W27 every single week.