Brooklyn Flea

The Fleas welcome new antiques dealers—collectibles from Ireland! Beautifully restored junk!—while Smorgasburg offers killer BBQ and blessed ice cream.

Saturday (Smorgasburg in Williamsburg):

Mighty Quinn's - Experienced pitmaster Hugh Mangum is setting up his smoker at Smorg. On the menu is slow-smoked brisket or smoked pulled pork sandwiches, on a brioche roll with pickled onions or slaw. Spare ribs too.

Chozen - This all-natural, Jewish-themed ice cream comes in flavors like rugelach, matzoh crunch, apples and honey and chocolate babka.

Saturday (Flea in Fort Greene):

Quan-Soon 2nd Genre - Justin Quan-Soon has been buying and selling antiques for most of his life—his parents are avid collectors and certified dealers. He's got a modest collection of artwork, glass pieces, modern furniture, vintage clothing and bric-a-brac.

Sunday (Flea in Williamsburg):

Curbtiques - Curbtiques stocks rescued and restored found objects, transforming garbage into covetable goods. "We reclaim the past for your future," is the appropriate slogan.

Lindys Antiques - Established 32 years ago in Dublin, Ireland, Lindys Antiques imports from the home country. Look for unusual and unique antiques and collectibles (like the desk pictured above).

Renato Cachina - A personal collection of antique books, artifacts and furniture from a local seller.

I don’t need to tell you that the Flea is a great place for creative convergence. Fun for vendors and visitors alike is seeing what lightning can and does strike at the market every Saturday and Sunday as everyone sets about creating an artful mix of that week’s wares.

One of my favorite juxtapositions this past Saturday in Fort Greene was the melding of homespun culinary arts and vintage fabulousness that Rachel Gladfelter, of Rachel’s Pies, pulled off (top left). A Flea purveyor of hand-crafted Pennsylvania Dutch pies made from family recipes, Rachel turned out to sell on Saturday wearing a wonderful 1960s mod polka-dot print dress reminiscent of that decade’s Marimekko prints and even the swinging styles of Bauhaus fancier Rudi Gernreich.

What I love about the dress’ nearly touching big brown dots and white background is that Rachel came by it as honestly as she does her pies: Those she learned to make from her mother, who still lives on the Felton, Pennsylvania, farm where Rachel grew up; as for the dress, that came from her grandmother Janet Gladfelter’s closet.

“I used to play dress-up in it all of the time—and it's funny that I now can actually wear it,” Rachel said. “I'm her only granddaughter, so I'm pretty lucky that it fits me!” And that her grandmother, one of 11 brothers and sisters who wore one another’s hand-me-downs, had an eye sharper than one might expect of a woman who spent nearly all of her life in rural Pennsylvania with only occasional trips to towns like York and Red Lion to shop for clothes or fabrics she used to make her own. At age 90 Rachel’s gran is still sewing, sometimes cutting up her old garments to make quilts, a fate the dotted dress escaped at Rachel’s request: “This was one of my favorites so I asked her to save it for me.”

Lucky is the vintage-lover whose closet contains treasured pieces from the family archives. But there’s nothing wrong with making someone else’s heirlooms your own,  and the Flea is, of course, a great place to do that. In fact, inspired by Rachel’s dotted dress, I went hunting and turned up a number of spotted garments I suspect would make the discerning Mrs. Gladfelter’s cut.

We promised a beauty and the beast Scavenger Hunt, but the beast was actually quite small and cute. The jewelry remained beautiful.

Check back at noon Friday for this weekend’s items.

(Click images to enlarge)

Saturday (Fort Greene): Kristine and Ryann were visiting from Virginia, and they stumbled upon this cute, fuzzy creature at the Great Middle West booth. Caitlin, GMW's proprietor, dubbed the little guy "Henry," and gave him a whole backstory: "He's from Scotland, his favorite show is Weeds and he loves to snuggle." Henry will be a gift for Ryann's little sister. They heard about the Flea from Kristine's older sister who lives in the neighborhood. Lots of sibling Flea-love here!

Great Middle West always sets up so nice, with celebratory flags, deer heads and oversized letters spelling out random words. We wrote about Caitlin as a Featured Vendor a few months back, so check out that profile. Find her along the Lafayette fence in Fort Greene and by N. 6th in Williamsburg, with her wide selection of kitchenware and glass, signs and lettering, shoes and clothes, knickknacks and bric-a-brac.

Sunday (Williamsburg): Kathryn from Forest Hills, Queens, had been to the DUMBO Flea under the bridge, but it was her first time at the Williamsburg incarnation of the market. She'd checked the website to confirm the location and spotted the earrings. (Web surfing pays!) Kathryn is going keep the earrings for herself, since she loves them so much.

Maya Coppola's Jewels By Maya is a great example of the Flea's crafty, handmade aesthetic. She's a mom, singer-songwriter and stylish jewelry-maker who's been with the Flea for a few years now, holding it down at both markets. Maya's work strikes that perfect balance between bohemian and city-chic, with gold and silver metalwork that offsets semi-precious stones (topaz, tourmaline, onyx) in vibrant colors. She works with organic shapes, circles and draping lariat chains; hang out by her booth and watch her handcraft necklaces and earrings throughout the day.

Flea vendors really are cooler than the rest of us. As evidence, we're presenting a night of three vendor-led bands on Tuesday, June 28, at Bowery Electric, as part of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players' residency there.

The lineup includes Long Distance Poison (featuring Erica Bradbury of Species by the Thousands), Roughstars (featuring Cornelius Byrd of 3Free Design), and the debut of Light Spells (with David Denosowicz of Loyalty and Blood). Oh, and Treeboy (that's Eric Demby from the Flea) will DJ between sets. It'll be a cheap, fun hang with fellow Fleasters, come on down! Thanks to Bust magazine for helping make it happen.

Good times this weekend at the Flea and Smorgasburg! Thanks for taking photos for all posterity.

For even more photo excitement, check out this great slideshow from our pals at Metromix, who set up in Fort Greene on Saturday and put together a series of photos of Flea shoppers—great stuff.

As always, please do add your images to our Flickr group or post your shots to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Many thank yous to the people who shot the photos above: B.C. Lorio Images, katespadeny, mediafury, Steel Wool, Sho&Po and Natasha Ryan for Metromix.

 

We're back with another Greenmarket Special, our program where a Smorgasburg vendor partners with a Greenmarket farmer to come up with a one-day-only seasonal treat. One of the reasons we started this market was to foster deeper connections between Smorgasburg's NYC purveyors/vendors and the Greenmarket's upstate farmers, so we're cutting out the middleman to create a direct line between farmer and chef—a line that extends just a few feet across the waterfront lot's gravel.

Saturday's special is a very refreshing one, from lemonade and fruit syrup purveyors The Stand and fruit farmers Red Jacket Orchards. Stand proprietor Nathalie is stirring up a special batch of rhubarb lemonade along with 5 oz. bottles of rhubarb syrup—the rhubarb, whose season is too soon to end, comes straight from Red Jacket's fields.

The Stand's story is a good one, born on a NYC stoop with a pitcher of delicious drinks. When a friend's tag sale needed some refreshments, Nathalie Wiesner created a grown-up lemonade stand—blackberry and lavender lemonade, mint-rosemary-cucumber limeade, raspberry limeade; no Country Time here. Her way with citrus fruits and flavorings became a full-time job, and now the Stand churns out countless varieties of drinks, fruit syrups and marmalades that are sold at the Brooklyn Flea, Smorgasburg and at shops around the region.

Red Jacket Orchards is a 50-year old family farm based in the Finger Lakes area of upstate NY. Their fruits and drinks are popular at markets all over the state, made from the vast array of summer fruits and vegetables they grown on their land: strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, sweet cherries, sour cherries, apricots, peaches, plums, rhubarb, hot peppers and tomatillos.

Strange furry creatures and pretty jewels—it's a beauty and the beast Scavenger Hunt.

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it’s yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Tuesday. You can only win once per calendar month. Items posted every Friday at noon.

From left (click to enlarge):

Saturday: Stuffed animal. Vintage
Sunday: Green chrysoprase hoops with green onyx. New/handmade

Note: The Flea happens outdoors every Saturday in Fort Greene and every Sunday in Williamsburg. The markets are open every weekend, 10am–5pm, rain or shine. For maps/directions, click here.

Before we tell you about all the new vendors who will feed us this weekend at Smorgasburg, let's talk about breakfast.

We have several great options for the early-bird shoppers, including Grady's Farm Food's farm-fresh egg sandwiches made to order; Whimsy & Spice's new scones; Granola Lab's granola, Ronnybrook yogurt and fruit parfaits; King's Crumb biscuits; and of course, Blue Bottle coffee, iced or hot drip by the cup. Get there early and get eating.

The following vendors are new additions to Smorgasburg:

Botanas by Barnyard Cheese Shop - Traditional empanadas—chorizo, veggie or chicken, plus breakfast varieties like machaca con huevos and rajas con huevos—from the East Village cheese and sandwich shop.

The Brooklyn Bean Co. - It's a veritable bean fiesta, with more than 50 varieties of dried beans (that's black calypso pictured above) including cannellini, appaloosa, gigandes and rattlesnake.

Brooklyn Salsa Company - Longtime Flea vendors make it to Smorg with their locally made salsas, one for every borough in the city.

Crown Maple - Pure maple syrups from Dutchess County, NY.

Hecho en Dumbo - Michoacán-style Berkshire pork ribs slow-roasted  in duck fat with avocado-serrano salsa verde, from the Manhattan (formerly DUMBO, natch) Mexican restaurant.

New Flea vendors this week include baseball-card dealers, Mexican sandwich makers, antique sellers and crafty paper artists.

Saturday (Fort Greene):

Brooklyn Baseball Cards - Brooklyn Baseball Cards (above) is a family business selling vintage and contemporary baseball trading cards to professional and amateur collectors.

Cemitas - A guest appearance from the instantly popular Smorgasburg vendor, who will bring cemitas—huge Mexican sandwiches with layers of meat, veggies, special herbs and sauce—to the Flea for the first time.

Sunday (Williamsburg):

b.b. blackbird - Affordable art (oil on canvas, watercolors, drawings, prints, photos and more) plus antiques, decorative objects, lighting, furniture and jewelry (from Victorian to 1980s).

Dumbelle - Couture paper dolls, coloring books, postcards, dolls and art from the Dumbo crafts shop.

Invisible Bklyn - Billed as "folk art to freak show banners, taxidermy to tattoo memorabilia," this longtime dealer of antiques and oddities offers a large inventory that focuses on the occult, sideshows and vintage movie posters.

Set 1 - A variety of vintage lamps, chairs, puppets, curtains, kitchenware, cameras, tablecloths, art, etc. from a longtime film production designer and set decorator.

Two parts to our Social Circle this week, with booths from awesome food-justice organization Just Food and a special event from the BK Swappers.

For over 15 years, Just Food has worked to connect local farms to NYC neighborhoods and communities. If you are part of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), you have Just Food to thank for the launch and coordination of the 100+ CSAs that run across the city. Their programs, including City Farms, Food Justice, Fresh Food for All and Community Food Education, work to educate and provide access to fresh, healthy food for all.

Just Food's current pet project is the City Chicken Project (pictured above), which is running a Kickstarter campaign to provide training, coops and hens for schools and community gardening groups who want to raise healthy chickens and delicious eggs. Donate now, as there are only a few days left!

BK Swappers is a bi-monthly food-swap event where local food-makers come together to barter their homemade goods. (Full disclosure: your Flea blogger, Jane—that's me—runs the swap with urban homesteader Meg Paska.) Usually the events are limited to 30 swappers, but this Saturday at Smorgasburg it's open to all. Here's how it works: everyone brings their homemade items—jars of jam or pickles, batches of cookies, bottles of fruit syrup or infused oils—and a series of one-to-one exchanges are negotiated, e.g. my Sichuan chili oil for your jar of strawberry-thyme jam. We'll be hosting an open social starting at noon, and the swap itself will take place at 1:30pm. Bring something for the swap or just come to meet other home-cook enthusiasts and learn more about our events.