Brooklyn Flea

Happy Thanksgiving! On this day, we are thankful for all the Brooklyn Flea vendors and shoppers, and we are especially excited to announce the lineup of the market at One Hanson, which starts this Saturday and Sunday and continues through the spring. There you'll find many of your favorites, plus a few new folks who will have great holiday gifts and delicious treats. Away we go!

There are two vendors this week who are entirely new to the Flea:

Fiyel Levent - An architect, artist and designer, Fiyel Levent makes gorgeous objects for the home. Some of her lamp designs are pictured above.

Leckerlee - In the spirit of the classic Lebkuchen, a German Christmas treat, baker Sandy Lee has created Leckerlee, a new cookie company that is making its debut at the Flea. Served in specially designed holiday tins, Lee's gingerbread-like confections make for perfect gifts (and excellent snacking).

In other news, the Flea is the best place in town to take care of all your holiday shopping. You should know that all of our vendors have been preparing for weeks to bring out their finest stuff! By the entrance, stop by Brooklyn Slate, who makes cutting boards and cheese platters (pictured at right) made of slate straight from an upstate quarry. Bike man Shane da Bikejack will be selling not just cool old bikes but his personal selection of antiques and collectibles. And everyone loves the tiny green worlds as created by Twig Terrariums.

This weekend only, check out the top-notch collectibles from Un Jour Georges, handbags and accessories from Mix Gallery, cute cards and gifty goodness from Foxy & Winston and awesome antiques from Exquisite Rubbish.

Foodwise, look for some rearrangement in the edibles department downstairs in the vault (which has been remodeled and repainted!). We are pleased to feature a handful of our old favorites (Red Hook Lobster Pound, Choncho's Tacos, Porchetta, Asia Dog, Solber Pupusas, Lonestar Empire, The Stand NY, Fine and Raw) and a number of Smorgasburg stars who will rotate through the market over the course of the season. This week we have soups from Sea Bean Goods, vegan deliciousness from Electric Blue Baking Company, coconut craziness from Danny Macaroons, crisp cookies from Biscotti di Vecchio, incredible charcuterie from Charlito's Cocina, and the world's best donuts from Dough. And on Sunday only, grab killer BBQ from Mighty Quinn's.

For drinks, warm up with hot sips from Tipsy Kettle, the new hot-drink venture from Brooklyn Soda Works. Plus we are pleased to welcome Blue Bottle Coffee into the One Hanson fold, who will be set up on the ground floor with their killer coffee (espresso and pour overs) and house made pastries.

Enjoy your holiday, and see you this weekend at One Hanson!

Can it be? Smorgasburg is over? Hard to believe. (sniff)

It's been an extraordinary season along the waterfront, and we thank each and every one of the vendors and customers who made Smorgasburg such a success. We're going out in style of course, with numerous vendors offering seasonally appropriate Thanksgiving treats—their special menu items are listed below. We'll even have a long communal table set up at the market, just like a giant family supper!

There's only one new vendor this week, but it's a special one:
M. Wells, the lauded Long Island City diner that shuttered in August, will be at Smorgasburg selling traditional meat pies (pictured above). M. Wells owner Sarah Obraitis gives us all the details: "The Quebecois meat pies are something that come out in the fall and winter. Luscious pie crust filled with an assortment of meats and game like beef, chicken, pork, venison, rabbit, guinea hen, with onions, potatoes, mushrooms and booze. Our cranberry ketchup is awesome on it and we'll also have gravy." This is not to be missed!

Remember, we start a weekly residency December 4 at the Brooklyn Brewery as SmorgasBrewery, a small-scale Smorg to get you through the winter. And this Sunday, November 20, enjoy five Flea/Smorg foodies at PS1's Fall Open House: Bep, Bon Chovie, Mile End, Pizza Moto, and Salud's Xocolatl Bar. See you there.

And now for our Thanksgiving specials, happy holidays!

Anarchy in a Jar - Tipsy chutney with cranberries, apples and whiskey-soaked raisins.

Biscotti di Vecchio - Autumn Assortimento: 12 pieces of crystallized ginger apple, pecan spice and cranberry orange zest biscotti.

Brooklyn Bean Co. - Pumpkin-spiced soy chai.

Brooklyn Soda Works - Spiced cranberry soda.

Electric Blue - Vegan donuts in pumpkin chai spice, apple pie and maple, plus shepherd's pie (made with mushrooms, walnuts, sunchokes, baby celery greens and vegan Worcestershire sauce). Hot apple cider too.

The Good Batch - Pumpkin cake with hot fudge and bourbon sweet cream. Plus holiday giftboxes!

Landhaus - Special grilled winter squash with maple bacon stick.

Mimi and Coco - Sweet potato versions of the teriyaki balls.

Morris Kitchen - Candied ginger (from local organic ginger) and apple cider syrup made from Red Jacket Orchards fruit.

Pizza Moto - White pizza with honey glazed squash, sage and brown butter.

Red Hook Lobster Pound - Downeast bisque; a lobster, shrimp clam and fish soup.

Saucy By Nature - Falafel featuring spicy pumpkin ginger sauce and tomato apple chutney; plus cranberry pear sauce with cardamom, made from local cranberries and local pears, to be served over a homemade cornmeal cake and a dollop of creamy Greek yogurt (pictured at right). They're also featuring their three gourmet fall sauces in a special holiday gift pack.

Sea Bean Goods - Featured soups include russet potato with cranberry chutney; Brussels sprouts with bacon and maple syrup; and pumpkin with apple, sage, and cinnamon.

The Stand NY - Spiced cranberries and a hot cranberry drink.

As Smorgasburg draws to a close, we asked one of our most popular vendors, Danny Lyu from Mexican-sandwich stall Cemita's, to share with us his behind-the-scenes experience of launching a business at the market. The oversized cemitas were an instant hit, and Danny and his crew worked incredibly hard all season. Here's the insider's view of what it takes to make it at Smorgasburg. Thanks, Danny!

Cemita’s – Season One

I told myself I'd never do it again. No blood, sweat or tears. What am I? A sucker? But, walking away is never that easy.

Smorgasburg wasn't my first foray into the food world. I had grown up in it and even grown to love it until one day it broke me and I said goodbye. That damn sushi restaurant had me off of spicy tuna for years. I was happy with my career in TV, then in e-commerce. But soon enough, the restaurant business started eating at me again. I developed a Mexican-sandwich concept called Cemita's that I wanted to open in the vacant kitchen of a bodega selling cigarettes and Quick Draw numbers. The neighborhood needed some authentic Mexican food and it was a pretty sound investment, right down the block from my office in Midtown and right next door to a Mexican chain restaurant. "No problem," I said. I'd evil-Russian laugh like Drago and think "I must break you, Chipotle." Bitches. But my numbers didn't hit and the lease fell through. Rocky won at the end the movie, too.

Right around then, I heard about Smorgasburg. I had been working on Cemita's for a few months doing dozens of tastings for friends and hungry hanger-ons. I couldn't let the idea slip. I got my act together and requested a tasting with the Smorgasburg organizers. Chances were slim. My tryout was all but cancelled at the last minute; they already had too many vendors selling Mexican food. Still, I knew that if I had the chance to get my sandwich in front of the tasting panel (Eric and Jane), they'd love it. I gave it my all to make the right product. Last thing I heard was "You're in!" and we were off to the races.

Getting everything together for day one was a blur. All I remember is U-Haul rentals and making it rain up and down the Bowery.  I spent thousands of dollars on equipment, containers and small wares that I ended up returning back to the hawkers at a loss because it wasn't the right stuff. This outdoor vendor thing was nothing like my past restaurant life. I was buying for barracks but we were living in teepees. I bought a $700 griddle that weighed 500 lbs, not knowing that by the end of the season, I'd have a $200 propane griddle that weighs 50 lbs and two electric tabletop griddles. There was no Smorgasburg handbook. But I didn't care. I was going to do what I had to do to make it all come together.

Cooking the food was never really an issue for us. We had been making the same exact stuff for months for our private tastings, just not at the same scale. I had a team of kitchen pros, so scaling up was just a matter of buying and prepping more. Don't get me wrong, though. Getting the system down to a science so I could get my crew home early didn't happen overnight. Prepping from 11am to 3am was common at the beginning. I'd get home at 4am, shower, have a drink, get some gear together and head out at 5:30am to pick up the food from the kitchen. I was motivated by fear, success and a crew I didn't want to let down. Still, making the food was the easy part. It was service that proved to be a bear.

Our first day selling at Smorgasburg was a "disaster," as described by our first Yelp review. Two stars. Thanks Kassie M. of Brooklyn, NY! But, we deserved it. The service was poor, our $700 griddle was broken, we ran out of cemitas by 1pm and actually ended up grilling burgers that had zero resemblance to a cemita, on bread that was given to us by our neighbors who had also sold out of food. Shameful. We only had two cooks including me, two support staff with zero food experience, and a cashier. At the end of the day, we were sweaty, discouraged and covered in ash from the grill. But we were also a phoenix. We adapted and we rose.

After the first day, it was all about learning and adjusting to make our service the best. Nothing else mattered. I'd obsess over weather reports, checking every day, every hour until it was time for Smorgasburg. On game days, it was a competition between our better and worse selves. Could you beat the pressure of 50 customers surrounding your tent waiting for food, with another 50 in line? How would you react when you're on the brink of screaming, crying or worse, punching the guy asking you to cut his sandwich into six pieces? Just focus, never look at the gigantic line of customers you'll be serving nonstop for the next four hours, and work the next 10 tickets in front of you. Don't eat, down a bottle of water when you have a second and put in work, son. Keep your head down but your chin up. That's what we did.

Next time I looked up, it was almost Thanksgiving. At the end of it all, Cemita's was rocking up to four market locations every Saturday and Sunday at Smorgasburg, Brooklyn Flea and special events. We were laughing in the face of what seemed like an apocalyptic summer: earthquakes, hurricanes and even a snowstorm in October. It ended as quickly as it had begun but we were stronger, wiser and better looking.

We lost a lot of people in the summer season but we built an incredible core team: Sergio, my main man with 25 years of cooking experience under his belt; Jason, who proved to be an incredible kitchen man even though he had no experience; Eric, who became a master butcher and sandwich maker after prepping thousands of pounds of meat; Jesse, who came in late but is so talented he jumped into our crazy line and knocked out food with ease from day one; and last but not least, Tess, my sister-in-law/cashier who impressed me more than anybody with her work ethic.

The valuable thing I'll take away from it all: it's all about the people. If all you care about is the money or the food, you'll go crazy. It's that moment when a customer says his cemita was the best thing he's ever eaten or when I get emails or phone calls from customers asking where they can get their cemita that day. We made a difference in how people think about Mexican food and in a broader sense, sandwiches. That makes the blood, sweat and tears all worth it. How could I resist coming back for more? What can I say? I am a sucker for this.

It's the end of the season at Smorgasburg, with only one market left until we rejigger things for the winter (and return next spring bigger, better and more delicious than ever!). So we thought we'd profile one of Smorgasburg's breakout stars, and declare the first unofficial winner of Smorgasburg's Longest Line Award…. Mighty Quinn's BBQ!

All season long, the queue for Mighty Quinn's was the longest of all, and smart brisket-lovers knew to arrive no later than 1pm to score a sandwich. (Brisket for breakfast was a familiar refrain among the other vendors at the market.) We once watched a couple dozen people get soaked in a sudden downpour because they refused to run for cover and lose their spots in line. Hugh Mangum of Mighty Quinn's became instantly famous around these parts for his incredible brisket, ribs, pork, lamb and chili, not to mention the beast of a smoker that he pulls into the lot every weekend (pictured above, it weighs more than 4,000 lbs!).

Originally from Los Angeles, Hugh currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and children. But let it be said that BBQ is in his blood: "I learned the love of Q from my father who was a native Texan. I learned everything by osmosis through watching him as a kid, and reading his notes and recipes after he passed away. He's basically my copilot."

Hugh is a trained chef (French Culinary Institute) and a star of the screen too. He's seen cooking in the film Julia & Julia and appears as Michael Symon's sous chef on the Cooking Channel show "Cook Like an Iron Chef." It wasn't fame but a family connection that brought him to the Flea—Hugh's cousin Adam runs The Vintage Industrial, a Flea furniture vendor, and it was Adam who encouraged him to apply. "I didn't expect anything," Hugh claims. "I showed up the first time on July 3rd expecting to have an interesting experience. I thought I would feed my family and friends whatever was left over for the 4th of July. It went better than expected! Every Saturday following I have been really lucky, truly fortunate."

Besides his dad's Texas wisdom, what inspires his particular variety of BBQ? He goes for a style that he calls "Texalina," which is a cross between the authentic Texas BBQ he grew up with and the eastern Carolina methods he learned from his wife Laura, who hails from North Carolina. "My true approach is simple," Hugh says. "I'm trying to source the best quality ingredients and not fuss with them too much. Cooking the old school way, with wood and time. It's pretty transparent, there just aren't a lot of people out there that will tend a fire for 20 hours day after day. Essentially I am a masochist with salt and sauce."

We are sadistically pleased then, to announce that Hugh will continue to suffer his fiery fate, when Mighty Quinn's returns to the Flea throughout the winter, on Sundays at One Hanson. Look for the giant two-ton smoker outside, and know that some of the city's finest 'cue is now available all year long.

There's a beautiful autumn weekend ahead—see you at the Flea and Smorg!

Saturday, Nov. 5 (Smorgasburg in Williamsburg):

A number of new vendors were slated to start last week, but well, weather. Check out our post from last Thursday to learn more about Brooklyn Cured's stuffing balls, Smore Bakery's S'morgasm, and the lamb-fat lard from Charlito's Cocina. They'll all be there on Saturday, along with a few other new delights.

Butter + Love - This Brooklyn-based baking company has sold at the Flea before (in a shared booth with Maiden Preserves), but has now branched out solo at Smorg. All cookies are made with a "lil' bit of butter and a lot of love," including the famous gingerbread mustache cookie. Owner Alison Walla will be bringing her mini sage caramel apple pies and vanilla pear muffins, as well as a couple of new items, like pumpkin shortbread and brown butter walnut & fig jam sandwich cookies.

Pizza Moto - Pizza at Smorgabsurg! Flea regulars know and love Pizza Moto, and we are super psyched to welcome Dave and his big-deal oven to Smorg for the first time. For more about Pizza Moto, check out the Featured Vendor story we did a few months back.

Spicy 'n Sweet - The freshest of fresh tomato sauce is the product here, from a new local company. True to the name, there's a spicy version and a sweet one, all made in small batches by a real live Italian grandmother.

Saturday, Nov. 5 (Flea in Fort Greene):

A few newcomers who got snowed out last week are giving it another chance, notably Madécasse with their chocolate and vanilla from Madagascar and Printed Matter who will be bringing art books and zines (both will be in Fort Greene on Saturday). More info on those vendors can be found here, in last week's What's New post. But that's not all! 

Christian Rathbone - This booth offers made-to-order, hand-knotted and naturally dyed rugs from original designs by a founding member of the Sustainable Furniture Council. All of the rugs are made in Turkey using traditional methods. Christian will be at the Flea both days, in Fort Greene on Saturday and Williamsburg on Sunday.

Sunday, Nov. 6 (Flea in Williamsburg):

Babylon Antique Shoppe - Long Island–based, longtime dealers now at the Flea with original antiques, collectibles and authentic nostalgia items.

Chameleon Restoration - Film posters, art posters and all sorts of paper ephemera from this husband-and-wife team whose primary business concentrates on paper and collectibles restoration.

Saul Zalta - This new vendor promises books, records, cds, electronics, clothing and shoes.

Flea vendors have tons going on outside the confines of their booths, and we'd like to take a minute to tell you about some of these exciting extracurricular activities.

Joseph Heidecker from Jaybird Antiques is part of a group show titled "Re/Deconstructing history," which is up at Like the Spice Gallery through November 6. Joe reworks found vintage photographs, creating a new narrative by adding thread, beads, and other modern embellishments to the old images. For Jaybird he sells "a little bit of everything eclectic," he says, "from pre-1980's photographs to furniture to fashion. The visually diverse flea-market community influences my creative output. I use found and recycled photographs, objects and castoffs for my own work and extend that to things I sell too. They go hand in hand."

Brooklyn Soda Works, famous for its wildly flavored carbonated drinks, will be hosting a special five-course beverage tasting at Beer Table in Park Slope on November 7. "Foams, flavored ice cubes and our brined fruit," owner Caroline Mak promises. "Our wackiest creations all in one seating!" The menu includes salted plum soda with Thai basil, fresh pressed honeycrisp apple soda with cranberry ice cubes, spiced ginger soda with coconut pandan foam (pictured above) and a warm almond milk dessert. For reservations or more information, go here.

More immediately on the Brooklyn Soda Works tip, Caroline is putting on a very cool event on Thursday, November 3 at the Brooklyn Arts Council in conjunction with her art installation "Chain Reaction" (on display through January 6, 2012). Thursday's event, Art/is/an/Eating, is an art and tasting event with local, artist-made food, and is part of the Dumbo First Thursday Gallery Walk. Caroline has curated a collection of local snacks and drinks featuring plenty of Flea products like virgin chocolate from Raaka Chocolate; Morris Kitchen's ginger syrup; and kombucha from Mombucha, a Brooklyn drinks company run by Rich Awn from Smorgasburg stalwart Market Share.

This week brings a great nonprofit to the table, and a new round of extraordinary foods: lamb lard, homemade kimchi, artisanal s'mores. Only at Smorgasburg, people, only at Smorgasburg.

Saturday, Oct. 29 (Smorgasburg in Williamsburg):

Brooklyn Cured - Though not new to the Flea, Scott Bridi's Brooklyn Cured will be at Smorg for the first time, where he'll be getting into the holiday spirit with pork-sage sausage stuffing with smoked ham-hock gravy, chicken-apple sausage stuffing with apple-cider gravy, and root vegetable stuffing with bourbon-brown butter gravy.

Charlito's Cocina - Charles Wekselbaum makes yes, artisanal lards, and produces a selection of unusual charcuterie like chorizo and fig salami. His infused lard flavors include white truffle, sage, rosemary, and a ridiculous lamb-fat lard too!

Mrs. Kim's Kimchi - A veteran restaurateur from NYC's Koreatown, this new kimchi vendor (Mrs. Kim, natch) serves her spicy, pickled vegetables in the classic Korean style.

Smore Bakery - It's not every day at the Flea that you can purchase something called the S'moregasm. As made by new vendor Smore Bakery, this item is made of toasted vanilla-bean mallow, clover honey and cinnamon spiked graham with semisweet chocolate ganache (the marshmallows are pictured above). Expect other mind-blowing chocolate/marshmallow treats at this booth.

The Culinary Trust - The International Association for Culinary Professionals (IACP) is a professional organization that serves the needs of culinary industry. Their annual conference—an incredible confab of everything interesting in food—will be held in NYC in the spring of 2012. In anticipation of the conference, and as a way to promote the good works of their nonprofit foundation, The Culinary Trust (TCT), IACP and TCT will be at Smorgasburg on Saturday with a cookbook raffle and other fun activities. The Culinary Trust achieves its mission through scholarships and grants for students and professionals, cookbook preservation and restoration, educational programs and grants for hunger alleviation. For more information on the Culinary Trust visit them at theculinarytrust.org.

The literal smorgasbord continues in the 'burg: this week our newbies include a Danish/Japanese smørrebrød-sushi mashup; an NYC bodega gone vegan; and crispy, twice-baked Italian biscotti. Plus the return of our friends from the Brooklyn Community Foundation.

Saturday, Oct. 22 (Smorgasburg in Williamsburg):

Biscotti Di Vecchio - Biscotti di Vecchio are classic Italian cookies offered in seven flavors: pistachio chocolate chunk, toasted almond, cranberry orange zest, cayenne cherry chocolate chunk, white chocolate macadamia nut, pistachio cranberry and pecan spice, available in three package sizes. Biscotti di Vecchio are handmade, twice-baked and hand cut to ensure integrity, flavor and texture, and contain no artificial ingredients.

Noshi Brooklyn - Danish food is extremely fashionable right now, what with Noma's rise to fame and a few high-profile Scandinavian restaurant openings in NYC. Mimi Sheraton even wrote about Danish food in the Times this week! Noshi is the brainchild of a Danish chef (Stephen) and a Japanese television producer (Sayuri), who aim to combine classic Nordic fish recipes and Japanese sushi (Noshi=nordic sushi). Noshi presents a new take on smørrebrød, marrying the traditional Nordic techniques (curing, graving, smoking) with Japanese ingredients (bonito, seaweed, ginger, wasabi). Their salmon noshi is pictured above.

Vegan Bodega - Vegan Bodega is a start-up retail business that sells pre-packaged vegan foods, specializing in hard-to-find items and local vegan products. Current stock includes Monks Meat (a new Brooklyn-based seitan company), Food For Lovers nacho cheese, Nom Nom cookies and Dun-Well Doughnuts.

Brooklyn Community Foundation - In their second visit to Smorgasburg this season, the Brooklyn Community Foundation is working to promote the NY Food Coalition 2011 Brooklyn Food Atlas. They'll also introduce the Brooklyn Community Foundation’s new volunteer initiative, with volunteer signup opportunities onsite. For extra fun there'll be a Brooklyn trivia contest for Brooklyn Community Foundation T-shirt and tote-bag prizes.

We were everywhere last weekend, with markets in Fort Greene and Williamsburg, and a crazy happening in Dumbo with the Creators Project. It was pretty awesome all around.

Per usual, keep those photos comin'—we love to see how you see us. So blog about us, get to it via Twitter or Facebook, or drop your images into our Flickr photo pool.

Many many thanks to the photographers/bloggers/Twitterers and Flea vendors we know and love: Asia Dog, Rachelle Lefevre, A Girl, A Style, Class of Fashion and Lady K Designs.

On top of all the extra special happenings this weekend, we welcome cheese, antiques, handcrafted furniture, repurposed cashmere and dedicated upcyclers to the markets.

Saturday, Oct. 15 (Smorgasburg in Williamsburg):

Murray's Cheese Shop - The cheese shop we know and love is making a Smorg debut with White Cow Dairy yogurts and tonics (a whey-based drink that's all the rage). Murray's will also will bring their world-famous cheese straws.

And stay hungry for some new additions from established vendors, like Furn: Project Shawarma's new chicken wings in spicy garlic sauce and a beet-and-apple salad in tamarind dressing.

Saturday, Oct. 15 (Flea in Fort Greene):

Hundred Acre - A collaboration between an architect and a photographer who create custom-made, one-of-a-kind furniture and functional art from salvaged materials (pictured above). Each piece is designed and handcrafted in an old brick-mill-building-turned-studio in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Sunday, Oct. 16 (Flea in Williamsburg):

Country Junque Shop - A selection of antiques, furniture, glassware, pottery, reproductions and hand-carved decoys from an established Long Island shop.

Das Pussycat - The former owner of San Francisco vintage clothing store Das Pussycat is bringing a plethora of vintage items, props and clothing to Brooklyn.

GreenBeing /Ike Design Group - GreenBeing is a vintage and handmade store in Scranton that features lots of men's westerns and women's dresses. They'll be sharing booth space with upcyclers GreenBeing, who sell handmade lights that reuse old barn wood and tin.

Linda Zimmerman - Linda Zimmerman has been repurposing cashmere sweaters for nearly 10 years, creating clothing and accessories from old cashmere, vintage wool plaid shirts and fine antique lace. Look for dresses, capes/ponchos and sweaters, as well as unisex scarves and baby blankets.

West Shore Vintage - These pros scour estate sales in rural PA for the coolest vintage pieces around, like vintage Schwinn bicycles, a 1970's moped, furniture, small goods, some men's and women's accessories and more.