Smorgasburg returns next weekend with a ‘vast majority’ of new vendors

By Brooklyn Magazine Staff

There is no surer harbinger of the return of spring than the cluster of food trucks and tents that is Smorgasburg.

The weekly seasonal outdoor food market returns Saturday, April 1 to Williamsburg‘s Marsha P. Johnson State Park, marking the the location’s first “full season” since before the pandemic, with 60 vendors in all. On April 2, the weekly Prospect Park location reopens with its “largest-ever lineup” with more than 65 vendors, Smorgasburg announced.

In total, 80 vendors will be featured across three locations (the third being World Trade Center, which reopens Friday March 31). Of the vendors, the “vast majority [are] making their public-facing debut,” following a rigorous application and tasting process we were sadly not invited to.

Smorgasburg hinted in a release that this year’s crop of new vendors might be the market’s most diverse lineup since its 2011 launch, “with its global breadth continuing to deepen each season.”

New to the market are Trini oxtail nachos from Flatbush chef Osei Blackett of Ariapita, Peruvian street food from South Slope restaurant Mikhuy and Bay Ridge’s Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse.

And for those that can’t be bothered with the lines, Smorgasburg is also partnering with food-ordering app ChowNow to let people order ahead and pick up from each booth.

Here’s what’s new at both Brooklyn locations, according to Smorgasburg:

Arirang Hibachi Steakhouse (Prospect Park)
The Bay Ridge restaurant, best known for its tableside hibachi, brings their “trademark fried rice (sliced and diced with chef’s flare), fried ice cream, and crispy-rice sushi.”

Bibi Bakery (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
“Lena Derisavifard reimagines Iranian flavors to create unique and addictive pastries, inspired by the Iranian women of her childhood who raised her with an appreciation for Persian flavors and culture,” Smorgasburg says. Offerings include baklava ice-cream sandwiches and an Iranian saffron snow cone known as “Frozen Gold.”

BunNan (Prospect Park)
Recent HBO Max “Big Brunch” contestant Nadege Fleurimond has been making fans of her Haitian food since she competed last year. BunNun’s delicacies include plantains “every way,” including chips, loaded fries and “smashed as a delicious sandwich” with various toppings.

Chop Chop Tea (Prospect Park)
Representing the Hakka community of China, Yonglin Cheng offers up a unique range of teas, such as black tea with grapefruit, oolong with pineapple and lime.

Cocina Consuelo (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
Karina Garcia developed her eatery “as an ode to homestyle Mexican cooking,” with foods like chorizo tortas, confit and stuffed with tuna and onion. Smorgasburg notes that her kalacremas, cream-filled bomboloni-style brioche donuts stuffed with dulce de leche cream, will “bring the party to the yard.”

Common Meadows Creamery (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
This family-owned plant-based creamery uses coconut as their base to create “smooth as silk” desserts including matcha and espresso gelati.

Everything Oxtail (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
“Ariapita” owner and chef Osei Blackett has created a new concept for Smorgasburg, which takes the “rich beefy staple of his native Trinidad, braises it to tender perfection, and incorporates it into dishes with broad appeal like plantain-oxtail nachos and fried bake and oxtail.”

Healthy as a Motha (Williamsburg)
Yesenia Ramdass, a first-generation Dominican-American, has created a unique cuisine wither her Trinidadian husband that blends flavors from the two places in dishes such as a “vegetarian bake ‘n’ shark,” a vegan sweet-plantain boat, and nine-grain pholourie with a range of tangy chutneys.

Hen House NYC (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
Antony Nassif taps into his Lebanese heritage to fire up can’t-miss charcoal-grilled chicken piri-piri sandwiches (and a maitake mushroom version for non-meat-eaters).

Jase’s BBQ (Prospect Park)
This award-winning BBQ’er is making rubs and sauces, brisket and chicken wings that pull from his native Tobago. Smorgasburg notes that his food is “mostly grilled and smoked onsite” making it a “sure-fire hit.”

Kalye (Prospect Park)
This Lower East Side eatery, which means “street” in Tagalog, features modern Filipino fare including spice-rich longganisa sausage sliders (on ube buns, naturally), vinegar-marinated chicken inasal wings, and vegetarian lumpia.

Keyks World (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
Janice de Castro makes velvety sponge cakes, called “keyls,” filled with cream-cheese buttercream as a “riff on the classic Hostess junk food,” except they’re handmade and showcase “the palette of her native Philippines: ube, pandan, jackfruit, and more.”

Lemak Kitchen (Prospect Park)
Described as a postcard to chef Kesh Dhami’s native Malaysia, the tasty foods here include chicken satay redolent with herbs and spices, a beef rendang and a gula melaka (palm sugar) “whose flavor-feel combos are at once surprising and soothing.”

Maca’s by Nikky (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
Far Rockaway’s Nicole (Nikky) Guerrero started making macarons during lockdown. Her seasonal creations — snowmen, gingerbread men, pumpkins, teddy bears — are cute as buttons, and her endless flavors are brightly colored, creatively displayed, and soft and crunchy in that special way.

Madras Tiffin Co. (Williamsburg)
Indian chef Vinodh Anchaliya makes fermented-batter dosa with traditional fillings that includes onion, cheese, and roast cauliflower, black-lentil-flour vada fritters, and battered-jalapeno bhaji as stars of the show. It’s billed as “healthy-ish, divine, timeless taste.”

Mikhuy Peruvian Restaurant (Prospect Park)
This year-old South Slope restaurant is expanding to Smorgasburg with a food stand that “showcases their hyperfocus on authentic ingredients and Peruvian street foods.” Offerings include ceviche that’s layered with tuna salad, golden-potato terrine and a “stunning dessert of sweet potato-and-pumpkin doughnuts drizzled with apple-fig syrup, known as picarones.”

Mochidoki (Prospect Park)
Homemade ice-cream and vegan-sorbet flavors that “run the gamut from classic (matcha, black sesame, red bean) to bold (espresso, earl grey, chocolate hazelnut) to fun-loving (lychee, purple sweet potato, jasmine boba).”

Paella Party CT (Prospect Park)
Traditional Valencian paellas are served here that are prepared in classic giant paella pans. Smorgasburg describes the dish as “rich, aromatic, exquisite ” for all to enjoy.

Patok By Rach (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
Whole pigs are roasted Filipino-style and served with the lechon belly meat sliced as a platter, sandwich, or chopped up as sisig or inside lumpia. “The rich succulent pork is fall-off tender inside with finger-licking crispy skin, all of which makes for a weekend indulgence like no other,” Smorgasburg says.

Tang Hulu NYC (Prospect Park)
Acclaimed chef Ivy Chen, who has trained at Nobu and Daniel, comes to Smorgasburg with coated fruit skewers known as tanghulu. Ivy and her partner Sizhen “dip starfruit, pink pineapple, and more in sugar that quickly solidifies and cutely display them on Chupa Chups ‘trees.'”

Ume NYC (Williamsburg)
The team behind veteran vendor Tojo’s Kitchen, known for its wagyu burgers on charcoal buns, is expanding with this stand that makes custom waffle-iron puppy-shaped goodies filled with homemade custard fillings ranging from the traditional (red-bean, matcha) to crowd-pleasing (banana-cream, chocolate).

Uncle Yankey’s Peppa! (Williamsburg and Prospect Park)
This Trinidadian stand is making a fruit dish that adds “garlic, culantro, and chili-pepper heat to create a sweet-savory salad akin to Mexican mango with tajin powder or Thai green-papaya salad.”

Unregular Pasta (Prospect Park)
Italian is the focus with this viral stand serving “fried-pasta concoctions” that is compared to “classic street food pasta frittata with a twist.” There’s also handmade spaghetti, like cacio e pepe and alla vodka, that’s “molded into a brick shape, battered in corn-flake crust, and golden-fried for a crunchy/soft comfort food like no other, with a marinara dip to sauce things up.”