Fried anchovies from Bon Chovie.
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved
Ok. So yesterday was one really long day of eating! I may have eaten more yesterday than ever before! I don't know if it was the break in the weather or what but I was famished and didn't stop eating until I hit the pillow with a groan.
My partner in crime was none other than my friend and fellow gastronome Nancy Jo, who loves food as much as I do and is always up to try anything. We met at the entrance to to the L train at 9:45 and were off to check out the much anticipated Smorgasburg. When we got there, it was a pretty mellow scene. We were able to chat with the vendors who were still setting up and make a few rounds to survey the situation. As soon as they were ready, we dove right into the fried anchovies from Bon Chovie. We opted for the " Jersey Style", five fried anchovies, heads on, served with lemon and pickled carrots. We took these, along with some Vietnamese street food over to a bench along the river and polished them off rather quickly. We sat for a moment enjoying the view before heading back to try something else. In the little bit of time between ordering and hitting the bench, the crowd had grown exponentially, but it was still manageable. We decided to spilt up and cover more ground as the lines were quickly getting long. Nancy waited in the Chonchos Tacos line and I in the Landhaus BLT line. For me, the Landhaus blt was the highlight of what I the at the market. Two giant slabs of house cured bacon, cooked on the spot, with a generous slice of tomato, romaine lettuce and lemon on crusty french bread , a little messy and whole lot of good!
We headed back over to the benches and examined our eats before quickly devouring them. We decide to take a quick break from the food and walk up to Blue Bottle Coffee on Berry where there was a geneous line as well. It moved rather quickly and we were happy to get out of the sunshine for a second as there was no shade at all at the water front park. The Blue Bottle space is cavernous and beautiful. I think they took over the old Williamsburrg glass blowing studio which kind of makes me sad but there is so much transformation happening in that neighborhood at the moment that it is somewhat dizzying. We met up with a friend, Moto owner and photographer Bill Phelps who pulled up on his very cool vintage black Raleigh, to join us for a quick coffee. After contemplating a smore ( it was the descrition that lured me to it...this was not your average smore...it was a Brooklyn Bootleg Smore, made with King's County Distillery Moonshine, on a house made graham cracker with Mast Brothers Chocolate and homemade marshmallows!) deciding against it, we headed back to Smorgasburg to hit the greenmarket section. We were a little bummed that we hadn't purchased our greens from The Brooklyn Grange upon arrival because at just after noon they were nearly sold out! We grabbed the last dandelion greens, lambs quarters and arugula. I picked up a sweet little bunch of radishes. At 12;30 or so the market was total chaos, hipster and baby heaven. Food was selling out fast and it was really hot and crowded. We hung out for a while longer meeting up with some friends who were more than a little disappointed by the lines. Lesson here, come early, come hungry, go for it and leave!
We made one last valiant effort and stood in a really long long line for a Peoples Pops ( ginger pear and blueberry chai) after which we decided to walk to Marlow and Son's for an afternoon glass of rosé. As soon as we sat at that cool dark bar and were presented with the menu we knew we couldn't just have wine so it was rosé, rabbit meatballs and oysters... and more rosé!
We headed into the city to go to my friend Marc's Hundley's opening but were a little too early.. so it was Freeman's for some rosé and devil's on horesback and more rosé.. After the opening we were surprised by a quick downpour, umbrellaless, and still hungry, in order to escape the rain, we darted into The National... for you guessed it more rosé ( the best of the day, from Puglia) a burger, a soft shell crab, a salad and lemon tart with a graham cracker crust of parsley and tarragon. ( which I am going to appropriate somehow as soon as I can!)
We rolled out of there and walked back to Broome street where Nancy caught a cab and I hit my bed with a generous thud. That was real Smorgasburg indeed!
My Top Picks for the opening weekend
Anarchy In A Jar, I couldn't resist the rhubarb hibiscus jam!
Landhaus BLT
Bon Chovie
Peoples Pops
The Brooklyn Grange for fresh greens and herbs
Brooklyn Kitchen
Consider Bardwell Farm for cheese and maple syrup
Flour City Pasta all kinds of organic handmade pastas
Meat Hook
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