Brooklyn's beloved food festival Smorgasburg is back after a forced hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic. As with most businesses, founders say the popular festival won't look quite the same as before.

"When people attend it's not going to feel like going back to normal. It's going to feel like an achievement that we all work towards together," Smorgasburg co-founder Eric Demby told Cheddar.

Smorgasburg, which is a mashup of the words "smörgåsbord" and "Williamsburg," was founded in 2011 as an offshoot of the Brooklyn Flea flea market started by Demby and his business partner, Jonathan Butler. It has in the decade since become a popular destination for foodies and a badge of honor for vendors who earn a coveted booth there. But the coronavirus pandemic has left its imprint on the festival in several ways, one of which is the pared down size.

Smorasburg on Breeze Hill in Prospect Park previously featured around 70 vendors, Demby said. On its opening day in mid-June 2021, it had roughly 25. The World Trade Center location — which was always smaller than Smorgasburg's Prospect Park and Williamsburg outposts — had only five vendors in early June, but Demby planned to double that in short order.

"A lot of our vendors did not make it through COVID — not as humans, but as businesses," Demby said. "We lost, in New York, half of our vendors."

Yet, out of challenge can come opportunity, and Smorgasburg is using this one to reinvent the festival. Demby said the event is going back to its roots by digging deep into the New York community to find up-and-coming vendors, many of whom may have only started during the pandemic.

"What's been really fun, has been … tasting food from local, new vendors applying, who have almost exclusively started during COVID," he said. "Really what fuels us is that passion of the people who want to do Smorgasburg and have never done it and are super new. That is the energy that is infectious when you go to the market."

Demby said Smorgasburg is also spending a lot of time encouraging LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color to apply, and even working with the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce to search for new vendors.

"The silver lining ... of the dark cloud is that we do have space for vendors," Demby said. "We're really just trying to broaden the circle. And that's interesting and exciting for us. And it feels good."

For the vendors who have come back, hectic crowds are a relief compared with the slow, uncertainty of the pandemic.

"Even if the crowds aren't back, even if the volume isn't there, it's great just to have a sense of normalcy," Dan Cherico, co-owner of Bona Bona Ice Cream said.

Bona Bona Ice Cream, which is known for sundaes topped with toasted meringue, has a storefront in Westchester. Even so, the pandemic wasn't easy.

"We really were hard hit by not having Smorgasburg because so many of our loyal fans and customers we access only at Smorgasburg," Cherico said.

Váyalo! Cocina's Venezuelan arepas and cachapas were a hit on opening day of the Prospect Park Smorgasburg, and the line of hungry attendees queued up at the booth grew throughout the afternoon. Owners Katherine Rengifo, her wife Ana Fernández and sister-in-law Paola Fernández founded the business to bring flavors of home to Brooklyn after they were forced to flee their native Venezuela. The early days of getting their business up and running were difficult — but the pandemic was harder.

"The most difficult part I think was the coronavirus time. The beginning was a struggle, but the coronavirus hit us really bad," Rengifo said. "I hope this is just the beginning again, because we just started 2019. So I think this is going to be good, a second chance."

As excited as vendors were to get back to business, New Yorkers were just as thrilled to eat. Prasert Bodin and three friends each grabbed a different snack before settling down for a potluck picnic in the grass. 

"In our Asian way, we share food. So each one of us would go scouting and get one dish of food, and then … we would come and share, so this definitely feels like family," Bodin said.

After chowing down on a Philly cheesesteak, duck wings, and a kombucha popsicle, Dikko and Rabo Garba said that although it felt strange to socialize in the park after the pandemic-related lockdowns, it came as a welcome relief.

"It's nice to be out with friends again, doing things I just feel normal and fine. And check out what New York has to offer. So it's gonna be a great summer and I'm excited about that," Rabo Garba said. 

Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- N.Y.) made an appearance at Prospect Park's Smorgasburg to chat with constituents, and eventually to get some ice cream.

"When Smorgasburg is back, it's a symbol of New York coming back, so it's great," he said.

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