SOUTH STREET SEAPORT — SmorgasBar’s outdoor food vendors and booze are heading back to the South Street Seaport this summer.
The lineup of artisanal eats, curated by the team behind the Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg, will return with eight vendors on Fulton Street, between Front and South streets, starting at the end of May. SmorgasBar first launched two years ago, but didn't return to the Seaport last summer.
“We’re really happy to be back to the Seaport,” said Eric Demby, Brooklyn Flea's co-founder. "People like us here and we like being here."
This year's participating eateries haven’t been announced yet, but according to SmorgasBar's seasonal liquor license application, menu items will include burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, lobster rolls, rice bowls and macaroni and cheese.
Demby said the SmorgasBar vendors will set up in “something like little pods” this summer, not trucks or stalls. The “modern, interesting" pods can be moved around, so if they need to switch locations in future years, the stands will be easier to set up, he said.
The vendors and the bar — which will serve up beer, wine and cocktails — will be open from about 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
The Seaport’s owner, the Howard Hughes Corporation, brought in SmorgasBar in 2013 as part of its Sea/Change program to revitalize the storm-battered neighborhood after Hurricane Sandy.
The Texas-based real estate giant is continuing to bring community programming to the neighborhood as the company reconstructs the Pier 17 mall and pushes controversial plans for a luxury residential tower nearby.
Demby said he was not sure why SmorgasBar did not return to the Seaport last summer.
Several outdoor food stalls were set up along Front Street last year, but they were not selected by Brooklyn Flea.Community Board 1's Seaport Committee gave advisory support to SmorgasBar's liquor license application in a vote on Tuesday evening.
