April 21, 2016 By Christian Murray
The owners and operators of Smorgasburg Queens will not come back to Court Square this year.
The market, which opened to much fanfare last July, did not generate the foot traffic that its owners had hoped.
“We had good vendors but it was tough getting traffic over summer,” co-founder Jonathan Butler said.
Smorgasburg held the market across the street from Rockrose’s LINC LIC building at 43-29 Crescent St. They had use of an old building and the empty outdoor lot next to it.
Location of market
The operators made a particular focus of creating a market comprised of Queens-based food vendors representing a broad range of nations. This was the only Smorgasburg in Queens.
The market was open only on Saturdays and there were typically 20 to 30 food vendors.
Butler said it was a good experience operating the Queens market but it did not make good business sense. He and his business partner Eric Demby operate Smorgasburg markets in Brooklyn. They also founded the Brooklyn Flea.
Butler did not rule out coming back to the neighborhood, although he noted that the LIC Flea & Food is already in Hunters Point and it would make no sense to open one there.
Jonathan Butler (middle)
