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Markets of New York
All About the City's Best Artisan, Farmer, Food, and Flea Markets
Special Blog Event: I enjoy reading a good number of blogs. Some inspire me, some crack me up consistently, and some actually make me tear up with every posting. Oh – and some make me hungry. So I invited them to join me in a Valentine’s Day Blogger Round Robin. We’ve all got all the links to each other’s postings at the top of our own. So please click through and read all the blogs. And share them with your friends! (Thank you to Manhattan Users Guide for the original idea!)
- Andrea Davis: Pure Food Nutrition: Valentine’s Day Chocolate: Good & Good for You?
- Ann Mehl: A Man and His Word on Valentine’s Day
- Artists & Fleas: Gift Guide: From Brooklyn-Tough Love, Show Your Love, and Lovely Little Licks, Bites & Nibbles
- The Bitchy Waiter: Fuck Cupid
- Brooklyn Flea: You Gotta Have Heart
- The Experimental Gourmand: Valentine’s Day Special Dinner
- Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market: A Blog Affair to Remember
- Kumquat Cupcakery: My Messy Pink Kitchen
- Metalicious Jewelry: Well Hello February
- The NewNew: What Makes Valentine’s Day Sweet to Me
Love is in the Air
This year Valentine’s Day falls on a Monday, which means we have the whole entire weekend to hang out with the ones we love the most! So I thought to myself, “What would I like to do this weekend?” Of course, it is all about the markets. Here are three excursions to take with your one Valentine or all the Valentine’s in your family:
Artists & Fleas and the Meeker Avenue Flea: Artists & Fleas (70 North 7th St. in Williamsburg) offers hours of entertainment together, slowly wandering through the eclectic collection of talented artists and artisans, vintage collections, and mini-cupcakes. You never know what you’ll find in this market, and when you take your time, I guarantee there will be something there to knock your socks off. I’ve gotten Valentine’s Day gifts there, from decoupage heart magnets to a fantastic Beatle’s Yellow Submarine hat made from a recycled sweater. You may find a box of LPs, a handmade book, or a pair of awesome vintage shades. It’s a treasure hunt every weekend. A few blocks away at 391 Leonard Street is the Meeker Avenue Flea. This market specializes in vintage and antique furniture primarily. If you’re having romantic thoughts of moving in, or *gasp* something more serious, try broaching the subject as you are fondling a set of Art Deco bar ware or an Elvis lamp. Wouldn’t that look great in your new apartment…together?
Chelsea Market and the High Line: There is something incredibly romantic about the High Line elevated park, no matter what the weather. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s a slow park, designed for strolling hand-in-hand, or mitten-in-mitten in this weather. Take your sweetheart for a wander along the High Line to enjoy the icy vistas and brisk breezes. Then step off at the 15th Street staircase and explore the tasty treasures inside Chelsea Market. Chelsea Market Baskets is Valentine’s Day Central, with chocolates, candies and gift baskets for your beloved. Pick up fresh, luscious ingredients for a delicious home cooked Italian dinner at and Buon Italia. And for dessert, how about a moist, tender red velvet cake from Amy’s Bread? And, whatever you do, do not forget a handpicked box of delicate and delicious bonbons from Jacques Torres Chocolates. There is so much more to see, smell and taste in the market – savor every shop!
New Amsterdam Valentine’s Market & Apothecary: The first New Amsterdam Market of the year takes place this weekend. And it’s not just on Sunday! The market runs both Saturday and Sunday, and also Monday, Valentine’s Day itself. It’s a weekend for chocolate, and Liddabit Sweets and Mast Brothers will be supplying their delicious, handcrafted chocolates and candies. I have it on good authority that P&H Soda Co. will have a very limited edition Valentine’s Day strawberry soda syrup just for this market. In addition to all the great food vendors, Lore Tools.Ornaments.Provisions will be there, and you can pick up hand crafted love tokens by paper artist Robert Warner. There will be some fun events to do together too, including Valentine’s Day caligraphy (Saturday), Kombucha making (Sunday), and a wine and chocolate pairing at Pasanella & Sons (Monday). Location: Indoors at the New Amsterdam Market School, 224 Front St. (between Beekman St. and Peck Slip). Saturday & Sunday 11AM – 6PM, Monday 11AM-7PM.
The card pictured is a hand-printed design from Pumpkin & Honey Bunny!
On May 1st and 2nd, the Brooklyn Lyceum was host to the wonderful Spring Food and Crafts Market. I went to the Lyceum’s Holiday Market in December, and I bought loads of gifts. The manuscript for the guidebook had already been submitted, but I called my editor at Little Bookroom and asked if there was any way we could make a last minute addition. This market was too good to leave out of the book.
Fortunately, Little Bookroom and our wonderful book designer worked it all out, and the Lyceum Market is indeed featured in the guidebook, which is officially released on May 11. So when the Lyceum invited us to do a pre-publication launch of Markets of New York City at the Spring Market, I was thrilled.
There were over 100 truly talented artisan and food vendors, and likely over a thousand wonderful shoppers. I cannot say enough about the high quality of the handmade goods. It was nice to see vendors meeting their repeat customers who come find them at the various markets around town. And there was a good deal of buzz around the food, which was in abundance, including BaconMarmalade, P&H Soda and Syrup (who kept me going in the heat with icy cream sodas), and the beautiful macarons from Macaron Parlour. I also brought home Niki and Doug’s Ramp Butter, which we have been slathering on pretty much everything this week (everything that wasn’t already slathered with BaconMarmalade, that is).
People were very excited about the guidebook, those who wanted to know where all the great markets are and even those who know all about them already. This was my first experience as a New York market vendor, and I had a great time, although it gave me first-hand experience as to how hard the vendors work every weekend while the rest of us are strolling through the markets munching on cupcakes and Yona’s mini-quiches. On Sunday evening, I went home, put my feet up, and fell sound asleep.
Vendors of the Week for the Brooklyn Lyceum’s Spring Food and Craft Market!
Erica Rothchild and Anton Nocito are the team behind Pumpkin & Honey Bunny and P&H Soda and Syrup. It sounded like a cute and sweet name to me, and then I learned that the original Pumpkin & Honey Bunny are the robbers in the opening scene of Pulp Fiction. Gives the name a bit of a different twist, wouldn’t you say?
Erica is a graphic designer who makes beautiful hand-printed greeting cards, and Anton makes old-fashioned artisanal sodas. The theme that ties these two pursuits together is a sense of nostalgia for the early 19th century that lends an Old World feeling to their work. In Erica’s designs, it is her use of vintage images, like a toast rack or a classic jello-mold. Anton aims to bring back the flavors and culture of old-time soda fountains, where people gathered for a chat, a nosh, and phosphate, or a cold soda freshly made from syrup and seltzer.
Erica’s line of greeting cards currently features primarily food-based themes because she began selling them at the Greenpoint Food Market. She uses a Gocco, which is a Japanese tabletop screen printing device. Erica’s Pumpkin & Honey Bunny cards include images of a pretzel (“Tying the Knot”), an old time oyster vendor, and a cherry pink pie (“Sweetie Pie”), among others. She is working on new designs for the Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Market, including Mother’s and Father’s Day cards. You can also find her cards at several shops in Brooklyn, including Brooklyn Kitchen, Tree House, Tiburon, and Word Bookstore.
Anton trained at the French Culinary Institute, and he is the chef at the cafe at the AKA Hotel in Midtown. He launched P&H Soda and Syrup at the Greenpoint Food Market, and he found that he could barely keep up with the demand at last week’s market. I had the cream soda, which was the perfect blend of sweetness, fizzyness, and cream soda flavor. Anton uses natural ingredients, including organic sugar and fair trade ingredients like hibiscus and ginger, as well as sugar alternatives like agave. In addition to the classics like cream soda and ginger lime, he likes to experiment with flavors, including hibiscus, hyssop, and verbena. He is working on a sarsparilla right now. In the summertime, he uses fruits from the farmers market to make new flavors for his syrups.
On one hand, Anton modestly says, “It’s just soda.” On the other hand, P&H Soda & Syrup has a great deal of thought and craft behind it. Personally, I can’t wait for him to open his soda fountain, but in the interim, I’ll be happy to drink his sodas at the Brooklyn Lyceum Market. He is also giving a soda making class on May 20th at the Brooklyn Kitchen.
You can see Erica’s cards on her Pumpkin & Honey Bunny Etsy Shop, and you can keep up with Anton on his blog, P&H Soda and Syrup, Inc. Meet them both at the Brooklyn Lyceum’s Food and Craft Market on May 1 & 2 and also at the monthly Greenpoint Food Market.
Last Saturday, James and I made our way to the basement of the Church of Messiah to check out the Greenpoint Food Market. We began to get the distinct impression that we were latecomers to this hidden gem the minute we saw the crowds rubbing their bellies as they came outside.
I wasn’t sure what to expect beforehand, but I was mightily impressed by what we found at this monthly artisanal food market. There were samples galore, and I filled my market bag with some pretty amazing things. The first vendors we met were Pumpkin & Honey Bunny, who together sell artisanal sodas and syrups and hand-printed greeting cards. More about them in an upcoming post, but suffice it to say that the large icy cream soda was a great thing to carry around as we jumped from cupcakes to kimmchi to chocolate and on to pickles as we ambled down the aisles. There was great music playing by The People’s Champs.
The branding and presentation was impressive pretty much across the board, as was the level of innovation. There seems to be a surge of artisanal pickles these days, and one that caught our eye was Sour Puss Pickles, whose delicious pickled beets and relishes were intense and savory. The Wasabi Sunseed organic vegan nut paté from Cobra Paté was probably the most unusual item we tried, and it was delicious. Their milder varieties include Walnut Maple Lavender paté, Carrot Cashew Ginger, and Sundried Tomato Almond. And then there was Bacon Marmalade. It’s pretty much brunch in a jar, deliciously sweet and savory.
There was an abundance of sweet things as well. Fresh from the cover of Edible Brooklyn magazine’s winter issue was Amelia Coulter and her Sugarbuilt cookies. Not only were they works of art to look at, but her lavender flavored samples for the Greenpoint Food Market were fresh and buttery. If you need to tweak your Nutella habit, try Bean & Apple’s chocolate and salt caramel spreads. Try each one or combine them – they’ll make you weak in the knees. On our way home, we bit into a perfectly moist chocolate cake pop from La Tia Faby.
I can’t even tell you how many amazing things we tried, not to mention the ones we missed because we couldn’t get through the crowd to get to the tables. But that just means we’ll have to go back next month!
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