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<\/p>\nAt the start of each year, Smorgasburg \u2014 one of L.A.\u2019s favorite food events and an incubator of culinary talent \u2014 unveils a new crop of vendors. Some stands come from established restaurants and cafes, which are testing or previewing new ventures. Many are from fledgling businesses, and a few of these, such as past vendor Bridgetown Roti, go on to become some of the best restaurants in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 11, Smorgasburg returned after its annual holiday hiatus, and on its first day back, more than a dozen new vendors mingled with the 50-plus existing stalls of the weekly Sunday event. Guests streamed into the Row DTLA complex in the Arts District for new bites like Vietnamese coffee-tinged banana pudding, Persian-inspired pizza and even Austrian sausages, which can be ordered with a side of opera.<\/p>\n
Patrick Murray, a USC alumnus and former Fulbright scholar, studied opera in Vienna and now offers live performance alongside sausages and pretzels at his new stall, Franzl\u2019s Franks.<\/p>\n
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The k\u00e4sekrainer stand launched as a pop-up in 2024 from the back of Murray\u2019s car. With the help of a grant, last year he began serving in earnest \u2014 and decided to take the leap and apply to Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most competitive places to get into, and then once you\u2019re in \u2014 at least, from what I\u2019m experiencing and certainly what I\u2019ve been told by the vendors there \u2014 it really is like a community,\u201d he said, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of been a goal because it\u2019s such an incredible step in the journey. Having that seal of approval from Smorgasburg is an amazing chapter in my business that is starting now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray, like many other vendors, sees vending there as a way to promote not only food but culture.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an important factor in new-vendor induction, which is overseen by Smorgasburg L.A. general manager Zach Brooks. He heads an extensive approval process, which includes applications, multiple rounds of interviews and a food tasting. The final product is a balance of familiar favorites, exciting takes on classic dishes and a diverse blend of cultures.<\/p>\n
\u201cJanuary in Smorgasburg is one of the best times of year,\u201d Brooks said on Sunday. \u201cL.A. is the best food city in the world. We have the best food, the best vendors, and every year a bunch of new ones come out of the woodwork and we\u2019re always excited to be a place where small businesses take that first step toward something bigger than making food out of their house or whatever it is they\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some vendors are based minutes from the Arts District event, while others drive from Long Beach and beyond. Here are 2026\u2019s new food stalls. They\u2019ll be ringing in Smorgasburg\u2019s 10th anniversary later this year alongside some of the food festival\u2019s most stalwart stands.<\/p>\n
![\"Fantuan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768704374_315_.jpeg\")
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Fan tuan of pork floss, egg, youtiao and pickled mustard greens from Taiwanese-breakfast stand Souu LA in Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n
(Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Samuel Wang and Lydia Lin already operate Steep LA, a Chinatown teahouse serving artisan teas, thoughtful snacks and tea-infused cocktails, but later this year they plan to launch an adjacent Taiwanese restaurant serving breakfast by day and steaks by night. You can taste a preview at their new Smorgasburg stall, Souu LA, where Wang is making Taiwanese breakfast that includes customizable dan bing, fan tuan and fresh chilled soy milk.<\/p>\n
Fried chicken fans might\u2019ve caught pop-up Melnificent Wingz in its recent Maydan Market residency, or at Smorgasburg\u2019s Caribbean-themed Christmas event last month. Now every Sunday, chef-owner Melissa Cottingham is whipping up crispy wings doused in sauces and seasoning, plus one of the city\u2019s best chicken biscuit sandwiches. Cottingham launched her pop-up<\/a> from her college dorm years ago, then worked her way through chef training to build this pop-up that serves \u201cglobal inspiration with a Southern foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n A Khuga Burger, inspired by Korean barbecue, with bulgogi sauce, gochujang aioli and pickles from Terrible Burger at Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Smorgasburg\u2019s got a legacy of smash burger vendors who find great success at the event, then depart to launch bricks-and-mortar shops, including Love Hour<\/a> and Softies<\/a>. Now there\u2019s Terrible Burger, but don\u2019t let the name fool you: This Long Beach-based pop-up is a nod to its mascot, the Tyrannosaurus rex, and the burgers that husband-and-wife team Nicole and Ryan Ramirez cook are anything but terrible. They\u2019re serving a classic option, a Korean-barbecue spin that features gochujang and bulgogi sauce, and a fried chicken sandwich coated in orange glaze a la Chinese orange chicken.<\/p>\n Mamani\u2019s signature pizza, topped with Wagyu koobideh and a Persian herb blend, pictured at Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Made-to-order pizza is a mainstay at Smorgasburg, but Persian-inspired pies from a music producer are a first. Paimon Jahanbin \u2014 known in the music industry as Farsi and Farsi Beats \u2014 recently launched Neapolitan-style pop-up Mamani Pizza, where he\u2019s stretching fresh dough, slathering it with San Marzano tomatoes or tomato butter sauce, sprinkling it with aged Parmesan and mozzarella and, in the signature pizza, topping it all with Wagyu koobideh, a Persian herb blend, onions, yogurt sauce and pomegranate molasses.<\/p>\n For $13 to $16, you can taste a snappy Austrian sausage that oozes Emmental cheese. For an additional $10, you can hear live opera. Franzl\u2019s Franks was inspired by Austria\u2019s street food scene, and takes a page from owner Murray\u2019s favorite k\u00e4sekrainer operation \u2014 which sits just next to the Vienna State Opera, where Murray studied.<\/p>\n Upon returning to the U.S. he melded his love of opera with Austrian sausages and sweets, making for one of Smorgasburg\u2019s most unique experiences in 2026. He\u2019ll belt out an aria to augment those bread puddings, pretzels and sausages \u2014 and a portion of Murray\u2019s sales benefit LGBTQ+ nonprofits.<\/p>\n K\u00e4sekrainer, or a cheese-stuffed bratwurst, from Franzl\u2019s Franks at Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cI was out partying in West Hollywood one night and really was craving one of these sausages,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Vienna, just like taco stands are in L.A., this is what they have on the street and you can get them any time of day. But just like taco stands on the street, they\u2019re really good after a night out. I thought, \u2018You know, this could be an interesting opportunity.\u2019 It\u2019s been this weird confluence of events in my life that have led me to this spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Hot Grease chef-owner Asha Starks at her fried fish stall in Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Nearby, Asha Starks is deep-frying small, tender planks of snapper at her stall, Hot Grease. \u201cThis ain\u2019t no damn fish and chips,\u201d the banner proclaims: This is Southern-style fish fry, where Starks pays homage to Black culture and her family\u2019s own culinary traditions. The snapper fillets can come accompanied by fries and bread or, through January, with black-eyed peas, greens and hush puppies for good luck in the new year. Dunk or drizzle generously with hot sauce and Starks\u2019 house-made tartar sauce, which is loaded with dill.<\/p>\n The colorful pink-and-green trailer parked in a corner of the market is new vendor Piruchi, a roving Peruvian street-food cart from longtime friends Cecile Di Florio and Eduardo Uribe Gomez. Look for creative Peruvian sandwiches with griddled-to-order fillings such as chicharr\u00f3n with sweet potato, and char siu in a nod to Peru\u2019s historical waves of Chinese immigrants and their cultural blends.<\/p>\n Seafood lovers should head to the nearby Unreal Poke, where marinated fresh fish is being served by born-and-raised Hawaiian Jordan \u201cJMKM\u201d Maldonado and his friend, Imran Ashraf. This pop-up, which launched in 2023, made its way to Smorgasburg previously, appearing for AAPI Day, but this year it\u2019s returning as a permanent vendor with poke bowls, poke by the half-pound, stuffed inari \u201cpoke bombs\u201d and Hawaiian iced tea. They\u2019ll be serving their poke every Sunday, and later this year are set to debut a poke shop in Arcadia.<\/p>\n Shoyu tuna poke from Unreal Poke at Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Another familiar face that\u2019s gone permanent is the adjacent ZinDrew Wonton Shop. Its owners and namesakes, husband-and-wife team Andrew and Zin Lee, sold their small-batch garlic chili oil in Smorgasburg\u2019s retail row for years. Now they\u2019re pouring their chili crisp over handmade shrimp-and-pork dumplings, noodles and cucumbers at their new food stall.<\/p>\n This food festival is home to multiple plant-based options, and in 2026 it\u2019s adding another: Stick Talk, a vegan corndog stand that\u2019s putting a meatless spin on the fairgrounds icon. Here you\u2019ll find plant-based sausages (regular or spicy) coated in cornbread batter. Chef-owner Qamari Starks is the brother of Hot Grease\u2019s owner, Asha Starks; both applied to the food festival separately, without alerting its management team. Both were approved, and are now serving fried foods at separate ends of the market.<\/p>\n The weekly event also keeps ample sweets spots on hand, and this year features multiple new dessert vendors.<\/p>\n Family operation Barranco\u2019s Yogurt debuted 13 years ago serving yogurt studded with fruit, Oaxacan-style. What began out of the back of the Barranco family\u2019s car in East L.A. turned into a sidewalk stand, which has since flourished into a pop-up tent serving large swaths of the county. Son Ivan Barranco (formerly of Hot Chickz) helped grow the business, and now works alongside his parents serving parfaits topped with fresh fruit, nuts, honey and more.<\/p>\n A trio of banana puddings from Banana Mama at Smorgasburg.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n At Banana Mama find fluffy, Southern-style, rich (but \u201cnot too sweet\u201d) banana pudding in its classic form as well as spiked with Asian flavor: ube, turon and Vietnamese iced coffee. The team behind this already popular stand is based in Oceanside, and launched Banana Mama last year with pop-ups throughout Southern California. Now, they\u2019re making the trek from San Diego to L.A. every Sunday.<\/p>\n To wash it all down there\u2019s RuRu\u2019s Golden Tea, a gold-hued chai trailer that made an appearance during the market\u2019s December tea festival. Now it\u2019s back as a permanent vendor, serving its saffron-tinged Karak chai both hot and iced, plus cold foam options such as mastic and orange blossom.<\/p>\n Smorgasburg runs every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside the Row DTLA complex in the Arts District at 777 S Alameda St., Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the start of each year, Smorgasburg \u2014 one of L.A.\u2019s favorite food events and an incubator of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[70197,70199,6522,413,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,5990,49345,70198,10239,26180,70196,6165,776,18029,72],"class_list":["post-138401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-asha-starks","tag-austrian-sausage","tag-culture","tag-food","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-market","tag-murray","tag-new-stall","tag-opera","tag-pop-up","tag-sausage","tag-smorgasburg","tag-sunday","tag-vendor","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768704374_971_.jpeg\")
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