The South Florida edition of Smorgasburg — the popular food market and chef incubator dubbed “the Woodstock of eating” by The New York Times — is moving from Wynwood to downtown Fort Lauderdale.
The weekly open-air series, rebranding from Smorgasburg Miami to Smorgasburg South Florida, will debut with events on April 11-12 in Flagler Village in an open lot at 536 NE Second St. Located on the north side of First Baptist Church, the space is about three blocks from Fort Lauderdale’s Brightline station.
After more than three years on a lot in Miami’s arty Wynwood neighborhood, Smorgasburg closed in December to make way for a residential project.
Downtown Fort Lauderdale has “all the right ingredients” for Smorgasburg, owner and CEO Gaston Becherano Cohen said.
“Its food scene is developing. The city is growing, it’s exciting. There’s this, like, attitude of ‘We don’t want to be like Miami, we want to be our own thing.’ And whatever that ‘own thing’ is, it’s bubbling and growing,” he said.
Another advantage over Wynwood is proximity to families.
“We think that, close by, there are a lot of families. Which is great for Smorg, which is an awesome family-friendly event,” Becherano Cohen said.
Expect the new Smorgasburg to follow the Miami template: It will be open from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, offering an eclectic and inventive range of food with local and global inspiration to be enjoyed at one of the umbrella-ed picnic tables. Admission is free.
The Fort Lauderdale edition of Smorgasburg will include more than three dozen food and drink vendors, including Wynwood favorites such as Kabuki Soba, Birrieria Tijuana, The Lazy Oyster, Blazed BBQ, Korn Korner and Santo Dulce. New vendors will include Caribbean-Asian fusion dishes from Riddim & Bao and TropiRollz, Korean comfort food from Gangnam Sticks and Seoul Hotteok, and El Nopalito Vegan Taqueria.
Retail vendors will range from Steamy Lit (romance novels) to Grandpa’s Closet (vintage apparel) and Golden Era Kits (nostalgic soccer jerseys).
Smorgasburg got its start in Brooklyn in 2011 as a rigorously curated weekend gathering of food vendors in Williamsburg, a spinoff of the famed Brooklyn Flea. It has since grown to include three weekly events in New York, as well as markets in Los Angeles, South Florida and, recently, Atlanta.
El Nopalito Vegan Taqueria will bring plant-based Mexican fare, including house-made tortillas, seitan and salsas, to Smorgasburg South Florida in Fort Lauderdale on April 11. (Smorgasburg South Florida/Courtesy)
Becherano Cohen, who grew up in Broward County and now lives in South Beach, was a vendor at the festival in Williamsburg and later struck a licensing agreement with the founders of Smorgasburg to open the Miami market in 2022. In 2024, he bought the company.
Along with being a popular place to hang out and nosh, Smorgasburg exists to help local chefs expand their audience, skills and entrepreneurial acumen, he said.
South Florida brick-and-mortar restaurants that were given a boost at Smorgasburg include Ted’s Burgers, Drinking Pig BBQ, Eleventh Street Pizza and Ms. Cheezious.
“Smorgasburg is, at the core, an incubator of exciting new food. We’re America’s largest outdoor food festival, and really what we do is provide a platform for the next wave of amazing food concepts that want to open a restaurant and want to take their first step with us,” Becherano Cohen said.
For information on how to apply to be a vendor at the new location, visit SmorgasburgSoFlo.com. Applicants who make the first cut are invited to prepare food for a tasting session with Smorgasburg staff, while sharing their personal story.
“We want to see if their food is going to be great and special, but also what their story is, if they are really passionate about what they’re doing, if they are a good operator, if they’re a good person, a good human being,” he said. “I kind of like spending weekends with good humans.”
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.