100+ Vendors on 3 Floors – Brooklyn Flea’s Annual “Gifted” Holiday Market

www.brooklynflea.com

BROOKLYN FLEA’S ANNUAL “GIFTED” HOLIDAY MARKET RETURNS TO SKYLIGHT ONE HANSON WITH 100+ VENDORS ON 3 FLOORS FOR 5 WEEKENDS ONLY

Curated and cool vintage/handmade/food gift items crammed into spectacular former bank building starting Thanksgiving weekend. Hurricane Sandy fundraising for impacted vendors and local nonprofits to continue through holidays.

With 100+ vendors on 3 floors selling the cutest and coolest vintage, handmade, art, and foodstuffs in the prettiest interior in Brooklyn-Skylight One Hanson at the former Williamsburg Savings Bank in Fort Greene-shopping at Brooklyn Flea’s annual Gifted holiday market is a fun, social local-motive. After two more weeks outdoors, starting Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 24+25) the Flea returns to its ornate winter home every Saturday and Sunday through March 2013. The five weekends leading up to Christmas, Gifted will be open 10am to 6pm; January to March hours will be 10am-5pm; the markets will be closed Dec. 29+30.

Gifted is the easiest place to find gifts for everyone on your holiday list in one fell swoop, while staying cozy and also noshing on a yummy Flea/Smorgasburg snack, as several food vendors will set up downstairs behind the former bank vault all winter. Vintage and handmade vendors traditionally roll out special or limited-edition items for Gifted, and food vendors sell packaged items that make perfect presents or holiday-party additions.

New or specialty food items and vendors include: Blue Hill Market’s line of jams, honey, and granola from its Stone Barns farm; the debut of original La Superior chef Nacxi Gaxiola’s “Xilli” housemade salsas; Big Sur Bakery’s Christmas stollen bread; the last honey from Brooklyn Grange’s rooftop apiary, recently destroyed by Hurricane Sandy; Leckerlee’s traditional German “lebckuchen” cookies; Charlito’s Cocina’s small-batch fig salami; Danny Macaroons’ spiced-pumpkin and maple-pecan-pie flavors; and the debut of Butter & Scotch, a joint project of longtime market vendors Kumquat Cupcakery and First Prize Pies, soon to be Brooklyn’s first dessert-cocktail bar.

Handmade and vintage gift items include: Odette Williams’ apron and cooking-utensil sets; Gowanus Furniture’s stove-top cutting board with high-temperature silicone feet, made from sustainably grown domestic hardwoods; Maptote’s single-bottle tote for wine or Champagne; handprinted and letterpress gift cards by Cowboy Confessions, Foxy & Winston, and Love Jac; SKT Ceramics’ animal-motif pots and bowls; Thompson Bags’ burlap-and-denim totes; Kate Durkin’s stuffed stitched animal pillows; and more.

After raising close to $1500 at the markets last weekend, efforts to support the newly launched Brooklyn Recovery Fund will continue through the winter, as will the Flea’s call for donations to help the many vendors impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This Saturday, Nov. 10, renowned ramen-noodle chefs Ivan Orkin and Shigetoshi Nakamura will donate proceeds from their onetime Smorgasburg stand to Sandy relief. For the final Williamsburg Smorgasburg (Saturday, Nov. 17), the seasonlong partnership with The Brooklyn Kitchen concludes with a fundraiser for Flea and Smorgasburg vendors impacted by the storm; details will be announced next week.

Also continuing is Smorgasburg at Whole Foods Bowery, which offers one new vendor from the markets each month the opportunity to activate a pop-up restaurant in the second-floor seating level of the Lower East Side food market. The new partnership, which launched October 22, provides top vendors with a chance to deepen both their experience and exposure without the high bar of opening their own restaurant. The first round of vendors includes Danny Lyu’s Cemitas, serving 10-layer Mexican sandwiches and tacos (Oct. 22nd-Nov. 20th), followed by Keith Klein’s Milk Truck Grilled Cheese (Nov. 26th-Dec. 23rd), and Hugh Mangum’s Mighty Quinn’s, offering an array of expertly smoked meats (Jan. 2nd-Feb. 2nd). And starting in early 2013, a Smorgasburg “Snack Bar” will also open at the Bowery location, serving as a specialty shop for packaged goods and beverages from market vendors.

The markets move back outdoors the weekend of April 6+7, 2013.