Coney Smorgasburg

Come for the ART WALLS not for the Smorgasburg. It’s a sad excuse of a Smorgasburg location. None of the fantastic vendors are here. The only notable one is Home Frites. Hence, there’s not a crowd ever and no lines.
Definitely stop by if you’re already at the boardwalk or if you want to take Instagram pictures with cool art installations. But don’t make the trip over expecting that your taste buds will be beyond pleased.

Honestly not impressive. I got there around 3pm and most of the vendors were closed. The wall art is very cool but honestly I went for the food. I was so disappointed that I grabbed a lobster roll and headed home. Williamsburg and Brooklyn bridge park are much better locations, those are worth the trip.

Their website says they are open until 10. Came at 8:30pm on a Thursday and they were not open. Their website should have the most up to date hours.

My least favorite Smorgasborg. There are only a dozen or so vendors, and many of them were slow to open. There wasn’t a huge variety (more like fish and chips and tacos) and everything was mediocre at best. It would still get 3 stars if it wasn’t for Queen Cobra Thai. The guy working the grill used his bare hands to plate my food. When I protested, they said it was fine because his hands were clean (yeah, right!). DOH, are you listening?

Hooray for Smorgasburg in Coney Island!
I’m glad that I don’t have to travel all the way to Williamsburg or Brooklyn Bridge Park for Smorgasburg. It’s great that this a thing, but I wish there were more options here.
Walking by, it’s a bit questionable. Can this really be smorgasburg if it’s not crowded? The answer is yes. It may look a little sad, but I am totally fine with not having to wait in line anywhere. I’m also okay with having a number of seating options. PLUS, it’s way easier to take pictures with the Art Walls since there isn’t anyone in the way!
Speaking of which, this is definitely the prettiest of the Smorgasburgs. The Art Walls provide a great backdrop for your pictures, and I love the giant boom box. They have strings of light everywhere and the stands are in pastel colored shipping containers. Not to mention most of the tables have umbrellas!
On the occasions that I’ve been here (Thursday and Friday afternoons), it’s been the most chill Smorgasburg experience I’ve had.
What to get?
— El Super ($ 6): whether you’re getting the Baja-​style beer battered shrimp or cod tacos, you’re making a good choice. Both are moist and juicy and taste great. The tacos are also huge!
— La New Yorkina ($ 4): Paletas. So refreshing on a hot day. They have chunks of real fruit in it as well. My favorite is the Strawberry Cream, but they have a bunch of other options!
— Blue Marble: it’s ice cream, so of course. The coconut is a great dessert after everything, but so is the Brooklyn Brewery black chocolate!
— Mofongo: Maduros!

Well some stands were open and most others were closed. But there was plenty of art to look at on the walls. As for the food I did try the Home Frites stand and the lobster stand was open too. The place was not crowded at all guess most people were getting $ 5.00 hot dogs at Nathans.
The fries were ok I got the Truffle Fries really couldnt get the taste. The sauce was very bland to say the least or it just didnt pair well got me. Is this place another tourist trap just trying to make a grab for dollars and lacking on real taste.
I just dont get it, seems like Nathans can bang you $ 10.00 for two hot dogs why not keep banging you behind the joint.
My idea is food ought to be worth the price you pay for it and this not worth it… Pass !!

ART WALLS ART WALLS ART WALLS, Once again I emphasize the ART WALLS.
This amazing variant to the Smorgasburg that’s by Williams-​burg and by Brooklyn bridge park is a 1oak!!! one of a kind!!!
The scarce amount of vendors (I believe there is 12 of them) are surrounded by about 20 different art walls! They are amazing and have been worked on by some well known street wall artists! There is also a cool bar and sometimes a second one when it gets busier.
The vendors themselves are not something to die for but some of the things I crave for is the BLT Lobster roll, there is a cool turkey club sandwich with bacon and a really cool new discovery I made corn crusted shrimp with chips! Delicious.
There is plenty of seating in the middle and so many more attractions on surrounding blocks.
Check it out and let me know what you think!

Been meaning to try the Coney Smorgasburg all summer and finally made it out on a beautiful Friday evening. I love the art murals all around particularly the ice cream one. The murals and the spacing of the vendors however does make for a bit of a confusing experience as your wandering around a lot. Not sure about the whole 20 dollar cover thing for the DJ area. They didnt have this going on and it seems like a dumb idea anyway.
I got my food at El Super and had 2 of the cod tacos and 1 shrimp one. They were amazing. The cod was perfectly cooked, moist and flaky and the coating was delicious and crunchy. The shrimp one was nice and juicy. The pineapple mint salsa they have in a squeeze bottle was incredible, they need to bottle this stuff! My friend opted for Red Hook Lobster Pound which I happen to work 5 minutes from so I recommended it to him and he was so happy with his Maine roll he went back and had the Conn and the Bacon ones.
One issue I had is the beverage situation, many of the vendors including El Super only carry soda which I dont drink and wasnt sure anyone did anymore. So wandered looking for a non carbonated option, saw a huge Snapple bottle at the Kingston Eatery vendor and asked the rather rude girl for a Snapple which she replied «We dont have Snapple» in the tone as if I asked her for a Wedding Cake! I said ok so what beverages do you offer and again in the nastiest way possible she said «We only have soda and water» not what kinds of soda just «Soda and water». I said Keep your soda and water. I actually planned to try them on my next trip but they can kiss that sale goodbye, I’ll go to Nostrand for Jamaican food with friendly service. However Smorgasburg was saved by the very sweet girl at Queen Cobra Thai and her delicious strawberry lemonade.
So great food at El Super, Great Lemonade and beautiful art. Only 1 rude girl kept them from the 5^th star.

No, no, no. Disaster. We are big fans of Smorgasburgs in Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridge Park, but this one was TERRIBLE. The set up feels like a prison yard where they’ve let the inmates out for an hour of recreation. They have these giant murals set up all around, so you can’t actually even SEE what’s there!!! We were there at noon and half the places weren’t even open. There are more shaded areas than other Smorgasburg setups, so that part was nice, but why on earth would you set up all those murals to make it impossible to even view what’s there???
We were so frustrated that we left and went to Totonno’s.
Fix the layout guys! Ensure that folks are actually open at the lunch hour too. While you are at it, invite some folks with some more interesting food options (does it all have to be bread-​laden or fried?). Until the reports improve, we will not be returning.

Awesome art work and good food. Didn’t know this was even happening when we came to the beach! What a little treat!

I had not heard of this before we stopped in while strolling around Coney Island. We were drawn in by the (amazing!) murals on the walls and the fact that there were a variety of food choices. Instead of food trucks, the different options were served out of large shipping containers. The options included Spanish, asian, seafood, wings, etc. I chose to try Bön Chovi’s shrimp and fries. For $ 12, you get approximately 6 largish shrimp and an order of steak fries. They were perfect.
My aunt got wings for another vendor. My dad got nachos. My aunt and uncle got mofongo. Everyone was happy.
My biggest complaint is that for such a large, open space the seating was very limited. People often came to our table, asking if we were using the empty seats but those seats were empty because my family was looking at the various food options.
The bathroom options included individual port-​a-​potties but there was also a trailer with stalls that included «flushing» port-​a-​potties. Two out of three stalls were clogged but that seemed to be because people were confused about how to flush them. I still prefer those to the individual port-​a-​potties.

Oh Smorgasburg, it was love at first sight.
I was looking for some new unique food after a hot day at the beach, so my best friend and I took a stroll to see what yummy concoctions we could find.
The amount of vendors in this outdoor area are endless, I was able to smell all the wonderful food from miles away. I’m talking about Blue Marble, Bön Chovie, Dan & John’s Wings, El Gato Nacho, El Super, Excell Kingston Eatery [ their jerk chicken made me drool], Home Frite, La Newyorkina, Mile End, Mofongo, Queen Cobra Thai, Red Hook Lobster Pound.
The big hits here were definitely Home Frite, the amount of fries that they give you for orders ranging from 7 – 9 dollars is ginormous and fresh, its large enough to share for two with tons of funky sauces to dip in or add ons like truffle and parm cheese or bacon [bacon cheese fries FTW!].
the stands do take a while to make their orders, but that’s because its fresh straight off the fryer and grill, and yes all the food is served with a smile. and yes home frite does take debit /​credit.
some of these stands you will find serve their own lemonade or homemade drinks, while others only carry other brands of soda, and each vendor charges their own price for them, so one vendors drinks such as water may cost less than another, so that kind of annoyed me.
some stands don’t even take credit cards, so ask in advance before you order.
the bars here are a slam dunk, so many good options of frozen margaritas and various craft beers, it feels frickin amazing on a hot day.
the hot dog stand mile end is epic, you get a huge hot dog hot off the grill with sour kraut for 6 bucks, next time im getting 10 of those
they even have popsicles here, yassssss
this area has plenty of outdoor seating, some with umbrellas, some without. what sucks is that some of the tables are ridiculously dirty [which holds me back from giving 5 stars]and some people bring other outside food from nathans to this park, its a lot of fun to look at all the wall art while your eating, it was kinda hypnotizing if you ask me haha, awesome for photographers to do photoshoots here too
I also love the vibe of this place, everyone is laid back and relaxed, all smiles, playing games and getting wasted, how could you go wrong [pets are welcome here btw]
even the funky trailer bathroom was cleaned and air conditioned, that is so rare for a public bathroom I had to blink for a second
would I come back here? as long as the sun is shining, YES ILL BE BACK!

I didn’t even know this existed until we came upon it walking from the train to the beach. Our first and last experience at Coney Island, we wished we knew this was here before we grabbed a few bites to go at Nathan’s. So we decided to get some food here for an early dinner before we left Coney Island.
The wall art is amazing! I would definitely come back for this. I also love the concept of having the food stalls in shipping containers because it makes it very unique and gives it a different look. There weren’t a lot of food options especially since some weren’t even open on a Sunday.
I was excited to grab a Connecticut style lobster roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound. my favorite. And for dessert, a paleta from lanewyorkina. The cherry passion flavor is delicious, especially sprinkled with the chili lime seasoning they had on the counter.
There’s plenty of seating all over and the shipping containers are spaced out well. There are also bathrooms (gross), but at least there is a sink in there to wash your hands.
There is a separate area for stands that sold alcohol, but there was a $ 20 cover charge because there was a DJ (that you can hear from anywhere within the vicinity). Absolutely ridiculous — vendors that sell alcohol, I’m sure, are losing out on a lot of money because of this.

The art is cool
and so are the shipping containers and it’s a good option amidst what’s mostly a blasé food scene if you’re in the area, That said, the vendors that actually decided to open on the June Sunday we visited were visibly miserable, some not even bothering to write up their menu for the day. Definitely not the destination the originals are, and would be surprised if it was around come Summer 2016.
A dozen Smorgasburg vendors*, two bars (just one sad local begging for a freebie during our visit), and art walls
curated by Jeffrey Deitch.
Vendors on a 12:30pm late June Sunday visit:
Excell Kingston Eatery — see
Home Frite — see
Bön Chovie — decided not to show up
La Newyorkina — decided not to show up
Queen Cobra Thai — decided to not post a menu
Dan & John’s Wings — skipped, East Village location coming soon
Mile End — skipped, omnipresent
Blue Marble — skipped, omnipresent
Red Hook Lobster Pound — skipped, omnipresent
El Gato Nacho — sounded pedestrian and pricey
Mofongo — sounded pedestrian and pricey
El Super — maybe next time
Added hours to the listing for them (11am-​8pm daily).

smor·gas·bord
smôrsbôrd/​
noun
a buffet offering a variety of hot and cold meats, salads, hors d’oeuvres, etc.
Did I miss something, Coney Island? This place is the complete opposite of the word smörgåsbord, very disappointing. Just head back to the original where you’ll actually get something to put in your stomach.

We went when it was just setting up around noon, so we waited a little while. It was worth the wait! We ordered the traditional sweet BBQ wings from Dan and John’s, and they were great! The wings were crispy on the outside, hot and juicy on the inside. The sauce was tangy, smoky, sweet, and delicious. The taste is truly authentic, fresh off the grill yummy. One of the owners and another associate were very welcoming and friendly. Just a fun place to be.
We were there on a cool day, but you definitely will need sunblock, a bottle of water, and extra napkins/​hand sanitizer.
We’re looking forward to going back and trying some more things. I’ll update my review after we do. =)

Smorgasburg has cometh to Coney! the curated food fair has landed in Coney Island for the summer, but with craft beer bars in tow!
TIPS: Bring hand sanitizer, wear sunscreen, dress light because once the temps go above the low 80s the asphalt is going to be scorching, a bottle of water, a VISA/​Mastercard as it seems some of the stands do not accept AMEX, and some cash.
the space is basically the empty lot that used to sit across from Coney Island and it’s right behind the giant Nathan’s.
the outdoor space is fenced-​in. a basic asphalt lot with custom shipping containers that have been fitted to be stationary food stands in the lot. the two beer stands (though one beer stand was not open yet during Memorial Day weekend – not sure if it’s open yet) are in shipping containers as well and separated by a roped off area, where the staff will check your id to make sure you’re over 21. also you can only drink beer in this designated area/​s. basically your drunken shenanigans are to be kept away from the general family friendly atmosphere that the Smorgasburg folks are trying to create around the food stands. there is no outdoor tenting, so BEWARE of rain… you will be soaked.
a cool visual bonus is the CONEY ART WALLS project curated by Jeffrey Deitch. basically there are slabs of concrete walls set up where different street artists are creating murals and different types of spray art pieces for folks to snap pics of and spread the love of urban outdoor graffiti-​styled art. street artist Daze and how-​n-​osm are there amongst several others. check it out. even if you’re not into street art… they make great selfie backdrops for Instagram or widescreen shots for your headers on FB or Twitter!
A fair amount of variety of food vendors for your gluttony: Dan & John’s Wings, Mile End, Home Frite, Mofongo, Blue Marble Ice Cream, Bön Chovie, El Super, Excell Kingston Eatery, La Newyorkina, Queen Cobra Thai, and Red Hook Lobster Pound.
me and my amigos tried:
–Home Frite (do the fries. do eeet): how can you go wrong with Fries and a variety of tasty sauces
–Dan & John’s Wings (didn’t get the wings, but the TATER TOTS with bbq sauce ROCK! i GOT 200+ Instagram likes for an eye-​gasm shot of those fried taters n tangy sauce. mmm). bottles of h20 were not too badly up-​priced either.
–Mile End: the hotdog was very good (a lil pricey for a non-​footlong). the burger is to die for. order it medium rare double patties. you will not regret this messy sloppy greasy burger heaven in your mouth. the dude running the fans was dope – an authentic burger guy and an Expos fan! we lucked out because they had extra large patties during Memorial Day weekend – a mistake via their supplier… so our burgers were enormous.
also not all the food vendors were open during Memorial Day Weekend. assume they are all up and running now. another reason for me to go back.
okay onto the booze: one beer stand that was open. super cool guys. very friendly great taste in music – whether it be punk or rock-​n-​roll. there were three choices of beer on a tap/​keg/​coolor system. some wine choices. and premixed cocktail or two. prices ranged from $ 6 – 7 for the beers (there was 1609 amber, an IPA, and a WitBier called the White Afro) to $ 9 to $ 11 (I think) for wine n cocktails. you could funnel a beer as they had beer funnels there. not sure why you would want to though as college is over for most of us? lol.
the beer stand guys were awesome. they were SUPERSLOW and possibly a lil inebriated while serving or not used to run a bar. it took 15 – 20 minutes to get a beer with relatively no line. maybe once the other beer stand is opened service will speed up, but on a snoozy day where you are serving small cups of beer with no lines…15−20 minutes to pour three beers is horrific. even 10 minutes would be terrible. also for small cups of beer $ 6 bucks is a terrible value. Also I think it’s weird that SMORGASBURG haven’t named what bar or org is running the beer stands? Normally they would. It’s a minting money gig as the summer temperatures amp up. Weird that they haven’t shouted out the bar that is running the stand.
The bathroom situation was horrific. The port/​a/​potties were in bad shape on a very non-​crowded weekend and there were many of them. Not sure how this will play out as crowds start storming Coney Smorgaburg. However they were nearly unusable by 4ish pm. Sure you can run over to restaurants and bars on the bloardwalk, but I really expected the Smorgasburg folks and the staff to be on top of this. Maybe an openin weekend hiccup. Let’s hope.
Overall a solid start, but ½ a star off for slow beer service and ½ star off for the bathroom situation. Typically I’d do full stars, but I’ll revisit in a few weeks to see if they figured out how to fix these situation. However it was the opening weekend – so I’ll cut them a break.
Drops mic, so I can handle these serious TATER TOTS & Double Patty Burger!
I out (and full!)!
zz

The reason why this place is awesome is because people haven’t quite figured out that it’s here yet and despite it being hot as balls and somewhat humid, the bona fide beach season hasn’t gotten into full swing yet. But before we realized this, and anticipating the types of crowds one suffers in the Wiliamsburg and DUMBO locations, my friend and I got there right at opening time this morning (Sunday).
Mapping out the handy directions as linked by the website (
) led us to an impenetrable stretch of chain linked fence where some brightly colored, shipping containers sat all spaced apart. Finally, my eyes focused on a young woman sitting with our backs to us at a table with a sun umbrella shading it.
«Hellowww? Hellowwwww?» I croaked hungrily, until she turned around. I asked her if this could possibly be Smorgasburg.
«It is,» she said, with a smile.
«Is it… open??» I asked.
«Yeah — you just have to go back around and enter the other way,» she said.
So we followed the fence until we found the opening and had free reign over the ten or so diverse vendors there, marveling at the huge standing canvases of edgy street art, presumably for when more people start coming here and deciding to take drunken selflies with their food and booze and friends.
For now, though, the art and the containers themselves were unmarred by throngs, making for a clean, surreal aesthetic to go with the even more surreal experience of not having to wait in line for anything. I’m saying that not one person was ahead of us to get anything. How could this be?
The only wait we had was for the Red Hook Lobster Pound truck to heat up their grill to make their classic Connecticut style (lemon + butter) lobster roll at the right temperature, so we got an overflowing cone of truffle fries ($ 8) at Home Frite while we waited. I had a grilled cheese with tomato ($ 6) at Mile End, which I know is not the expected selection to make from that excellent purveyor of meaty delights but did live up to my needs for something basic (American cheese and regular steak tomato between buttery grilled slices of white bread) to tide me over until I could have that lobster roll.
After the sumptuous, tiger colored lobster rolls ($ 18.51 each after tax — the other carts had prices that included their tax) were enjoyed with infinitely refreshing strawberry jalapeño aguas frescas from El Super ($ 4 each), we moved on to Blue Marble for some ice cream, which apparently usually sells out in the other Brooklyn locations. I got a $ 4 paleta guyana (that’s guava popsicle) from the counter directly next to it and enjoyed as much of it as I could while the rest trickled ticklingly down my grubby little hand and we strolled off towards the Parachute Jump tower along the dear old boardwalk.
We basically paid $ 36.51 each to eat a few good morsels of lobster and long fries, sip a non alcoholic fruit beverage, and get a bit of desert. That ain’t cheap, but the reason why the toll wasn’t an outright insult was because all the foods were delicious, but more importantly that WE DID NOT WAIT IN LINE. I cannot reiterate this enough.
GO to Coney Smorgasburg before it gets defiled by overcrowding. I just know that that fenced-​in lot is very soon to become a sardine can of sweaty, swiney, sunburnt humans waiting at the troughs… and no one will ever know how it could have been if not for the over popularity of anything new and just a little bit good and quick in NYC.
I’m thankful for this special experience of going early on in the day and early on in the market’s existence. Since I’ve already been spoiled by the rewards of this, I’m not sure whether or not I could bring myself to even try the other two established locations, despite the fact that they (for now) have a more comprehensive list of vendors. Anyway, the diversity and accessibility of what vendors WERE represented at the Coney Island location was in itself just short of being overwhelming.
Will try to go here one more time to clean up the rest of what I didn’t try — food from Bön Chovie, Dan & John’s Wings, El Gato Nacho, Excell Kingston Eatery (they have roasted snapper and porgy!), La Newyorkina, Mofongo, and Queen Cobra Thai. For a while yet, it will be well worth the money — gourmet fast food with no wait and umbrella shaded seating space of your choice beneath the oldest and newest thrills of the iconic beach boardwalk. I know I’ve mentioned the lack of crowds about five times here, but I’ll say it once more in parting because this rare circumstance made the experience outstanding, and a little creepy (we were looking over our shoulders for post apocalyptic zombies that thankfully never came).

excell had great coconut and their limeade were good.
Queen Cobra, had the thai ice tea, perfect not too sweet and cremy
Enjoyed the Pork and Chicken with rice and peas, came with cole slaw and plantains. The Plantains were sweet.
Had shrimp and lobster rolls at red hook lobster pound. It was good, but Luke’s lobster by brooklyn bridge is much better
I hope more vendors come. I suggest they make some nice signs to direct people because it’s surrounded by walls and enter porta-​potties. If I did not go to see the map, I’d passed it easily.
However Home Frite ran out of fries… really, talk about no prepared LOL

Coney Smorgasburg opened this Saturday amid the start of summer here in Coney Island on Memorial Day Weekend. It is a work in progress, which is why we’re giving it a 4 out of 5 stars, for now.
I’ve been to Smorg when they’re at Brooklyn Bridge Park and expect nothing less here, which is an eclectic mix of curated eateries. Further driving the hipster-​ish vibe is the prevalent use of shipping containers with window cutouts. I’m neither for or against it but it lends this Smorg a unique feel. Most of the vendors have already set up, but there were a quarter of the dozen that were either not moved in yet or just spending the day getting their kitchens, signage, and PoS ready for the season.
Familiar names from the city many have known over the years are here… a who’s-who’s of sorts including Home Frite, La Newyorkina, Mile End, Mofongo, and Red Hook Lobster Pound to name a few. One exciting vendor among them, Excell’s Kingston Eatery can be seen smoking tasty jerk chicken and pork tenderloin in the cookers in the back. The smells there are sure to whet your appetite.
Unlike the other Smorgs, there is a roped off section where you can purchase alcoholic drinks from among two bars, and sit in relative peace. Interestingly, they have a bouncer working full-​time that’s checking for ID and providing tags.
To pair with the inauguration is a free art exhibit, Coney Art Wall which dots the landscape around the grounds of Smorg. Artists can be seen working on their works in these initial few days. I believe it’ll be complete when Smorg returns by next Saturday.
It’ll be a huge draw for city dwellers familiar with Smorgasburg, and if it’ll get them out this way, I’m all for it since Coney Island stands to gain some economic benefit. However, all in all, it’s a good start to a work in progress.