No Booze For Smorgasburg, For Now :(

“Y’know Lorraine? I’d enjoy this much more with a locally distilled gin beverage.” (Fists With Your Toes‘s flickr).

Since it launched last year the Brooklyn Flea food-only offshoot Smorgasburg has been an unqualified success. But you know what would make it (and most things) better? Local booze. Sadly, however, not everyone in the community agrees and co-founder Eric Demby now needs to scramble for signatures if he wants to have local libations on North Sixth Street by the time the outdoor food fun restarts on April 7.

Demby went before the Community Board 1 public safety committee recently to get a seasonal liquor license for the market, and was promptly rejected 3-2. The gist of the rejection related to fears that boozed-up Smorgasburgers would be a public nuisance in the early weekend hours. “Saturday is a family day for many residents who live [near the East River] and they take that time to play games and relax,” CB1 public safety committee member Rob Solano said. “Anytime you add alcohol to that environment, it changes the dynamic of the venue.” Think of the luxury condo children!

There is hope, though. The application still has to go through the full board and it has a good chance of approval if Demby and co. can collect enough signatures. It isn’t like Smorgasburg wants a rowdy beer garden or anything.

Demby’s hope is to build a 10-foot bar in the center of the market “cordoned off from the food in a 30-foot by 50-foot pen.” There he’d like to serve eight to ten ounce cups of local beer (Brooklyn Brewery, Kelso, Six Point) as well local wine (Brooklyn Winery) and gin cocktails with local gin (Kings County Distillery, Breuckelen Distilling, and the New York Distilling Company). Fingers crossed!