Smorgasburg Spread. Credit: Ira Edelman

10 Years of Smorgasburg, One Story at a Time

10 Minute read

17 Jun 2026

Heather Platt

Journalist

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As the market celebrates its anniversary, director Zach Brooks explains why the best vendors offer more than great food.

Behind every bite of delicious food is an equally compelling story, or so believes Smorgasburg director Zach Brooks, who for the past decade has been tasked with determining who feeds the throngs of curious, hungry Angelenos who show up every Sunday at The Row in downtown LA's Arts District for the sprawling outdoor food market. As Smorgasburg prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, he says those stories remain the key ingredient in the market's success.

“We've tried to find quality food with a great story that you want to eat over and over again,” says Brooks, who has vetted every vendor not only for their food and commitment to a business plan, but also for the story that led them here. It is those personal stories that make eating at Smorgasburg uniquely delicious.

Take Patrick Murray, for example. Standing beneath a sign that reads “Franzl's Franks: Sausages that Serrrve, Honey” he is clad in a shirt that reads, in rainbow-colored vertical lettering, “This Sausage Party Is the Wurst.” His cheese-stuffed Viennese sausages tell the story of his time as an opera singer in Vienna, their scent evoking memories of the street food he ate there and the aromas that drifted outside the opera house. If you're lucky, Murray will belt out an aria while stuffing sausages into freshly toasted baguette rolls.

Nearby, Hot Grease serves a classic Southern fish fry with tartar sauce.

“It’s fried snapper, hush puppies, and Asha is a community organizer,” says Brooks of founder Asha Starks, pointing out her zine, a self-published booklet in which she shares her stories and political ideas. The snapper is delicate, dredged in cornmeal, and seasoned with spices. It holds up perfectly for dipping into house-made tartar sauce and, despite the vendor’s name, is not greasy at all.

“Her brother has his own business that's on the other side of the market,” explains Brooks. “They applied separately from each other, and both got in separately.” Brooks raves about Starks’ brother’s vegan corn dog business.

A few booths away at Mamani Neapolitan Pizza, Grammy-nominated music producer brothers Paimon “Farsi” Jahanbin and Nima “Nizzy” Jahanbin sling some of the city’s newest and best Neapolitan pizza. “They’ve made beats for Drake and a year ago was like, ‘I think I want to make pizza,’” says Brooks. “So he’s been working on his Neapolitan-style pizza for the past year.” The results are outstanding, with light, bubbling crusts and pies like The Oliver, topped with olives and pesto. The pizzas sell out quickly.

Their story makes its way into the toppings, too. “Farsi is Persian so he makes this Persian Koobideh pizza,” explains Brooks. It is topped with tomatoes and raw onion and finished with wagyu koobideh.

Smorgasburg regularly supplements its core lineup with special events, guest vendors, and cultural programming. An AAPI Day celebration brought everything from Ho Tok Korean pocket pancakes and Unreal Poke to a mahjong area hosted by Steep LA. Brooks admits events like these tend to draw larger crowds, but after 10 years, Smorgasburg continues to thrive week after week. In the center of the lot, a family-friendly beer garden offers ample seating beneath shaded umbrellas and a curated selection of beers on tap.

“I feel like when Smorgasburg first started, a lot of people thought of it as an Instagram food fair, with your ramen burgers and raindrop cakes,” says Brooks. “The first couple years was when Instagram was huge, like the end-all be-all, and so, of course, a lot of businesses catered to that. But I think very quickly we understood that being a place that has food that you want to eat over and over again is a far better way of staying in business.”

Staying power is exactly what Brooks looks for in his vendors. He has become so adept at spotting it that what began as an Instagram-era food fair has evolved into an incubator for some of Los Angeles’ most successful restaurants. In addition to providing a place to sell their food, Smorgasburg offers mentorship that has helped launch businesses such as Moo’s Craft Barbecue, Tacos 1986, Broad Street Oyster Co., Wanderlust Creamery, and many others.

Smorgasburg will celebrate its 10th anniversary on June 21, 2026 with the return of former vendors such as Bub and Grandma’s and fan favorites like Shrimp Daddy.

“I think we have the same mission as the best restaurants with the best chefs in LA. It is to serve amazing food every single week, to as many people as possible in LA,” says Brooks.

There’s irony in Smorgasburg’s success. When Brooks was first approached by the owners of Smorgasburg Brooklyn about curating the Los Angeles market more than a decade ago, he thought it was, in his words, “a terrible idea.” In fact, Brooks is developing a podcast titled A Terrible Idea, inspired by that experience, in which he will speak with restaurant owners about the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

Brooks is no stranger to such challenges. “We've been through everything, all of it, the pandemic, the fires, all the things that the general food industry in LA has gone through over the past 10 years.”

Not wanting to talk himself out of a job, and after seeing the potential of The Row with its vast space and ample parking, he took the gig. But Brooks attributes much of Smorgasburg’s success to the fact that it is a for-profit company.

“We're trying to show food businesses in LA how to be profitable in a market that is incredibly difficult to be profitable in.”

Beyond the personal interactions its vendors provide, Smorgasburg offers a broad cross-section of Los Angeles food, neighborhoods, flavors, and cultures. Creating a place where everyone feels welcome, and where the city's culinary diversity is reflected in a single space, is of the utmost importance to Brooks.

“There's no better place in LA on a Sunday to go and eat. We are also a market that attracts people from all over LA. You walk around here and it's not one group of people. Every single group of people is represented here in LA. That is part of our mission, and why we're here after 10 years.”

Despite believing that entering the food industry is a “terrible idea,” Brooks has made it his life’s work and understands why vendors continue to devote themselves to feeding people through food that preserves traditions and tells family stories.

“I think everybody at Smorgasburg loves making food, loves telling the story about their food and loves the feeling that you get when you feed somebody something amazing and watch their face light up with excitement or appreciation, gratitude. That’s why everybody does it.”